How would you set up a beauty shots? (Props/ Marmoset Toolbag 2)

ftsmith

So I'm mainly a prop modeler, and I think they come out decent, but I have been told that a great presentation shot can make an average model look awesome. The way I usually set up my scene is to drop my mesh in the scene, set up my lights, camera, camera settings and use the ambient sky setting for the background. I usually use the image taken straight from the scene with minimal Photoshop editing. Iv'e seen people use just a solid color background (usually black or dark grey), motion blur, some would have a small environment or a pedestal, or even have a small studio scene. I use Marmoset mostly for my presentation shots and I was wondering how would you guys would set up a shot.

PyrZern

You can post some of the renders you've made as samples.

ftsmith

This is how I usually present my stuff.

Robert Berrier

Hey,

I usually do the same as you. Clean background, some lighting, post if needed and done.
But lately I am leaning more towards adding you model to a scene where it stands in.
it doesn't have to be complex though, even just a ground with shadow and some abstract background could work. It ground your model better.

Ex-Ray

An average model is still an average model, of course a nice presentation helps but limited. 

You spend time on your presentation so you can showcase you have nice normals, accurate material definition, good silhouettes, accurate form, nice details etc.  Using a good lighting setup creates highlights and shadows that will bring out the form and also your materials.

Plain backgrounds and camera DoF will control where the viewers attention are.

Creating a small scene will ground it into reality, you can set a mood, define scale and depth by placing smaller or bigger recognisable objects that function as size references.

Kroma!

Find some examples of presentation that you like and deconstruct them. See if you can figure out what makes them appeal to you and then emulate that in your own work. Like Ex-Ray says, try to bring out the details in what you're presenting. For example, your microscope has a scratched metal surface, which you might want to show off with stronger lighting to make the metal shine, and as the highlight falls off, the scratches in the surface become more exaggerated.

Check out this post (and thread) for a great example of using multiple lights, more interesting composition and depth of field to showcase the model.