How I make MONEY with MACRO (Lighting tutorial for macro and product photography)

In this week's video I show how I use macro techniques like focus stacking and flash lighting to create commercial-standard product photos that could be sold to clients for actual money. I show how I photograph this product setup, including the settings and composition and how I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Helicon Focus to create my final image.
It's amazing how many techniques from my macro photography I use in my product photography and it's my macro work that has brought in the most commercial clients for me, allowing me to earn money from the same macro skills I've shown on this channel.
And even if you don't care about doing product photography, taking photos of any new shiny gadgets you've got at home is still an amazing way of sharpening up your focus stacking techniques, or learning more about how to control your lighting. And you can then take those skills out into the world to photograph your preferred subjects.
In studio I was using two Godox AD600 Pro lights, with one Godox AD200 Pro flash, controlled by the Godox X-Pro C controller on my Canon R5.
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#tutorial #photography #productphotography

Пікірлер: 55

  • @johangrobbelaar7331
    @johangrobbelaar7331 Жыл бұрын

    Excellent and most inspirational video Andrew, thank you!

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you for watching, really glad you enjoyed it!

  • @TimvanderLeeuw
    @TimvanderLeeuw Жыл бұрын

    I enjoy both your studio videos and your outdoor macro and landscape videos, and your editing videos, so please continue doing a mixture of them! I don't shoot just one thing myself either, I enjoy shooting nature, macro, with and without flash, and sometimes still life so I'm learning from all you do!

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much Tim, that’s really helpful and really nice of you to say! Do you try these kind of product photos with macro or do you prefer natural subjects?

  • @TimvanderLeeuw

    @TimvanderLeeuw

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AndrewLanxonPhotography I shoot a lot of macro outside, natural subjects. But when I shoot indoors at my desk, taking a quick look at my macro images I think it's about 50-50 natural subjects and man-made subjects and even for flowers often the background will be something man-made that will need to be cleaned up. And often I do focus stacking on these images as well.

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Ah a good mixture then. I try to shake things up a bit. Some people will only want to see outdoor subjects and others have said they love seeing the indoor projects so it’s always a bit of a gamble from my perspective! But I genuinely believe that there’s huge value in shooting a wider variety of things to learn more about the process

  • @TimvanderLeeuw

    @TimvanderLeeuw

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AndrewLanxonPhotography Browsing back -- one of my most fun macro subjects was to photograph the bare bulb of my Godox AD200 while it's flashing. 😀 Focus stacked as well to get front to back sharpness. Something for you to try perhaps, the result can look really good. That one did require a lot of spot-healing in CaptureOne though!

  • @jeanscotland7749

    @jeanscotland7749

    Жыл бұрын

    I like his macro outside & inside too, the helpful tips. Like yourself I like landscape & Macro

  • @arthurg9737
    @arthurg9737 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant explanation about combining the different techniques on composition, lightning, focus stacking and processing techniques. As you mentioned is starts with a good composition and the correct light setup. Thanks

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much,I really appreciate it!

  • @5RustyBin
    @5RustyBin8 ай бұрын

    If any of your viewers are limited by budget or only have say one softbox then another way to build the same shot is to take three shots - with the light stationed in different areas then use layer masks to combine the three images into the same shot. Fabulous shot - love it.

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    8 ай бұрын

    Absolutely, that's a solid way of working, though it's more time consuming in post, especially if you're also focus stacking the shot as you're having to juggle exposure and focus blends and it's easy to make mistakes. It's a great way of turning one light into many though (and I did a video on exactly that with a coffee bean a while ago). For commercial-level work though (and when I'm on professional sets) I'll use more lights to craft the image as best I can in camera.

  • @5RustyBin

    @5RustyBin

    8 ай бұрын

    absolutely - I watched that coffee bean one - awesome texture - my work is improving in no small part due to your videos. @@AndrewLanxonPhotography

  • @mwasdidancestar5844
    @mwasdidancestar5844 Жыл бұрын

    Great content i love it.... I'd love to see more like this

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks! I'll definitely keep it in mind!

  • @PhillipMcCallum
    @PhillipMcCallum Жыл бұрын

    Excellent video, really enjoyed it. Thankyou

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for watching!

  • @andrewcroft2570
    @andrewcroft2570 Жыл бұрын

    Fantastic tutorial and what a truly great taste you have in single malts.

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you!

  • @gr-os4gd
    @gr-os4gd Жыл бұрын

    Excellent choice of subject for you photoshoot! 🍻📸

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Cheers to that! 🍻🍻

  • @jdc52dusar
    @jdc52dusar4 ай бұрын

    thank you for all your work making theses videos I love them.

  • @peregrination3643
    @peregrination36438 ай бұрын

    Even though I'm an outdoor macro photographer, I've been wanting an alternative indoor hobby and an excuse to better learn the technical side of photography that comes with using light that's not the sun. Watching product photography videos has been fun, and I finally got some equipment to go with my crude studio set up (made a "table" and place for backdrops, just got a speedlight, soft box, a few accessories to hopefully make my limited setup work at its best).

  • @Cezarygon
    @Cezarygon Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant. I have quastion, this table, black desks what You got, what that is exactly, and where I should look for it? Thanks 🙏.

  • @SmolStufff
    @SmolStufff Жыл бұрын

    I liked this video too! While I've never really done any product photography a lot of what you're showing here is still interesting and useful for other kinds of photography. Personally I use photography as a way to get some excercise, look at small things, landscapes and nature in general.

