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hi I'm Kyle Taylor at visual
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education.com and today we're going to
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be looking at my five top tips for great
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product photography tip number one study
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the product now this might sound obvious
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but it's really really important
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whatever the product is that you're
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going to photograph you really need to
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study it you need to look at its form at
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the Aesthetics you need to identify key
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features of the product that are
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important to the client or key features
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that will show the product in its best
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light things for example on this pair of
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headphones which I photographed are the
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brand name and ensuring the brand name
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is visible other key features to do with
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little items like this piece here where
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we have this little bit of gold plating
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is to ensure that little details like
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that really shine in the final image the
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shape of the product the form of the
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product all of that is defined by the
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sculpting that you apply with lighting
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now of course you need to know how to
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apply that lighting but if you don't
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understand the product form to begin
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with and the product Aesthetics and what
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it has to offer you're never going to be
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able to sculpt that product to your
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client's desires and requirements so
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ident identify those key elements
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identify those key Aesthetics and bring
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them out in your photography now when I
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undertake any product shoot whether it's
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a personal shoot or whether it's for a
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client I spend a considerable amount of
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time before the shoot really looking at
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the product and trying to identify which
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angle will be best what's going to be
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shown from one angle compared to another
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I then look at things like textures and
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materials for example on this particular
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product we have a matte semi matat
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plastic surface for the majority of this
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curved piece of plastic but on the
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inside we have this beautiful leather
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material and also on the um ear
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surrounds as well but they're completely
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different textures and completely
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different materials also of course the
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gold uh metallic plating as well as on
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the logo
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they all reflect light in different ways
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light will react differently on all of
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these and you need to be conscious of
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the product form the product textures
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and Aesthetics to get the best out of
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the product so that's tip number one and
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that's study the
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product tip number two gradient lighting
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now some of you may know what gradient
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lighting is and some of you may not
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understand that that let me try and
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simplify if you think of a normal soft
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box which most photographers are
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familiar with a soft box is a square or
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a rectangle of solid light that means
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that the entire surface of the soft box
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is homogeneous it distributes an even
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balance of light across that area but
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that isn't usually the best lighting for
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products and the reason is that most
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products
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have a gloss or semi gloss surface and
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what happens with those type of surfaces
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is that we get what's called image
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forming Reflections and that means that
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you can see reflections of the
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surrounding studio and Lighting in the
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surface of the product those we call
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Image forming Reflections now this is
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very important to understand because
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what happens is when you surround the
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product with lighting the lighting
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itself is reflected in the product like
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a mirror so you can actually see the
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lighting now when you can see the
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lighting and use you use something like
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a softbox you get quite an ugly looking
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light you just get like a big blocky
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Square white panel of light and that
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doesn't make a product look desirable so
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what we do in product photography is we
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switch to something called gradient
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lighting and that's where we create a
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panel of light but that light is not
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homogeneous it has either a central glow
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that radiates outwards and becomes
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weaker and weaker called a gradient and
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we create different types of gradient so
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we can create radial gradients with a
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central hot spot that diffuses away or
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we can create Linear gradients by using
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a soft box behind diffusion material so
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that we have a brighter line that then
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graduates
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away now those image forming Reflections
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that then appear in the product surface
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then look much much more attractive it's
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just our perception of the product and
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its more luxurious feel its
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desirability uh becomes much much more
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apparent and effective when we
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understand image forming Reflections
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that you can see in the product and we
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can control those with
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gradient lighting now the next thing to
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consider with gradient lighting is of
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course the shape of the product if you
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have a glossy product like a pair of
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sunglasses um or you know anything
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that's curved or spherical and glossy
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then of course it's going to um reflect
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more of its surrounding area and when it
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reflects more of the surrounding area
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because of the shape of the product then
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we need to in increase the size of the
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gradient lighting and we do this by
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either moving the gradient lighting much
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much closer to the product so
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effectively it becomes larger from the
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product's perspective or we use much
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larger scrims so that the entire
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spherical surface of the product picks
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up that gradient
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lighting the next thing tip number three
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shooting teed now a lot of people talked
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to me about shooting tethered and they
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think it's an extremely expensive
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process they think that you need
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expensive cameras expensive equipment to
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do this well you don't you can actually
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Shoot Tethered into Lightroom into some
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of the free software that comes with
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cameras and the process for shooting
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tethered is very simple you just need a
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tethering cable such as a USBC cable
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that runs from your computer to your
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camera and then you uh start the
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tethering process in Lightroom or
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Capture One or Focus or whichever
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software you're using and you can shoot
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the images directly from the camera into
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the computer now the advantage of this
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of course is that when you're shooting
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in a studio environment with a larger
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screen you can see the images very very
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clearly in a large format on the screen
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and that allows you to really study the
