If there’s one thing that can make a difference in improving the final perceived value of a video, TV commercial, photograph, or movie - it’s lighting. Certainly, there are a lot of other very important technical aspects of a project that affect the finished product - like music, camera angle, script, etc. However, lighting is essential. Without it, all you get is a black image. And yet, it always seems like lighting is the most misunderstood and undervalued component of an endeavor - often being one of the first items cut from a budget. This is a grave mistake and I’ll explain why.
Lighting is a very important aspect of communication that influences the subconscious perception of what you’re showing. Why do blockbuster movies have that film ‘look?’ Yes, the fact that it was shot on film is a factor. But if you pulled one frame from the movie and examined only that, you would probably still know that it was from a movie. Similarly, if you flip channels on a TV and come across a soap opera, you can almost immediately tell it’s a soap opera. Why? Lighting!
I believe that lighting is a true art. It visually controls the mood of a setting. If you’ve ever attended an event where the room’s cold, bright, fluorescent lights were turned on immediately after the event concluded, you know how much of a difference lighting can have on the appearance of a situation. There is almost a physical shock to your system when those lights get turned on!
This same concept is applicable to video. How each scene is lit affects what people think about the images that they see. For example, look at the following four photos and consider what the lighting is trying to convey – or what you think the scene is about.
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As you can see, the position of the light as it hits the subject and the color that it projects can have a dramatic impact. Did you notice that the first and last photos were taken from the same location and camera position?
Now, to bring it closer to home, here are a few more examples of environments that we have lit. The next time you find yourself in a doctor’s office, hospital, classroom, or even in your own living room, take a moment to compare the difference between “what it is” and “what it can be.”
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It is surprising how much difference taking control of the lighting can have on an everyday situation. Even something as simple as an on-screen interview or ‘talking head’ will look significantly better with a few well-placed production lights. The following three scenes were shot in a church Sunday School room, a small exam room, and a school district’s board room respectively. Lighting turns the ordinary into extraordinary.
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As a company that understands the importance of lighting, we have a significant investment in lighting equipment and have the expertise to use it. This is our commitment to the value of lighting.
If you want your product, your office, your staff, or whatever you’re showing off to look as good as it can, you must invest in the value of lighting. Yes, it will add to the time required to set-up and shoot the scene. AND, you will receive an immediate return on that investment by having locations, products, and people that ‘look’ better than the competition.
Ever wonder what it takes to get that perfect product shot? It's not terribly difficult, but having the right equipment and controling the photo environment can make a big difference.
The most important part is to start by placing large light sources set uniformly around the product. In this case, all of the lights are using matched tungsten (approx. 3,200*K) bulbs. After that, you need to be able to control or prevent any other light from sneaking into the shot. Uncontrolled spill light can cause strange color variations (typically a blue or orange coloration), uneven exposure, and errant reflections that ruin an otherwise good picture.
Here's a few photos to help illustrate how these are done (and prove that you can do them outside a typical studio). There's a clear shot glass, a metal vase, and a matte, terra cotta figurine. I've also included a wider photo to show the set-up. These were all taken in my living room with stuff randomly pulled from what I have here.
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| Clear glass products will show reflections from all around it and make them visible to you - in places you didn't expect. Extreme control of the environment is required. The quality and consistency of the glass' manufacture will also affect how the shadows and highlights appear. It's not uncommon in a professional environment to have to try multiple versions of the product before you find one that looks 'right'. | This metallic vase has a semi-gloss surface. The reflective exterior, combined with the high contrast etching in the metal can be very tricky to photograph. Items with a high-gloss / mirror-like surface, especially round-shaped ones, are extremely difficult to photograph. This is because everything around the object will be reflected on the surface of it - including the photographer. | Matte objects are probably the easiest to photograph. Their surfaces do not readilly reflect the lighting sources used around them nor any other elements beyond the camera's frame. Application of back / side lighting is relatively easy without all the difficult reflections. This allows you to either spend more time on your creative approach to photographing the item or just get done quicker. |
How was I able to take these photos without a studio?
I set up the gear and then waited until after dark. This prevented any extraneous daylight from coming through the windows and affecting the color rendering of the shot. A sheet of white foam core serves as the backdrop and another small piece is used under the shot glass on the product platform. The background piece of foam core is suspended on a crossbar about two feet behind the product platform. A large black cloth was then hung behind the background foam core and wrapped forward to kind-of seal in the side areas between the product platform and the background. This prevents reflections of household furniture and - the real purpose - provides the wonderful dark spaces you see in the shot glass up and down along its sides. Three large soft box lights were placed on the left, right, and above the product platform to illuminate the photographed item(s). And finally, two additional lights with a frost diffusion were placed under the product platform pointing at the background to illuminate it and create an 'infinity white' appearance at the bottom with a slightly darker top. It can be difficult to get a perfect match with the amount of brightness you have on the two white foam core boards. If you can get it at least visually close, you can easily touch it up in Photoshop.
To take the image, I used my old Canon EOS 60D and a stock, Canon EF-S 18-135mm IS lens. I set the camera to its Manual mode. This is important as the automatic metering functions in other modes will adjust exposure based on what is in the shot as you take it and we need the white background to always be the same - and perfectly at the point of overexposure.
For these shots, my camera settings were: ISO400, f/11, 1/125 sec, Manual WB@3,000*K
The resulting photos were taken in RAW format to allow for some minor tweaking. They were then cropped down in Photoshop to what you see here. The unedited pictures were probably good enough to use as-is. In all, this post-processing work took no more than five to ten minutes per image. I think the results speak for themselves.
Sure... you could purchase one of those white photo boxes off eBay, but it wouldn't provide the separation shadows that this configuration does. Nor will it give you the versatility to adjust for different items and their unique, reflective surfaces.
Photography is fun… You can do this!