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much for watching and your really helpful comment! I also prefer nature and landscapes in general but I sadly don't always have the time to get out so studio projects are great ways to stay creative at home for me!

  • @agilatan3006
    @agilatan3006 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant and inspiring video. Enjoyed watching. Many macro photographers, including the established ones, lamented about the challange earning out of macro photography. Utilising macro skills to product photography can be a lucrative answer, where there are more money & commercial needs.

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much, really glad you enjoyed it!

  • @Bishnu_Deb
    @Bishnu_Deb10 ай бұрын

    Excellent video with very informative contents. Thanks Andrew for sharing such a lovely video. You have earned a subscriber and I hope to see more and more videos about product photography here.

  • @ForceOfVader
    @ForceOfVader Жыл бұрын

    Awesome video and tips! I need that owl shirt!!

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much! I love this shirt. I think I got it from redbubble

  • @ForceOfVader

    @ForceOfVader

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AndrewLanxonPhotography It's awesome! I'll see if I can find one! Love you videos, really helpful! Keep up the great work!

  • @rosu1981
    @rosu1981 Жыл бұрын

    I love yu re videos… thank you 😋😜🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

  • @jeanscotland7749
    @jeanscotland7749 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant video

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Jean!

  • @henri.witteveen
    @henri.witteveen Жыл бұрын

    This looks very very good

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you!

  • @MrPluis666
    @MrPluis666 Жыл бұрын

    verry cool video

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @banditalley9592
    @banditalley9592 Жыл бұрын

    Method B and (8,4) on the settings for Helicon - I tried millions of combinations and the default ALWAYS works best for me too :) Have you tried using the healing tools in ACR? I find they are more accurate than Photoshop

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Yep, i tried different settings but helicons defaults always seem to do the best job!

  • @kentskjnnemann5629
    @kentskjnnemann5629 Жыл бұрын

    I like these product photography videos, and love the editing side of it also, but how do you get around that background light, cut out the product and put it above a layer with color background light? :)

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks! The slight golden background glow I added was done simply by creating an ellipse shape, blurring it, reducing the opacity and cutting the cans out so it appears to glow from behind. It worked well here because of the deep blacks in the background, but sometimes I would add a real background glow using an additional light.

  • @yanniksteiger7286
    @yanniksteiger7286 Жыл бұрын

    Did you also try zerene stacker?

  • @hans6304
    @hans6304 Жыл бұрын

    Great one, Andrew! May I ask what will be your preference for the lights, the AD200's or the flash lights such as the TT680's and why is that? The ADs are much more expensive than the TTs and the cheaper ones can be more lucrative for us beginners. What are their limitations of being cheaper? Cheers mate!

  • @tamarawilliams3699
    @tamarawilliams3699 Жыл бұрын

    Andrew. I just watched this again and the videos on B&W Fine Art Landscape and the abstract fine art photo technique. All great videos. But my question may be dumb but once I have the image the way I want it, what is the best way to save it for printing so not to lose any of the pixels and / or deteriorate the details? I have an image I would like to print as wall art but every time I save it, it loses some of the sharpness and details. Can you add this to one of your editing videos in the future? Thanks so much. Tammy

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Hey Tamara, thanks for an interesting comment. Whenever I print I tend to simply export my images as full-resolution JPEG files or as full resolution TIFF files. I'll sometimes add a low amount of sharpening in the export. Either way, you shouldn't notice any real loss of sharpness in the details, unless you're exporting really small files. I've been doing a lot of printing recently as part of an upcoming launch of limited edition print sales and it's just been about making sure I'm exporting every single pixel I can without any compression. Hope that helps!

  • @tamarawilliams3699

    @tamarawilliams3699

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AndrewLanxonPhotography Well, that’s what I do so maybe it is my printer. Argh. I’m going to try a different printer and see if that makes the difference. Thanks so much for replying. You’re awesome.

  • @warrenlloyd7532
    @warrenlloyd7532 Жыл бұрын

    Really useful video Andrew, and some handy Photoshop tips. What was the device you had on the camera to control the lights?

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks Warren! It's the godox x pro C, it's the standard trigger you'd use to wirelessly control godox lights

  • @warrenlloyd7532

    @warrenlloyd7532

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AndrewLanxonPhotography thanks mate, much appreciated

  • @busymamatips1475
    @busymamatips1475 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks Andrew. For someone with no experience with artificial light, what’s the difference between constant light and the kind you used now? If I don’t want to complicate things with a trigger or remote etc. is there an advantage to this over just buying a light and keeping it on? Thanks a lot

  • @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    @AndrewLanxonPhotography

    Жыл бұрын

    Hey, thanks for watching! Constant light, as the name suggests, is on constantly, which has its advantages in that you can see exactly where it's being placed and what it looks like in your image before you take the shot. However, unless you get extremely powerful LEDs they won't generate as much light as using flash, so you would have to work with either wider apertures or slow shutter speeds to get similar exposures. Using flash is more energy efficient and doesn't force me to compromise on settings in my still images. I hope that helps!

  • @ingridschallier6691
    @ingridschallier6691 Жыл бұрын

    👍👍👍

  • @JulesMoyaert_photo
    @JulesMoyaert_photo Жыл бұрын

    👍👍👍