Transcripts
1. Introduction: This product photography class, I'll be walking
you through how to use artificial lighting, so your video lights
and natural light also to create these
four unique photos. We'll be focusing on candles
for our product photography, but this will equip you for just about any style of
product photography. You'll have a unique perspective through my lens as I
compose my images, hot tips on how to
choose your props and position your props and how to get the best out
of your lighting. So grab your camera and
let's jump right in.
2. Module 1. Prop guide and tips: Before we get into the nitty
gritty Oddie photography, let's have a quick
word about the props. Props are what you use in
your image to help you create a feeling to help
to relay a story. When pertaining to
candles, for example, that could be the ingredients that are inside the candles. So you want them to
imagine a smell. You might imagine how the
candles are being used. Is being used for a
spa day, for example. So you might
incorporate props like a marble or florals to
help tell that story. You might include
the ingredients that might have gone
into the candles. So, for example, cinnamon inside a mortar and pestle
just off to the side, or it could be a little
vile of cinnamon. Color plays a huge role in creating a feeling
for your image. So for us, we are going to go
for a light and airy vibe. So we're keeping
the colors really, really light into the
whites, the marbles. But I also want this earthy
tone to come through. So I'm going to
use earthy colors, maybe browns, very
dark, maybe blues. We will have the cinnamon also to help relay not
only the scent, but also that sense of earthiness because of
its color as well. You're referring to my
candle as the hero. So your hero in your image
is basically the item that you want to guide your
audience eyes towards. So it is the focus
in your image. Everybody has a
different opinion. For me, I believe
that less is more. When it comes to
product photography, if you're going to
be using this as a main photo on a
listing for your candle, then you don't want
to be too heavy in props because you want that candle to be the main focus. There's a few ways that your
props can distract size if your prop is much larger in
frame than your hero item. It's going to distract
from the main subject. Normally, you'll want your
hero to be at the front. I don't really like when your hero overlaps over
the front of something. So I'd like to keep a
little bit of space where you can see between
the two items. Sometimes when you cut into so you can see this hand
is covering this hand, yes, it gives you the
perspective of depth. So, you know, this is
forward because it's casting its image above the
image of the other item. But sometimes you can
lose the separation of your hero when it comes
and juxtaposes over the top. Considering the
placement of your props, just like mentioned, you want to make sure
that it's going to be either super duper forward
but maybe out of focus. That way, whatever
is out of focus, your eye doesn't
stay there too long. It tries to sort of dart into something that's in focus because
that's comfortable. When you look at
something blurry, it looks nice when you're
perceiving the entire image, but just to look at
something blurry in general, not
very comfortable. If you have your props in focus, but they are cropped off
the edge of your image, that really helps to give
an indication that that is not an important
item in the frame, helps to guide your eye to the nearest complete image
that hasn't been cropped out. Try to visualize the
lines that your props create depending on how you position them in
your composition. So what is leading in
towards the hear image? It could be the grain or the texture on a marbled
surface, for example, it could be the direction of a chopstick ing from outside the frame leading in towards the middle to your hero. So just take note
of all the shapes that your props are
creating in the image.
3. module 2. Minimalistic Set Up: For our first image,
I'm going to be using just my benchtop as a backdrop. I like it because
it's got nice marble. It's got some grain
in there that we can use for framing
and leaving lines. And it's something
that I have available. You could go to your
hardware store and buy just a single tile
with a marble pattern. I believe they also have cutting boards in marble
pattern as well. Lots of ways you can
find it, even, like, a printed cheap backdrop. This first design, it's going
to be super duper simple. So I'm just going to be using some coasters that
I bought off Kmart. What I'm going to do is place
one on top of the other, but in a bit of a staggered way, just to show a little a
little something dynamic. So 12 and three. Each one's going to have a different
sort of tone to it, so you can also decide whether you want a lighter or
a darker one on top, if there's a particular
grain pattern that you really like, you
can incorporate that. I quite like the
lightest one on top. And position it on the space. I can see all these
beautiful grain lines in the marbles where
that frame will be. So I've got some coming in
through here like this. Quite like that. This
kind of leads into that. This one leads into the center. We have some nice lines
