Product photography is bigger now than ever before. Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, are all allowing individuals as well as companies to market online.
This is good news for photographers. It’s good news because the better the image looks online, the more likely someone is to look at it and maybe buy it. Using the best lights for product photography will let you be the one taking those pictures.
Lots of people are trying to take the photos of their products themselves. Which is good. However, they’re finding that it isn’t as easy as they may have thought to get good enough images. If that’s you, keep reading.
Maybe you’re a local photographer advertising to get the small jobs of shooting other people’s products. You should keep reading, too.
5 Tips on how to take amazing product photography images
You’ve seen the pictures. And then you wondered to yourself how could they let a shot that bad be the public face of their product. Your pictures will turn out better. Because you’re a good photographer who is constantly improving in skill, art, and craft. Here are some tips for great images:
1. Keep it clean. A dirty camera sensor can ruin any shot. Sometimes, it’s bad enough that even post processing won’t adequately fix it. Clean it yourself or have it done by a local camera shop. Watch out for blemishes on the product and the back drop or tabletop, too. Recheck after each product, just to make sure. Chimping, or reviewing your photos in camera, works well in this case.
2. Shoot in RAW. There is so much more exposure information in a RAW file as opposed to JPEG. Using this info in a good image processor, such as Adobe Lightroom or ACDSee, will let you adjust highlights, shadows, even individual colors, to produce the best rendition of the product.
3. Control the light. For many small products, a diffused multi light set up is the preferred choice. It can be done with softboxes, umbrellas, or a portable photo studio box. When photographing shiny metal objects, diffusers help keep specular reflections down.
If you need to see a lot of detail, adding a catchlight is a good practice.For many sellers doing their own photography, continuous lighting is probably a better choice than strobes. It’s easy to preview and you can even leave your camera or smartphone on automatic and get a great image.
4. Use a longer lens. Just as in portraiture, a lens that is near normal or slightly telephoto will give a pleasing perspective without much distortion. Some products may require a wide angle lens, but try to limit that wide look that you get when using wide angle lenses up close to the subject.
Often times, the normal lens for whatever format you’re using is the right choice. If it focuses close, that’s a huge plus for many subjects. So, a normal focal length or slight telephoto macro lens might deserve a look.
5. Use a tripod. For the sharpest images, and for keeping a simplified and repeatable workflow, a tripod is one of the best tools for product photography. If you’re shooting multiple products, or multiple views of the product, a tripod keeps the camera in the right position for your lighting configuration. It also provides consistency among your different shots.
How I found the best lights for product photography
- If you are taking product pictures for someone else, you will often find yourself travelling to the client. If you are taking the photos for yourself, portability also means easy to store out of the way until needed.
- Easy to set up. You don’t want most of your time on the photoshoot to be spent setting up the lights, you want to spend time imaging.
- Big items, small items, in between sizes. Also, we may want to take photos of other things besides products.
- Good quality. Goes without saying, if it isn’t good, it won’t last. High quality can also relate to how well it does the job it’s designed for.
- Reasonable price. A subjective requirement, to be sure. No need to waste money, but we should be willing to pay what’s necessary for a quality tool.
Top 5 Best Lights for Product Photography!
1. AmazonBasics Portable Photo Studio Review
More than a simple light tent, this is a complete lighting studio for small objects.
A light tent isn’t a new idea. Photographers have been rigging up lighting and background solutions to meet their needs for a long time.
A translucent cloth, fitted over a frame, with a couple of softboxes shining through the tent, and you have a good set up for reflectionless , all around light for small product photography.
What’s different about this portable studio is that it has everything you need already done. Instead of shining light in from outside, the lights are built-in to the inside of the box.
The interior is all white. So it acts as the background and as light reflectors. A couple of holes allow the camera lens to poke inside, either from the side or from on top.
It is a lot larger than most of the premade light boxes currently on the market. It measures 25 x 30 x 25 inches and collapses to about the size of a photographic portfolio. So, in addition to being easy to transport to a jobsite, it can be stored away in an out of the way place.
The two built-in light strips are a string of LED bulbs, one mounted horizontally up top above the camera lens holes, and one vertically on the side of the fabric that has the holes. This makes an L shape, the rest of the white fabric on the other sides acts as reflectors for fill. The lights are daylight balanced and AC powered.
