The light was making lovely sharp shadows in the studio the other day. The timing seemed right to grab my camera and start practicing with shadows!
Big Distant Light = Sharp Shadows
One of the things that I’ve been learning in my studies on photography and lighting is that the size and distance of your light source has a profound impact on the shadows in your image.
The further away your light source is from your subject, and the smaller it is, the stronger the shadows will be. In this case, my light source was the sun. While the sun itself is massive, from the perspective of my little white wax jar, it’s quite small.
It’s also lightyears away, so there’s that too…
Editing Shadowy Photos
Once I snapped an assortment of images, I loaded them up into Lightroom and began the tricky task of editing shadowy pictures.
I found it difficult not to blow out the whites or take the darks too far. That’s probably due to the fact that I let in a lot of light for these images. Maybe I’ll try it again and build a little “shadow tent” to limit the amount of sunlight that hits my subject.
The marble surface pictured above is actually the top of a little vanity I snagged during an antique shop visit a few days ago. I love how worn it is!
Practice Makes Product
In an episode of The Creative Exponent’s Podcast, Jeanne Oliver was interviewed by Marian and Shaunna. She mentioned a quote that I absolutely loved:
I haven’t quite figured out the whole shadowy photo thing yet, but these images are my practice pictures. How else am I going to figure it out unless I try?
Takeaways From My Dark And Shadowy Shoot
Here are a few key takeaways from my dark and shadowy shoot:
- Turn the label of your product towards the light so most of it is illuminated.
- Use flags to help control hotspots and blown out highlights.
- Hang up a diffuser on the window like a scrim or white bed sheet.
- Wipe off wax from the label of your jar before you take pictures of it 😀
- Make a little “shadow tent” to help control where the light hits your product
Product Photo Images 3 – 13 of 100
This little photo session took me into double digits of my 100 Product Photo Challenge.
I’m sure there will be more dark and shadowy products to come!
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