7 Functional Tips for Better Product Photography
Jul 12, 2015
Laya Gerlock
Laya Gerlock is a Portrait and Product photographer based in the Philippines. His passion is teaching and sharing his knowledge in Photograpy and has been doing this for 6 years.
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I’ve been making different product photography tutorials for awhile now and I still regularly go back to a previous posts because I am still using the same techniques. I wanted to make a single point of contact for functional tips on improving your product photography.
LIGHTING
One of the single most important factors in product photography is lighting (if not the single most important) . How you light your product will make a big difference in your final output. Here are 3 tips on how you can light your product.
Small DIY Reflectors
One very useful ‘trick’ I use in almost any product shot is a collection of small DIY reflectors. They can be easily made from illustration board, silver gift wrapping paper or aluminum foil and some clamps. I use this to bounce and reflect light for fill, back and kickers. Here is one example of using a bunch of those reflectors with only one light.
Gradient Reflections On Products
Knowing how to get gradient reflections on products is a must if you want your photos to have a non-flat look that comes when using a light tent. The simplest way of achieving this is by putting another diffuser between the light and the subject. Your reflective surface acts like a mirror so you need get the right angle to get the reflection.
Light Painting For Product Photography
I’ve always been a fan of light painting, but trying different techniques of incorporating it into my workflow started with a tutorial on how to light paint using an iPad and an iPhone.
After that, I showed how it can be applied to photographing watches to create unique looking product shots.
Backgrounds
After lighting another thing that can add more spunk to your product shots is using different backgrounds to compliment your product.
DIY Wood Planks
Ever since I made my first wood plank I have been using it extensively for product shots. I have also been using it as a base for many of my tutorials. I bought the used wood planks and just painted them to create a cool looking backgrounds for product and food photography.
Check out how this step by step tutorial on how I used the wood planks for food photography.
The ‘El Bokeh’ Wall
One of my favorite background tricks is the El bokeh Wall. It’s a really simple technique but it creates wonders in a photo. Get some aluminum foil or silver gift wrapping paper and crumble it into a ball. Place it in your background and point a gelled flash on it. Shoot using a wide opening to get your background looking like a wall of bokeh. You can check out this tutorial for perfume photography when this was used.
Everyday Household Items
You don’t have to make all your backgrounds, some backgrounds can be made from objects found around the house.
Composite
Lastly knowing how to do a composite product shot will make you create some interesting pictures (and may save both on time and accessories)
If you have limited gear you can also use this technique, like Shooting A Motorcycle With One Speedlight
Combine all of this techniques and you’ll have no more problems shooting product shots! But don’t forget the most important thing is Practice, Practice makes Perfect.
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Laya Gerlock
Laya Gerlock is a Portrait and Product photographer based in the Philippines. His passion is teaching and sharing his knowledge in Photograpy and has been doing this for 6 years.
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45 responses to “7 Functional Tips for Better Product Photography”
Great article! The Bokeh wall is awesome.
thanks :)
Excellent article, with some great examples.
thanks for the comment
Awesome article from somebody who clearly has loads of experience shooting products. Well done, Laya.
Thank you :)
Excelent article!
That’s some amazing work you do. Keep it up!
One of the best blogs on how to shoot products,
Please also check out my blog on my website that has recent advertising photography
http://www.howlettphoto.com/blog
Nice article with some nice photos. Thanks for sharing
I am capturing many product photo each day Now your blog is my favorite to see how I can get good product photos. Excellent share.
Very Informative article for every Product Photographer.But remember product shape is so much important for editing White Background and Background Removal.I’m Graphic Designer and have a product editing Studio.My company: http://www.clippingcrowd.com
Much Appreciate! Very Helpful Article for Beginners.
Background, lighting, composition everything is important for a product photography. I think here the most important thing is lighting. without perfect lighting it will be impossible capturing perfect photographs. Thanks for sharing this important article I like your code” One of the single most important factors in product photography is lighting” very much. .. thank you…..
Photo=light…… graphy=art
a very helpful article…..thank u…op
That was one of the Best Article for Beginner Product photographer and Also best for Expert Photographer they will also Improve their skills after Reading this article. Quality Photographs Will Improve your Salve and attract more Customer. Always hire Professional Photographer for Product Photography
Awesome and very well written article !!!
loved it
Find High Quality PHotography
visit : http://www.lukeayers.com.au
Soo helpful for a budding designer who needs to make a portfolio! I was wondering if you could provide some photoshop tips too?
To sum it up, we offer all clients the best advice to enrich and restore all photos to their original or better. This is because one of the main goals of graphic design is to display the product/service in the best light possible. We have a wide range of services at an affordable price that you could gain from to improve or restore photos and graphics.
I am also a product photographer and really learn a lots of new thing from your post. Thanks for share.
Great job. very cool tutorial.
Amazing! thank you…
i like product photography i want to hire Professional Photographer for Product Photography any one interested juts knock me !
This article is worth sharing!. In selling products online you have to be vigilant to every detail of the products you are posted on social sites, so that the customer will get attract and buy your product without any hesitation. Thank you!
This article is worth sharing!. In selling products online you have to be vigilant to every detail of the products you are posted on social sites, so that the customer will get attract and buy your product without any hesitation. Thank you!
These tips are amazing. Can you please tell me, what color background is the best for product photography?
It’s Such A Thing What I Was Looking For. It’s A Most Inspirational Post For Those Who Are Intending To Build Their Profession / Career In Product Photography As Well.
Everything is important but for more the most important is the rule of third. Its the technique that everyone need to master first before anything else.
I was just waiting to have a mind blowing piece of article like yours. It inspires me as I am also a photographer. i request you to write and publish more thong like this. thank you so much.
I also get some new tips to edit photo from this post, thanks.
nice tips. Really helping us
Thanks
I really appreciate the way you focus on the basic items related to photography and here, your idea concerning product photography is quite amazing.
Product photography often determines the likability as well as the sales rate of that specific item. However, I’d like to emphasize on using a tripod for a stabilized shot. After all, customers don’t want to see blurry images of the products hurting your brand reputation as well.
And you can’t overlook post-production if you have an intention to convert customers and make more sales.
Those 7 functional tips will really help to make product photography more better. I think a better background is the most important one because, this will ensure a unique vibe to the product. Again, a better lighting is very important to make the product look extraordinary. Moreover, the El Bokeh technique is really unique which gives a product an authentic texture. Thank you so much for sharing those amazing tips.
Hey Laya Gerlock , the tips you share are really amazing and helpful for photographers. Thanks for sharing this type of useful and informative post.
I am a professional photo editor and i want to really like to learn lots of things from photo editing articles. So i want to tell you, please keep update regularly your blog post. Thanks for sharing the post with us.
This is really helpful for product photographers. As, i a photo editor, i have worked with many product photographers.So, i beleive it will help them to take pictures more effectively.
ow some photo editor and i want really like to learn lots of thinks from photo editing articles. please keep update regularly your blog post.
Thanks you so much nice product photography tips sharing with us. your technique helpful for me.
I really loved the article. I want to add that a white background is always helpful for product photography. I also think a bit of product retouching is also needed.
Lots of information about the product photography.
Hey Laya Gerlock,
What an amazing and innovative DIY idea! Your concept is really exceptional. Thanks for your sharing 7 Functional Tips for Better Product Photography.
Really appreciated post. helpful tips..I love product photography.
already bookmarked the site. Thank you for sharing such a great article
A great deal of interesting information about product photography. Thanks for sharing
Well explained! Looking forward to reading more blogs like this from you.