Objects and Lighting: Product Photography Techniques

Lighting  •  Photography Tips  •  Product Photography

There isn’t anything you can photograph that doesn’t have a sphere, cube, or cylinder in it. Jay Morgan created this video to showcase the details you must take into account when lighting and arranging multiple objects. When placing your light, you want to take into account the height and size of each object you intend to photograph. Will you place the light on the left or right? Lighting is a learning process and will come with time:

The highlight side of the cube is placed next to the shadow side of the sphere to create separation between the two. The cube’s shadow side is positioned next to the cylinder’s highlight side for the same effect.

When the light is positioned to the left as shown in the video, adjustments to height will alter the shadows and highlights for each one. After lowering the light, the highlight on top of the cube became darker and the shadow of the sphere stretched further up the cube’s highlight side. It’s important to keep this shadow-to-highlight-to-shadow pattern to keep separation and create dimension between each shape.

For product photography, you will want to use small mirrors and pieces of reflective material to your advantage. They allow you to place them in hidden areas of your shot to create highlights and fill some of the shadows.

Overhead lighting eliminates most of the cast shadows projected by each object in your shot. The shadow-highlight pattern changes from top to bottom instead of side to side as well. This allows the objects to be closer to each other without casting their shadows over one another.

Just remember, every object looks different until you find the right angle and lighting.