I'm a newbie to photography yet I have been asked to "figure out" how to do certain things. Now, before ending up here I went old-school and picked the manual to the camera I was given (Nikon D3100), as well as read up on pretty much everything I could regarding photography.
I'm supposed to be taking photographs of products (shoes, bags, wallets) yet I cannot replicate the results of another person (which I'll admit didn't seem too hard to do at first) who used to do this (different equipment, and he was a professional).
The equipment I am given is this: 1x Nikon D3100 2x Professional Quartz Light - QL-500 And a photographic box with its own lighting.. I'll attach images of the box, its lighting, and the quartz lighting.
Now, final picture should be the shoe for example in a full white background. That's not too hard, I just take the picture, try to make sure the product looks crispy and focused, then I take it on to photoshop and remove the background & replace it with a white one. I use the NEF file the camera generates and some times I use the adjustments it recommends before opening the image because the product looks more like the one I have in front of me when I do.
I lack consistency between the images and that is the problem. The quality is inconsistent, the shoes sometimes seem "life like" and other times they seem dull. What can I do to improve this? It's not exactly a matter of focus, I think I have that down whether I use AF or Manual.
Any advice is appreciated. I just want to improve my skills on this so I can provide consistent output.
Thanks in advance.