TECHNIQUE: Creative off-camera lighting for product shots.

Off camera lighting is all the rage, and now you too can join the Strobist revolution with our easy to follow tutorial:

What you’ll need:
1. Standalone flash head (speedlite or similar).
2. Off camera flash cord or wireless transmitter/receiver set.
3. A product to shoot.
4. Somewhere to shoot the product.
5. An idea of the image you’d like to make.

Step 1:
Choose your product. I like shooting gadgets and for this I chose a black iPod nano.

Step 2:
Decide how you want to light it. Spend some time looking over what you’ve chosen and try and think about features you want to accentuate. As the iPod is black, I thought that it would be cool if it was shot on a black background. I also decided to light from one side (the left) so that the light fell off totally on the right hand side in the hope that

Step 3:
The set up. In my image I used PocketWizard wireless transceivers (you can just as easily get the same results with a simple off camera flash cord) and set my flash on the left hand side facing away from the subject into a home made white card reflector. The product sat on a piece of perspex (for reflection) and I used a seamless black card background / floor with black card on the right hand side to make sure there was no light reflected back into the right hand side of the product.

Step 4:
Adapt your setup. Take a test shot and figure out what you needed to change. In my case, I ended up moving the reflector further away and angling it so the light hit the product just right and adjusted the flash power and angle. I also added a card gobo* to stop any spill into the black foreground of my image. Remember lighting is all about trial and error and what you learn today will likely come in handy somewhere down the line.

*Terminology: Gobo: the word is derived from the phrase “go between” and describes something that is used to direct light to the desired location.



Step 5:
Marvel at the results.

Finally don’t be afraid to use your post-processing skills to make things just as you want them- it’s likely that not every tiny detail can be perfect, but try to get it as close as you can. In my image I removed a specular highlight from a chrome button on the top of the iPod and increase the contrast slightly.



That's it- a simple one flash off camera set up, the result of which was, well.. a result!

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Further reading: www.strobist.blogspot.com