TV isn’t only for spending countless hours in front of it when you don’t feel like doing anything. Instead, you can turn it into a creative prop, and a pretty awesome one.
Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter will show you how to turn a TV, a monitor, or even a projector into a fantastic background for all sorts of product shots. He guides you through the process step by step, helping you build a setup for some neat stills and videos.
Caleb used this $500 55-Inch TV (it was on a discount, though). But of course, you can go with nearly any TV or monitor you already own. It’s important for the TV, though, to have Roku built in so you can control the background through your phone.
You can use the TV as a tabletop, which is what Caleb starts with. He shoots the product laying on the table, using stock footage as the background. He tweaked it to fit his needs, and the result is pretty interesting and unusual. The TV also acts as a light source, so this solution is pretty practical. And for the additional light source, you can use a continuous LED light. Please note that you should be careful when placing the objects onto the screen. You may want to add a layer of clear Plexiglas to protect it from any scratches.
The second setup involves using the TV behind your subject and using it as a background. You can go with photos or videos, depending on what you want to achieve. Using a longer lens is a good choice in this scenario because it gives you more lens compression and it’s easier to fill the screen with the background this way. The wide-angle lens is a bit of a challenge in this scenario. As for the lighting, you can use any continuous LED light. Caleb went with an RGB light so he could match the color of the scene with that of the background.
Make sure to watch Caleb’s video for a bunch of examples and the step-by-step guide. And if you decide to give this technique a shot, feel free to share the result with us.
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