How to build a DIY studio for product shoots

It's been nearly six months since I got my first DSLR, the Canon EOS 450D with its kit lens.  I've taken pictures almost every day now.  Recently, I started experimenting with studio type shooting.  First thing is, being fairly new to serious shooting, I do not have a studio.  Nor do I have the props, strobes, et al.  So what I did here was to set up my own DIY studio for this shoot.  It is a very small setup, meant for small product shoots.  The outcome is quite impressive, as you can see from the pictures below.

Pic 1.  My two workhorse lenses.  The Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM with its hood extended is mounted on my month old Canon EOS 50D whilst my Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 ultra wide angle lens with hood sits beside it.

Pic 2.  Canon EOS 50D wearing the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 ultra wide angle lens with hood.

Pic 3.  Canon EOS 50D.  I've had this camera for about a month and I've already shot over 2000 photos with it.

Pic 4.  Here's the camera I used to take those pictures

How to do it

So how do you go about producing this kind of pictures on the cheap?  Well, let me start by saying that there are 4 parts to this. Knowing to operate the camera, having the props, having off camera lighting, and knowing how to do post processing.

Knowing to operate the camera

You must know how to get good, clear shots with your camera, in Manual mode.  Reason is that you want all the pictures to be sharp, properly exposed, and in focus.  This means, among other things, proficiency with aperture settings to get the correct depth of field, and knowing how to meter the scene so that you can set the correct shutter speed to get the correct exposure.

Props

You'll need a large, white piece of paper or cloth.  I just went out and bought some paper from the local bookstore. 

Off camera lighting

What I've done is to use an off camera flash, with a secondary light source coming from a cheap LED flash light and a reflector.  To use an off camera flash, I would need a wireless flash trigger which is the inexpensive Phottix Tetra PT04 I purchased from shahinki.com.  The reflector was DIY'ed out of standard aluminum foil wrapped around a magazine.

Post Processing (PP)

For PP, I used only Canon's Digital Photo Processing software to make adjustments to exposure, crop, eliminate noise, as well as to clone out unwanted blemishes.

This is how the DIY studio looks

Pic 5.  DIY studio set up.  With the large white paper as the backdrop, I used (from left to right) the home made reflector, the LED flash light with the head strap, a stofen diffuser in front of the LED flash light to soften the light, a 430EX mounted on a Phottix Tetra wireless flash receiver.  The Phottix Tetra wireless flash transmitter was mounted on my camera's hot shoe, which for this shot, was the 50D.

There it is, a DIY studio on the cheap.