In the recent review of the Cactus V2 wireless flash trigger we had some pretty nice product shots we used. We always take our own product shots, while manufacturer shots are usually very nice, they often can be retouched to make products look better than they really are. With the product shots for our articles, the only retouching may be to remove some stray dust. Whenever we use a different technique, we will try to post a dissection of the shoot to show you how it was done.

Let’s take a close look at the photo by using a larger image of it.

Take a close look at the angle of the shadows, you will detect a light left-to-right shadow and a darker right-to-leftshadow. The background is a soft gray color.

To take the shot, some gray seamless paper was setup on a small table and curved back and up onto the wall behind it. A Lowel Omni light 800w with a shoot-thru umbrella was setup to the left as a key light. The flash on the camera was turned to the right at a 90 degree angle and reflected off a sheet of white foam core.

This simple two light setup can be very effective for a very quick a simple setup. With only a little practice, a simple piece of foam core can be a very effective reflector. Note that in the photo, the light from the flash, even bounced off the foam core is a brighter light than the 800w bulb from the Omni light. To balance it out, all you need to do is move the foam core board further away.

You don’t always need a huge studio lighting setup in order to get really good images, with a little imagination and understanding of how you can effectivly reflect light you can really do wonders with very little lighting equipment.

Happy Shooting

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Related posts:

1. Anatomy of a product shoot #2
2. Anatomy of a Photo Shoot – Product Shot with Strobes
3. Taking Good Product Shots
4. Setting up a basic portrait shot
5. Video: Walking through a typical product shoot