converging to our hero. Because these are
stacked, it is elevated. So when we get to, like,
a nice, low angle, it's going to be nice
and tall in the frame, and it'll just have
that presence. I'm going to pop this
just in the middle. Make sure you find
the prettiest front. I actually kind of like
the way that sort of sits on that extended
bit, which is awesome. I'm going to go
for a hard light, so I'm not going to
have anything on my actual lighting
to soften it like a diffuser or a beauty dish or anything to make
it more intense. It's literally just
going to be bulb. It's gonna be so
bright. I'm going to turn that around and notice what it does to the
shadows of your product. So the angle and the proximity of your light
really, really matter here. So I love the look of back lit. So I'm going to pop this behind my my product in relation to also where
the camera will be, which would be here. So it'll be behind the product
and behind the camera. I will raise it a little
to shorten the shadow. If you want a really
dramatic shadow, then you would bring it very, very low, just like that. But notice how you
feel about it, what it does to the
shadow on the floor, but also what it does to
the shadow in the rim, how it affects the wax, um, the candle stamen is what I'll call it today because I can't
think of the word. I will a little come a little
bit closer. Beautiful. The closer you are, the more
light wraps around the item. So it just gives it a nicer
kind of almost airy feel, but it's very harshalize so
it's not gonna be too airy. Ooh, how's that framing up? I quite like that. I am going
to go from a top angle. While we're here, I'm going
to play with some props. So I want to see
what this could look like if we had something in the background
because it helps to create even more
shadow. I love that. If this is a framing,
I would like a little bit more
separation between the flower and the space here. So the actual candle doesn't
get lost in the flowers. You can see the marbled
bench behind it. You can kind of bring
that in a little bit more about there even. And depending on the
orientation, Oh, the flowers you can
kind of play with the leading lines and the
shadow there as well. You bring it in closer, help it to frame even more
along this area, too. But then peel it back so
you get some separation. So that's it for our hard light. We are going to do
the same thing again, but this time, we're going
to diffuse our light. So we're going to add octopox over the top with two
layers of diffusion, one internal, one external. And now you can see oh,
up this square it was. How that light quality changes. So now we have this
beautiful soft wrap around. The shadow is just about there, but you can see
that the very edges of the shadow have been
softened and feathered. Everything just looks so
much more dreamy, I think. This is great for when your light is very close
to your subject as Well, further away you go,
notice how the shadow sort of deepens or expands again. But it continues to remain feathered. That's
what I like about this. Angle it at a 45 degree angle
down towards my subject. I will lift it up a little. Again, when you lift it, it
will affect your shadow. So when it's lifted, the
shorter the shadow becomes. Again, making sure we
have some nice framing with the lines and the
green of the marble. And then to see the difference, we'll bring our little
prop back in and notice how the shadows
are barely existent. To create a nice soft feel. When I'm taking the photo, I am standing in front like so, with a 45 degree angle
down towards my subject. That's my preference.
I could sort of rock back a little to give
it a little bit more height. That will change
how this frames up, it'll suddenly cut into
the top of our rim here. So as you come down, you may just need to adjust
by pulling that back a touch. Having said that, I am limited to where I can angle
myself because there is no backdrop beyond this surface, and the light falls
off very drastically. So here there's plenty of
light towards the back there. There's a bit of a reflection of the green from the garden. It's all dark, so I
don't really want to go any lower to expose that in the frame to
show it in the camera, which is also why I keep that
45 degree angle up here. For the next photo, we are going to have a proper backdrop backing it up so we can be very creative with our angle in
terms of where we stand, how we angle ourselves,
and whatnot.
4. Module 3. Sheer Curtain Backdrop: For our next scene,
we are going to bring in a shear curtain backdrop. So you could eva have this glued to a door with
a little bit of tape. Oh. What I'm going to
do is take my C stand. So I've got a little
step C stand here that has material
draped on the arm. Hey, I'm just going to
pop this over the table. Like so. Or you could also
have a backdrop stand and have this draped
on the stand, as well. It's about as far
as I can come in. So what am I do is
just bunch it up to where the actual bench ends. Make sure that you have, like, a sandbag or something
if you're gonna use a C stand just to make sure
that it doesn't topple over. Now, because this is a
shear curtain backdrop, you're going to be able to
see through to the back. Quick trick to fix that
is to just add the same colored something
behind your she curtain. So I've got a white