Besides the holes for the camera, you can also remove the fabric completely on that side for extra versatility in camera placement or to add more light. The white background can be replaced by other fabric for even more configurations.
Shooting through the top allows you to photographic flat art in controlled circumstances. A tripod with a horizontal center column can make that particular job go even easier.
For anyone taking pictures of their own small products, or for photographers offering an on the site service for sellers, this solution is absolutely one for the best lights for product photography of objects from small to medium sizes.
2. Fovitec StudioPRO – 2x Product Photography Fluorescent Lamp Lighting Review
A pair of daylight balanced continuous light lamps with short stands is part of a solution that you could adapt to many situations. For tabletop small product photography, you can use these lights alone or with any number of light tents or cubes available.
Each lamp comes with a daylight balanced CFL bulb and an AC power cord. Used singly or together, the short stands let you place the lights anywhere on the table for best results. You can also use these lamps to shine into a shooting tent or cube.
Another use for these could be pet portraits, or newborn photography. Basically, any idea for regular lighting could be adapted for using these lights and their short stands.
Something else that could be done with these lamps is creating a how-to video tutorial of various subjects. Since these are continuous lights, they are useable for video and motion picture.
And since they are small enough to place on a table or desk top, you can get right up to the action of whatever subject matter you’re describing.
3. Neewer 700W Professional Photography Softbox Kit Review
Here is a very versatile and usable lighting set. It centers around the Neewer continuous light 24 inch square softbox. This kit has two softboxes and two tall stands, plus a carrying case to haul it around in.
One of the hardest things about carrying around a softbox to an on site location is putting together and taking down the softbox. After a while, you get used to it, but it remains somewhat difficult even then.
The problem is bending and attaching those wire frame pieces to the base and the fabric. At the best, it’s fiddly and can be time consuming.
Neewer’s solution is to make them open and close like a photo umbrella. That is so much easier and quicker. The only problem, if it actually is a problem, is that you can’t mount this softbox to any other light. It’s built into the socket and mount. For its intended use, though, it’s just about perfect.
These softboxes can used with a light tent or by themselves. Suitable for small, medium, and large objects, you could photograph a watch, a microwave oven, or a car. Simply set them where you need them and turn them on.
Since they are continuous light, you can see exactly the affect of your light placement. Plus, they are usable for video recording.
Besides being some of the best lights for product photography, you could use these for portraits, real estate, or for interview podcasts.
4. Neewer 2 Packs Professional Metal Bi-Color Dimmable Lights Review
These are some of the best lights for video or motion pictures, but they can also do the job for product photography very well.
A lot of light is emitted by the 660 LED bulbs, with a color rendering index (CRI) of 96. That means that the light will render the colors of the subject to film or digital very naturally.
Color temperature and power levels are adjustable with knobs on the back of the unit, an LED readout shows you what is happening. This gives you the ability to blend these lights in with whatever ambient is there, whether sunlight or office lights.
Barn doors let you control exactly where the light falls. A u-shaped mounting bracket allows for the 9 ½ by 8 inch light to be placed in virtually any position required.
AC powered, you can also power these with Sony camcorder style batteries for the ultimate in portability. Each lamp takes two batteries. As a trade off, you pretty much double the price and weight by adding the batteries.
5. Neewer 2.6M x 3M/8.5ft x 10ft Softbox Umbrella Kit Review
A complete photo studio in portable bags, this kit has two umbrella lights, two softbox lights, 7 foot high adjustable stands for each, and a background system.
A pair of 24 inch softboxes and stands for them is one part of the kit. These are the same Neewer softboxes as in the kit above that fold up like umbrellas for easy set up and tear down. Continuous light daylight balanced bulbs are included.
Also included are two light sockets for CFL continuous light daylight bulbs with mounting holes for the two included 33 inch white photo umbrellas.
Used in conjunction with the two softboxes, you have the ability to throw a huge amount of light on a subject. The light quality will be very easy to work with, too, since the softboxes and umbrellas diffuse the light very well.
The background system is 8 by 10 feet, and three different 6 by 9 foot muslin backdrops are included. White and black are two of the color backdrops, a green backdrop is also included for chroma key effects.
All the lights are AC powered, and a everything fits into a couple of soft sided bag carrying cases.
One of the best kits available for any type of photography, these definitely qualify as some of the best lights for product photography.