Must-know lighting techniques for flawless product photography

There are so many types of lighting techniques in product photography, and they each create different visual effects. When you're deciding what type of lighting to use it can often be overwhelming to know how many lights to use and where to place them.

To show you what's possible we are demonstrating what you can achieve with just a single flash light.

Side lighting

Side lighting is light that falls on a subject at roughly 90° to the camera. Side lighting creates the strongest sense that a subject has three dimensions.

Overhead lighting

Overhead lighting creates a soft and dramatic image by simply placing the soft box right above the product.

Bare flash

To create harsh and long shadows, simply point a bare flash directly at the product and props. Adjust the height of the flash to control the length of the shadow.

Backlighting

Placing the light directly behind the subject facing the camera illuminating it from the back helps separate the subject from background.

Blocked lighting

Create a mysterious beam of light by blocking the light source with black cards. Adjust the angle of the beam by adjusting the position of black cards.