eBay: It's Photography That Sells
- by Peter Lerman (copyright 2010)
Lighting specifics... (continued)
Remember our basic lighting setup as it looked from above? Of course you can flip this set-up left to right as it may suit you. It does not matter at all.
This is it, and by now you should understand what it is and why it works. The main or "key" light will be coming from your right in the form of a big, soft light source. The light source is bigger than the object itself so the shadows it casts are very, very soft.
The side away from the light may have shadows that are flattering or shadows that "work" aestheticaly (like the porcelain figure). Or, the subject may have shadows you feel are too dark, that conceal detail you want to include.
Here's the shot of that nice Nikon digital camera that we looked at before:
The key light, from the right side, is exactly the same in both shots. But we lose detail in the shadow between the closer side of the lens barrel and the handgrip. By placing a big white fill card (or mirror) off to my left I can reflect some light into this shadow and define the shapes in those shadows. If we used a second light instead of a fill card it would tend to create a second set of shadows rather than merely fill in the first ones.
For bringing out texture in a surface I like to put the fill card behind the subject, that is, farther away from the camera than the subject is and off to the side, out of frame. This way it reflects like back towards the camera that skims along the surface creating highlights that show the surface texture. For this I prefer a mirror to a white card.
Be careful not to include your fill cards or mirrors in your shots (I have done that about a hundred times). Also be careful to not bounce light directly back into the lens of the camera you are shooting with. FLARE!!!!
Certainly, much more can be done with lighting to show off the products you are looking to sell. The lighting set up I am demonstrating here is designed for professional looks, good detail and quick work. If I were doing national ads and shooting one or two a day the lighting design might be much more complex. However, this simple lighting set up allows me to get excellent results and shoot ten or twenty shots an hour. It's production work, not art.
The jewelry shots on the preceding pages are complicated lighting set ups because of the difficulty lighting shiny surfaces and tranlucent materials. You are going to have to figure that out yourself but knowing what you know now you are a great deal closer to being able to.
Now, if you have the courage, we can take a look at some lighting variations.
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