shear curtain. I'm going to add a white
foam board behind it. And you can just clamp that on. On my little clamp there. I'm going to go ahead
and just grab that, clamp it to here instead. And then we just lower this um stand until it touches
the actual bench. And that way, you do not
see through to the back. We are going to just fizz this
up a little, make it nice. Fizz it up. You
know what I mean, gonna jazz it up a touch. We kind of want some
highlights and shadows. I want it to be really bunched up so that when
our light hits it, it creates, catches
the highlights and deepens the shadows in areas that's kind of
crept and whatnot. To keep that nice
light airy vibe, color is very important, so we're just going to keep
using nice pale colors. Gonna pop this in the center. So depending how the
light's going to hit, in fact, we're
going to start with hard light and might even
start turning that on, and that way we can
see in real time how it's affecting the
highlights and shadows. Lights are on, I'm going to continue sort of
rouge it up a little. Use these lines if you can. So maybe you'll angle it like, so to lead the eye
into the frame. I've got another
line happening here. Then these sort of frame, the actual product I
want to place it on. For this one, I might
even add two candles. I might even have one
of the candles on its side. Just use a lid. That's all we can do. Notice the shadows as well. If you like how that
plays. Awesome. This is sort of
leading to the candle, so that wick kind of moves in. It's the brightest
item in the space. So this is what's
going to be the hero. Your eye is gonna be
naturally attracted to that because of the brightness. Bring this one back in. Now because we have
something at the back, we can afford to get really, really low with this angle. I am going to bump up. So I'm still at F eight, just to make sure that a
lot of things are in focus and get a nice
sharp, sharp image. 200 is my shutter. I'm going to bring my IO to 400. And by getting nice and low, see how we can kind of
use these as frames now. So I'm going to go ahead and focus on where
I want to focus. I'm going to take my first
photo. Always review. I think I was a
little bit too low, so you can't really see much of the actual candle
on the inside, so we lose that brightest
part of the frame that I was talking about to really help guide the
eye where we want it. Keeping it on the cross this
time of my ruler thirds, that bottom intersection gonna
get a little bit closer. I'm sort of aiming for
the wick to be in focus. Might peel back just a touch. I'm using my 50 millimeter
lens here for this. Come, just see what looks good. I like the use of
the shadows here, so I might bring this
in a little bit, yes. I like it on the plate. The shadows on the
plate, but I don't want to really see the
end of that flower. So I'm gonna bump
that out of frame. And again, I don't
want the shadow to intersect with that rim. So I might even move
myself a little. Westm back button here. But I still want the frame
of this to be visible. So it's like a frame within a frame that we're
sort of using it for. Go to come in maybe a little bit tighter, a
little bit closer. Make sure that area of the candle is in focus here
might peel back a touch. Go for a top down
angle 'cause we can. And I love how that just continues to focus
where I want it to. Gonna peel back a little. Again, using the actual
material as a frame again. Alright, so this
angle of light is definitely much softer now that we've added our
diffusion again, it's coming in from
the side completely. So rather than being a
complete 45 degree angle, we're more of about maybe a 25, but forward instead of behind. So now we've created
very, very soft shadows. We might even turn this touch towards a
candles a little bit more. And you can see how soft and feathered these shadows become. But we might even add
just a few more lements towards the front. We have a little
more foreground. So we were using this area here, the bends and the folds. We're using that as foreground. W, it's too deep of a color. Maybe even just a soft mm. We'll lead that in
towards a frame. We'll make these a
little bit taller. Oh, actually, we'll raise up. And so we have something
that's going to be out of focus at the front and then
leading into that candle. Notice how this is framing. This is framing, that's created a line here, that's
created a line there. Everything things either framing or leading to the center candle. And so, to make sure that
this here is out of focus, we have to come in
really, really close. So whatever's closest in
proximity to the frame at the foreground will be
thrown out of focus. But again, you will need to work with your
aperture for this. So we're going to bring
this to about F four, might not sound like
it's very wide. But we still want to
make sure that we're maintaining a sharpness
on our candle. So I don't really
want to venture any less than F four for this. Might even lower my um,
angle here at touch. This is probably top down
where we can really get a little more exaggerated
with the texture. This is such an
elegant ethereal vibe. I love it so much, but next we will, um, go to something a little
bit more classic, probably something that everyone can create with just some paper.
5. Module 4. Paper Roll Backdrop: This is a white paper roll
that I got from Officeworks, which is just our local
office supply store. They should all have something like this available for you. I'm gonna just roll this out, and then we can tape it down so it stays in
place on the bench. So go ahead and
I'll roll this out. We want a little bit of a curve happening at the back
there so we don't get any harsh lines or
any harsh shadows. I'm gonna start at
the corner here. Tie down that corner on this this is where I really want to start
playing with our props, and I might add in heaps
of them, we shall see. My process is not very planned. I kind of pop things in, see how they interact
with each other. I have my lighting on already, so I can kind of gauge
for how it's going to um, how it's gonna be
affected by the lighting? I have this side on completely, and I might even
lift it to get a little bit more of
an angle downwards. Awesome. Is that 45 degrees
down towards our scene. And since we have two candles, we can kind of play
with that here again. So the first candle could
go here, for example, but behind our hero, which will be this one here. So the height will help
to draw your eye and also gives you the sense of importance to the
what's in the frame, whatever is lower and
whatever you can sort of see super Chuck's position. I think that's what it's called. When this line cuts into this, so you know it's
behind something. That also helps to give you a perspective of
what's important. Gonna really play
with these colors. We have that dark color
coming in from the wood. We can kind of offset that. Oh, that is stunning. So that's coming onto
our plate over here, again, that line
cutting into this one. And because we have the backdrop all the way to the back, we
can play with our angle. We can come really, really low. We're keeping the
colors just to this. You know what I mean? We
don't want to introduce too much color because then
it just becomes way too busy. I sort of want this
framing as well. So we're kind of using this my in colors to
create a frame there. And just to add a little
bit more earthiness. So what I'm getting from this
scene is earth, you know, the deep navy
colors, the florals, the wood grain,
the fact that this isn't super duper white.
We've got the marble. What else gives us
an impression of Earth to tell the story? Rock. Frocks are very earthy.
Oh, that's nice. We are just going to
scatter them around. However, be mindful of the
lines you're creating. So we can kind of guide the
eye around to the front here. So I'm imagining that the
candle is gonna smell earthy. Maybe we have sense of
sandalwood in there, or what else is
really grounding? I feel like cinnamon is warming. Cinnamon could be kind
of earthy there, too. Taking notes of how the
colors play together, how well it tells the story. If there's anything that's distracting from the main hero, so we got to watch out
for that, as well. But we are creating
a strong hero by making sure
he's nice and tall and making sure that
everything's sort of framing into him or
leading towards. Adding a little bit
more to the earthiness with some twine
at the back here. And that kind of adds a bit of texture to our frame, as well. These are little empty bottles. But what I can do is add
some cinnamon in there. Okay. So notice how one
is full almost full. One is a quarter
of the way four. They don't need to be flat,
and you can kind of move the powder to be on a
little bit of a diagonal, so it's not completely perfect. Kind of tells a story
that it's been used, rather than it's just been
sitting around for a while. And these are very tiny bottles. So they're not
going to take away from the main story here, but they will add some sort of balance in there the color. Notice the color scheme is very similar to what we've got
going with the wood here. It all fits in really
nicely, I think. Alright, with that
wick in focus, I'm just going to go frontal 45, it might even shuffle over. So we have a little bit more
of all the props in view. I'll come up for a
kind top down angle. And again, because we have
that cool backdrop extended, we can now pretty
much come level, nice and low here
with our candle. Important to always,
always review your image after you take it to see how you
can improve. Okay. Every time you
move, this lighting will change on the scene
because now over here, because there's a
bit more back lit, there's more shadows
and so forth. So be mindful as you're
moving around your scene, how the light is changing. Might bring that forward
a touch. Wonderful. And by cropping things
out, it helps to, again, lead the eye to what
is hole in the frame, so you hero subject. And don't be afraid to move
things around as you need. I actually think
the best photo for this particular scene is
going to be a top down view. Before we end this, we
are going to create a hard light effect
on the same scene. So notice when we do this, it creates so much more
depth than the shadows. So now, see how these two
shadows are touching. I want those to be separate.
So just move this a little. We have this really
cool shadow of the leaf coming in to that
space. I love it. We've got the shadows
leading in this way. Even the shadows from the
rocks you can kind of play with. That's quite nice. Maybe move this guy
out just a touch. And then just rejig these rocks. Then again, whenever
you move the light, we'll shift that shadow. I think those are a little
bit too long, I think, where it was was perfect. Alright. It's gonna
change my exposure, 'cause it's so much
more brighter. We're not every time
you add diffusion, you are cutting down the amount
of light coming through. So we do have to
change our settings on our camera to
compensate for that. Alright. Getting nice and light. Although I do think I still prefer the top
down angle for this. Have a habit of always
sticking to vertical. Even try some horizontal. See how that plays. And again, we're
just cropping out that back candle to bring even more emphasis
on the front candle. Lovely. And then we'll
get nice and low. To the foreground. Still want that cinnamon to
be poking through. And then just to
see the difference if this was side lit instead. So how does that affect our shadows or the overall
vibe of our image? Changes how the shadows play. So we are going to take the taller items and
kind of shift them. And we'll have a bit of a
play with that as well.
6. Module 5. Natural Light Photography: Next example is
with natural light. So I've got my little candle all set up here
with some greenery. We have lots of color
in the backdrop, this is going to be like
super nice and saturated. Just go to shift this to
kind of lead down, as well. And we can go to play with
this in terms of, like, a top down angle, which
could look really cool. I have my light set so that
it's coming in sideways. If I wanted to, I could
bring this forward a touch. And really help add even more
light sort of wrap around. It's also going to add more
light into this space. Notice how as I move it back, I cast this into more
of a shadow into darkness and brightens only this section
here at the front. Well, this is catching as well, but it's more obvious frontal. And just to give you
some perspective of how large this window is, so nice big, bright windows will give you
super soft light. The smaller your window, the smaller your light source, the harder light will be IE, the deeper the shadows
sort of become the less light wraps around so you get a little
bit more contrasty. I decided to switch
to my 70 to 180. Instead. And this is
just going to give me a little more separation
with the background. Gonna put my little focus, and then just control
that focus with the back. So what am I sort
of aiming for here? I kind of want some foreground, which is going to be
these top leaves up here. I'm aiming for my candle to be in that lower
third of the frame. But I also want a shot where those lights are
kind of like boca. So there's round orbs. I'm gonna shift that
a little bit further back to get a little bit
more separation again. And so we're kind of
using this greenery here as the foreground, as well. I can kind of notice
those hello. Those poles. Is that still
recording beautiful? These kind of poles back here, I can kind of use
them as a frame. It's kind of those lead
down towards a candle, you make a little bit more
space in the foreground. I kind of want the
wick to be in focus, not the rim of the candle. And that is using natural light. A quick note on reflectors. These are panels that are
usually white or silver, and what they basically do is just bounce light
back into the scene. So if you can see
the shadows that are all in this space here, once I add this to the sight, the light bounces here
and fills in this shadow. I think it looks a
little bit too flat, especially when the light is so soft already and
it wraps around. I didn't really
feel a need to use. One area where it might
be even more noticeable, though, is when you
have the hard light. Notice the quality of the shadows super contrast,
they're super dark. I'll go ahead and
I will introduce Notice how it lightens
up the shadows, fills in the front. Oh. Oh dear. Fills in the front over
here of the candle. Especially when you're
doing back lighting, it creates even more contrast, backlighting because it doesn't quite wrap the light around since it's
coming from the back. This fills in the
front area for you. But again, I actually
prefer it to be dark. I love the deep shadows it
creates the contrasty vibe. This is natural light
on a different side of the house where it's
a lot more harsh. So we're going to
still be able to get those beautiful shadows
like we had before. I'm going to quickly
set up my scene. So you can see the sun's
coming in nice and strong now. We're getting those
gorgeous shadows casting. I'm going to create a
little bit of a scene here. My shadow is gonna be a
little bit in the way. We might need to do
some editing for the creases in the
paper, as well. Okay, the downside
to this is obvious. Your sun the quality of light
will continue to change. So you'll have these
beautiful shadows, then you'll set yourself up, and suddenly the
shadows are gone, and it's super duper soft. Or the sun will suddenly come through really,
really strong. And so you'll have to
change your settings and your camera again if
you're not shooting auto. Diffusing the light
could also be a downside if you
don't have a curtain. However you can use, like, a um, like a sheet, for example, I do have this handy dandy. Uh, what do you call it? It's like a privacy shade. So as this comes
down, you can see how the quality of the
light suddenly shifted. We are still getting those
nice, harsh shadows, but they are softened
out a little, so it's just a touch of
diffusion here has been added. I gonna play around with my
scene just a little more. The light will
continue to change. Just got to roll with
the punches here. The object closer to the camera. And this is a bit
of a wide lent. So bit of a um Oh. So you can kind of
play with some of these as well. I
mean, I love it. Most of the time, you'll
find everything you need in the space you have, so maybe some decorations
you have on a table. You can just go ahead
and use those as props. Whatever you can find
at home, usually, you'd be surprised of what you actually have in your
arsenal already. Let's bring back just a
little bit of contrast. And now we can see those
ride in my bush here. These shadow. Oh, yes. So nice. Can I play with that so
much. I am happy with that. So that is a way that you
can use natural light, but in harsher conditions. Albeit the day has
to call for it. It has to be forecast to
have a nice sunny day. But it can be done. I think that's the point
I like to get across. You don't need any fancy gear. Nice window that faces either
the sunset or a sunrise.
7. Conclusion- You're Ready to Photograph!: And that concludes our Candle
product photography class. Thank you, guys. So much for choosing
this course. Is handy and that you are able to apply all of the
theory learned here today. And if you put any
of this information to practice in your own
product photography, do send some photos. We would love to see them. Thanks, gain for
being here with me. I'll catch you again
in our next class.
Rossana Aloi
