DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

How to shoot translucent product photos on a white background with just a couple of speedlights

Nov 29, 2021 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Shooting transparent and translucent objects on a white background can often be very tricky. You want to be able to show off the product itself without it being overpowered by the background behind it. It can be difficult to light in a way that makes it stand out, but it is definitely possible – as proven by thousands of listings on sites like Amazon, eBay or Etsy.

Well, in this video, Dustin Dolby at workphlo takes the mystery out of shooting translucent and transparent items on a white background so that you can photograph your products in a way that helps to make your or your client’s product listings stand out.

For this project, Dustin is photographing a water bottle. He places it on a very small shooting table – only just big enough for the bottle to sit on – which helps to prevent it from interfering with the product itself. For the white background, he uses Savage Translum, which is a translucent white plastic background. This allows him to light it from behind without lights getting in the way in front of the background or creating unwanted spill onto the product itself. It’s a similar principle to the Manfrotto (formerly Lastolite) Hilite, except you’ve got more room and freedom to set up your lights behind it.

Getting the background light level set right this the first step. Dustin adjusts the light and his exposure until he gets a nice white edge around the product. You don’t need to have the entire background be solid white, just the edge around the product. If your entire background is too bright, it’ll essentially become a light source, causing flare and blasting light onto your product, too, which you don’t want.

A second speedlight is added pointing at the product itself. Beginning with a bare speedlight, he experiments by bouncing the light off the white ceiling above, as well as shooting it through a diffuser from various angles in order to highlight different parts of the bottle and its components.

From here, Dustin walks us through his usual process of compositing the images together in Photoshop. He explains exactly what he’s looking for in each of the images he chooses and why he chooses them and takes us step by step through bringing it all together for a fantastic final result.

It’s a pretty simple process that can be done with very minimal and inexpensive equipment. At the end of Dustin’s video, he mentions that he’s using a Nikon D5100 with a Nikon 18-105mm lens and a couple of Yongnuo YN560-III & YN560-IV speedlights (although, personally, I’d recommend the Godox TT600 – especially if you hope to expand your flash gear in the future to something more powerful and compatible). Even the Savage Translum background is only $90.

So, it’s not an expensive set of kit by any stretch of the imagination. But if you sell products or shoot product photos for clients, it’s a setup that can help to sell a lot more items!

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

How to shoot atmospheric photos of glass with just a couple of speedlights Get perfect Martini splashes in the studio with just a couple of speedlights How to use a smartphone controlled turntable to shoot professional 360 product photos Taiwan couple’s hilarious take on the #FollowMeTo couple turns into #DragMeTo

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Dustin Dolby, product photography, White Seamless, Workphlo

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« The Solarcan Puck is a tiny solar camera that lets you shoot three super long exposures
Laowa’s new 85mm f/5.6 2x Ultra Macro APO boasts to be the world’s smallest 2x full-frame macro lens »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Slowing down everyday activities to make one second last for one hour
  • This unique camera gives a clay pigeon’s view of the world – until it’s blasted out of the sky
  • This photo of glacier on Mars shows hint of water on the Red Planet
  • If your camera was a person, here’s what it would be like
  • How I improved a faux panoramic film camera with 3D printing

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy