# Help with packshots.



## Frederik_Bo (Aug 3, 2018)

I am a largly self-taught Photographer. I have got to local clothing brands as customers. I shoot Packshots for their webshops, som images for instagram, and occacianally image-style photoshoots.
Usually when we do packshots, I shoot them on a model, but I would really like to supplement that with shots that are like these from APCs Webshop:

https://www.apc.fr/wwuk/men.html




That being the shots of the clothes, that is not on a model. At first I thought that these images were don by having the clothes lying flat on a white bag ground, with the camera above. However I tried this, and no matter how much time I used attempting to make the clothes lie nice an straight, I was not able to make it look as good as on the APC webshop.

Now I just realisede that the clothes is actually not lying flat on a surface, but rather hanging on something. It becomes clear when looking at a jacket like this:



If you notice, the strings are not laying against the chest of the jacket as you would expect, if the jacket was horizontal. Rather the strings are hanging straight down revealing that the jacket is actually in a vertical position.

Now I figured that they are properly using som kind of ghost mannequin. However non of the ghost mannequins that I have found on the internet seem to give this illusion of a piece of clothing lying flat on a surface. They all seem way more three dimensional.

I was hopeing someone here, has got experience shooting these kinds of packs or knows how it is don. I would really appreciate som pointers, or info on what kind of mannequin to bye.

Thanks in advance


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## Jim Saunders (Aug 3, 2018)

At a guess there's a wood or cardboard shape in the jacket to hold it in place. It might be leaned back at an angle rather than vertical or horizontal.

Jim


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## Frederik_Bo (Aug 3, 2018)

Jim Saunders said:


> At a guess there's a wood or cardboard shape in the jacket to hold it in place. It might be leaned back at an angle rather than vertical or horizontal.
> 
> Jim



I thought about something like that too, but have not been able to find demonstrations of such a technic anywhere on the internet.


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## snappy604 (Aug 3, 2018)

if it is vertical, wouldn't the sleeves hang differently?

its possible its not really white, but a greenscreen with a greenscreen cardboard or plywood form to hold it into place and then quickly photoshopped to remove and use white background?


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## Frederik_Bo (Aug 4, 2018)

snappy604 said:


> if it is vertical, wouldn't the sleeves hang differently?
> 
> its possible its not really white, but a greenscreen with a greenscreen cardboard or plywood form to hold it into place and then quickly photoshopped to remove and use white background?



Well I definatly do not think it is shot on green. I am guessing it is shot on white and then cleaned up in editing to get a 100% white background. At least that is how I would do it. However the color of the background is really not my issue, it is how to get the clothes, looking as nice as in the exampel pictures.

Regarding the sleeves. I see what you mean, and it was the same reason I initially thought, that the clothes were laying flat on a background. However, looking at the strings on the jacket, it is clear to me that they are hanging vertically. Also if you look at the neck of the t-shirt, there seems to be a shadow coming from the front of the neck falling along the inside of the collar. This suggests a separation of the front and back of the tee, as would be the case, on som kind of ghost mannequin. Now the drop shadow could ofcause be photoshopped.
How they get the sleeves like this is a mystery to me and was one of the things, I was hoping to have clarified. Maybe there is something inside the sleves other then a normal mannequin arm. Maybe the mannequin is all the way up against the background, and the sleeves then taped to the background, to keep them straight? I can't really tell.


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## Valvebounce (Aug 4, 2018)

Hi Frederik. 
Isn’t that the whole point of green screen, the software can cut it out so clean that you can’t tell it was green screen?

Cheers, Graham. 



Frederik_Bo said:


> Well I definatly do not think it is shot on green.


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## Frederik_Bo (Aug 4, 2018)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Frederik.
> Isn’t that the whole point of green screen, the software can cut it out so clean that you can’t tell it was green screen?
> 
> Cheers, Graham.



I am open to being wrong here, but I dont really see green screen being used much in stills photography. It seems to be more of a video technic. Also there are other problems with green screen. Like green spill light coming from the background on to the subject. Also if the mask is not done well on green screen, you will have green pixels showing along the edges. If instead your shooting on a white or almost white background, any mistakes on your mask won't be as visible, at least if your want the background to be 100% white.


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## Frederik_Bo (Aug 4, 2018)

Frederik_Bo said:


> I am open to being wrong here, but I dont really see green screen being used much in stills photography. It seems to be more of a video technic. Also there are other problems with green screen. Like green spill light coming from the background on to the subject. Also if the mask is not done well on green screen, you will have green pixels showing along the edges. If instead your shooting on a white or almost white background, any mistakes on your mask won't be as visible, at least if your want the background to be 100% white.



But I am aware that the green screen technic is used in stills too so, I could definitely be wrong.


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