Product photography help

[raptorbandito]

Hi All,

For the last couple weeks I've been starting my journey into digital photography after my wife bought me a nice light box for our anniversary. After doing some research I've produced some ok results, but I can't quite get everything perfect, which I suppose should be expected considering how new to this I am.

I'm wondering if anyone on here can share some of their experience with me. There are a few things in particular that I've been having issues with.

1. The clarity of the photos: I believe I have enough lighting on the subject, so I don't think that's the issue. Perhaps it's simply the limitation of my point an shoot camera? Shooting in aperture priority or manual mode I can only adjust the aperture from F2.7 to F8.0. I can get some fairly clear photos of products but they just don't seem to measure up to other table top photography I've seen online. Do you need a DSLR to really get the clarity I'm after?

2. In shot noise: Again I think I'm getting enough lighting on the subject, but I'm still picking up noise artifacts, especially in the background (even with the ISO set to 80).

3. Getting true white or true black into the backgrounds of the photos. I've been using white and black poster board for my backgrounds, but they always turn out off white or dark gray. It seems like folks taking pictures with their homemade light boxes in this thread have had some success in this area: My new lightbox works!

What could I be doing wrong?

I appreciate any help that you can provide!

[OsmosisStudios]

Sounds to me like your camera is what's holding you back. Sadly, for this kind of thing the camera does make a bit of difference, especially when we're talking P&S/SLR