How to improve

[mattjgerard]

I am now starting to create my own images for the new job I got a couple months ago, up until now I have been just redoing old products and updating stuff.

So that being said, here is a typical image for our products. The main focus of this image is the green LED lamp on the pole. The whole bracket, pole and lamp assembly is ours, and is a machine status indicator for manufacturing. This application is to use the little yellow sensor on the conveyor in the lower left to read for empty food trays to come out of the denester, and if there isn't one present the lamp on the pole will turn red and alert the operator. I have the basic idea of the image, but I am just brain blocked on how to take it to the next level, and would appreciate some constructive criticism and ideas. The background image is not locked in, and can be changed, but gives the sort of look they are going for. It doesn't need to be realistically in place, just to give the idea of manufacturing.

I'm not sure if its the lighting or the angle, or what. Just don't know how to kick it to the next level. These images seem harder than the ultra closeup sexy detail shots. The right part of the image will have text and bullet points and product specs.

Thanks everyone!

matt

[Will Gibbons]

Honestly, my suggestion is to study photography at a time like this. A quick google image search shows exactly what you're describing... lack of focus and excitement. This equipment is quite busy and unless you tell me the focus is on the sensor and the light, I wound't know that.

My suggestions:

1. Use multiple close-up images and storyboard it out rather than using one image.
2. If you absolutely must use one image, consider toon and make any equipment that's not yours grayscale. Then your equipment can stand out.

Without some DoF and more contrast (yes, you can get that out of using an HDRI that has some more dark gray in it), it'll be tough to do as you said, kick it up a notch. Are you taking advantage of things like textures and roughness? 

[mattjgerard]

Thanks for the tips will, and yeah, there's no real way to make this exciting. I'm going to try to push them towards the option #1, with the large image and cut-ins for product details, even some extreme angles that highlight the product but are not standard camera angles. I like the idea of the toon style, so I'll mess around with that this afternoon. They are pretty traditional when it comes to this stuff, but I'm willing to push the old school comfort zone a bit.

I'll post more later.

[Speedster]

Clients can be such a pain at times!  What do they know???  Most, especially in the machinery and medical device industries, are stuck somewhere in the 1950's when it comes to product illustration!

One tried-and-true trick is to isolate only your product against a slightly transparent "everything else", if that makes sense.  Two passes, one with yours as a .png with alpha, and one without.  Then adjust the background of the without using transparency.

Another tried-and-true is to call out yours only with circles and leader lines over to your body copy wording.  Usually really trite.

And absolutely play with toon!  My clients have gone crazy when I show them the possibilities!  I almost always render out a series of toons now as part of the deliverables, as they are very useful for IFU's, SKU packaging labels, instructions printed in black and white, the usual stuff.  I successfully petitioned the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office to allow toons for Design Patents, but no luck on Utility Patents.  Yet!

Keep your product in full color, but everything else as a toon.  Be sure to play with the "Shadow Multiplier" and other tools. 

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Bill G

[mattjgerard]

Thanks all for the tips, been caught on another job for most of the day, but did a "working lunch" just because this was really bugging me to come up with (and leftover mexican food from the sales meeting- score!) So, this is what I showed my boss, and he instantly said "yes, send it for approval"

So i think I'm heading in the right direction, and helping steer them away from the 1st person view images they are used to. I still want to explore the toon and call-out styles too, but this is a tight turnaround (again)  so I'll have to work this angle a bit more, sex it up a bit and go with it.

Finally watched the depth pass tutorial, and I don't think I'll ever need to render DOF in KS again. this is just too cool.

[Will Gibbons]

Looking much nicer!

Two more thoughts, maybe darken the floor a tad to get the machinery to 'pop' a bit more. Also, I wonder if you can push the contrast in the green light. It looks a bit flat, unless that's exactly how it looks in real life. Hard to tell. Nice work. Finally, you could desaturate the background blurred stuff a tiiiiny bit to get it to fade out some.

Nice!

[mattjgerard]

Great tips. I can't play with the LED appearance too much, one of the main selling points is that the lamp material is very very diffuse and presents a solid color to the operator without any of the characteristic mulit-LED hotspots inherent to other products. So yeah, that's how it looks. Other than that, I've got free reign on creative.

I'll make those tweaks, and a couple more I have in mind and present the final when its approved. Then over lunch I'll mess with the toon shaders. I still like the idea of those.

Thanks everyone for the comments, I'll be coming back to pick more brains in the future.

And Will, I read your blog post on minimalism. I think I'm ready, although my family might think I'm crazy

[NM-92]

I really like that last one.

Quick thing to try:
In any image editor, i would try to desaturate all the elements in the background leaving only the pole in colour. Maybe blurring it a bit more. It's a nice effect and since the pole is your main character here, you only need a hint on the background to show the machinery. Then the green LED will stand out a bit more without needing a glow or sth like that. Nice progress btw. 

[Will Gibbons]

And Will, I read your blog post on minimalism. I think I'm ready, although my family might think I'm crazy

Lol! Go for it man. It's addicting.