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Use household items to light your shot with this DIY approach to product photography

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If you’re still stuck at home and want to practice your photography, particularly small products, you might have been struggling if you don’t have a lot of lighting kit. Product photography often requires a bunch of different light sources to show off its different facets and surfaces. But if you don’t have a lot of gear, what can you do?

In this video, Jay P Morgan photographs a glass drinks bottle on his kitchen table using nothing but things he finds around his house (mainly the kitchen). Using parchment paper, flashlights, oven trays and even a diaper to create a pretty decent shot you can easily achieve in your own home.

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How to shoot water splash product photography using a DIY catapult

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Water splashes often seem to go hand in hand with product photography, although it’s not always easy to capture. Often it requires several pairs of hands to man the camera while simultaneously throwing water at your subject. But it’s possible to shoot it on your own quite easily using a DIY catapult, built from mostly standard gear you already have in your studio.

You’ll need a few bits of wood, screws, a bungee cord and a length of rope as well, but as this video from Matt Huber demonstrates, it’s a really simple design that’s easy to build. But the results it allows you to produce are very effective.

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How to use a smartphone controlled turntable to shoot professional 360 product photos

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If you take product photos for e-commerce, you need consistent lighting and setup for shooting the items from all angles. If you’re on a budget, worry not – you can achieve great results on the cheap. In this helpful video, Dustin Dolby of workphlo will show you how to create professional-looking 360° product photos. You’ll need just one light, a kit lens, and a smartphone-controlled turntable.

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How to shoot great product photos with just one light… and a diaper

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Product photography can be a lot of fun. For many photographers right now, it’s the only type of photography they can really try. They often don’t need a lot of space, and you don’t really need a lot of gear to shoot them, either. For small things, you can usually get away with just a camera and lens and one light – and a bit of work in Photoshop compositing things together.

That’s what Peter Lindgren does in this video, with the assistance of fellow photographer, Jonas Häll. They use very minimal gear to get a very impressive final result. Their camera Sony’s new ZV-1 compact vlogging camera to shoot the images and only a single light source is used. It offers some great tips for making your beer look ice cold, including some you might not have seen before.

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Here’s how to light and shoot cinematic Apple-like product commercials

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When it comes to product photography, there are a lot of brands out there who keep a very consistent look and feel to their promotional material. Whether it’s a truck or a toaster, you can immediately tell by the way it’s lit and shot that it belongs to a certain brand.

One such brand is Apple. And while many of their product photos and videos are actually CG, the guys at Syrp have broken down Apple’s techniques to show you how you can shoot it for real.

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How to shoot black products on a black backdrop using two lights

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Photographing black products on a black background can give you elegant and dramatic shots. However, it can be tricky to separate your product from the background. In this video, Karl Taylor walks you through his process and shows you how he photographs dark products on a dark background.

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How to photograph a clear liquid bottle using inexpensive gear and unusual modifiers

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Bottles are always a fun and challenging photography experiment, especially ones that contain crystal clear liquids like vodka. I don’t buy vodka often and when I do, it rarely tends to stay full long enough to have any time in front of the camera, but Dustin at Workphlo has definitely put some thought into photographing this one using some low budget kit and very interesting techniques.

If you’ve watched Dustin’s videos before, you’ll know he’s a fan of compositing when it comes to product photography. And this particular technique pretty much requires it as he cuts paper to act as reflectors on just small sections of the bottle’s label.

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These are three biggest mistakes you make when shooting beverages

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Shooting reflective surfaces can be a tricky task, especially if you’re a beginner. And naturally, we all make mistakes. In this video, Alex Koloskov talks about the three biggest mistakes photographers make when shooting beverages, but he also teaches you how to fix them so you can improve your photos.

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