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detail of your lighting it allows you to
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really study the depth of field in your
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images uh and it allows you to also
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measure values so that you can decide
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whether your lighting exposure is where
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you want it to be or if you're
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replicating a previously recorded shot
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you can uh refer to the previously
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recorded RGB values and then replicate
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those again but doing all of this
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tethered gives you far more control far
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more precision and much greater ability
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to really study the product the other
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advantage of course is that if you're
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shooting for a client or you have an art
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director there with you on the shoot
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they can see the images as well they can
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direct the shoot and between you you can
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make really positive decisions to
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improve the lighting or improve the
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composition of the product much much
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more so than you can uh possibly achieve
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by just looking at it on the camera now
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other AD advantages of shooting tethered
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is the actual flow and process of the
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shoot it slows you down and it allows
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you to think more carefully about the
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results and the product so you can study
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those results and make adjustments step
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by step in a much more precise way than
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you can uh shooting just to the camera
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another great Advantage is that often
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when we're shooting product photography
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we may want to take a series of pictures
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at different Focus points to maximize
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depth of field now when we're doing that
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type of work focus stacking it's very
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important that we don't move the product
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or move the camera and the other
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advantage of shooting tethered is that
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you can control and Trigger the camera
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directly from your computer you also
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have full control over your aperture and
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uh settings on the camera directly from
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the computer so once your composition is
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set there is no need then to touch the
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camera and accidentally knock anything
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so shooting tethered is a key Advantage
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for shooting product photography tip
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number four knowing your white values
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now this might sound quite simple but a
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lot of product photography involves
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creating clean Pure White backgrounds so
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that you don't have to cut the product
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out this is especially important pack
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shop photography e-commerce photography
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because you want to get those
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backgrounds and surfaces of beautiful
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Pure White so that they can just drop
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those images straight onto the catalog
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page now a lot of people struggle with
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this and this is something again that we
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get a lot of questions about on our
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platform at visual education and the
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reason people struggle with this is that
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they set their lights on their
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background to create a bright white but
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what they don't realize they done is
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they've actually Overexposed the
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background and are now flooding the
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product with additional light from
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behind often causing flare or other
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lighting problems on the product now if
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we maximize our understanding of RGB
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values you will know that RGB values of
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255 in each Channel That's 255 in red
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green and blue means that you've
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achieved pure white but if you were one
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or two stops over that the value would
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still read 255 in each Channel and you
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wouldn't be aware of it so the way I
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work when trying to achieve Pure White
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backgrounds is actually to set the value
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at around 250 or 252 in each channel to
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begin with so we're slightly below Pure
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White on our background value because
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often what happens is as you add
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additional lighting to the product from
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the front of the product some of that
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light is cast and will fall on the back
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back rout slightly increasing those RGB
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values and eventually when you get to uh
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the stage where you're ready to take the
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final shot if your RGB values are coming
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in at around
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254 you then know you're not
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overexposing your background and you
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know that you're very very close to that
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final 255 value which you can easily
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tweak up to 255 in post or at the very
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last stage you just increase your
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background lights by a tenth of an F
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stop and then you've got Pure White but
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without affecting the product or causing
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flare now another tip to go with that is
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to not put your product too close to
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your white background leave enough space
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between your background and your product
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so that the Reflection from your white
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background doesn't adversely affect the
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product tip number five making liquids
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glow now many products that we need to
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photograph involve liquids for example
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this might be beverage photography it
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might be food photography it might be
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cosmetics and perfumes uh or bottles
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with
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transparency it's very difficult to
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figure out how to put a light through
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those products to get them to Glow
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because you really want to make that uh
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beverage or cosmetic look its absolute
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best and giving it a really nice glow
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through the product really enhances its
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desirability now one of the ways that we
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achieve this is by simply using gold
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cutout reflectors that allow us to
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bounce light off of our key light
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through the back of the product now we
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can do this two ways we can cut out a
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reflector that matches exactly the shape
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of the bottle from the camera
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perspective so that you don't actually
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see the reflector and then you end up
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with a beautiful gradient glow through
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the liquid itself another way of doing
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it which a lot of photographers do is
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just to use a larger Gold Card behind
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the product they don't worry about
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seeing the gold card they just hold it
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at the right angle behind the product to
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get the glow through it and then they
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mask that product out afterwards in the
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final stages of post- production by
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combining two shots one the main shot of
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the product and two the shot with the
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gold card and the glow through it and
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then they can arrive at a final image
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that has that beautiful desirable glow
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through the product so those are my five
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top tips for product photography if
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you'd like to see more or learn more
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then you can view many videos on our
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platform at visual education.com where
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you can see me Implement those ideas
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into various product shoots as well as
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many other top tips for your product
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photography I'm Kyle Taylor thanks for
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watching
