Mood Lighting for Product Shots

Product photography is no easy task, much more when it's stylized product photography. But I've always enjoyed these kind of shoots because your subject will never complain no matter what you do with it.

Ok that was lame.

The truth is I like stylized product photography because it gives me the opportunity to explore and learn new and different lighting styles. The people I work with are very talented individuals, interior designers, stylists, and I've always looked at them as a good source of new knowledge and skill. Their artistry and creativity inspires me to continually push myself to learn new things and hopefully bring myself to another level. "The only way to get better is to surround yourself with people better than you", the masters of this craft say.

So for this shoot, our team wanted some mood and drama. "Texture and contrast is the key" that's what they told me.

I lit this using 5 studio lights. 2 on each side and 1 overhead on a boom. The first light I set up was the overhead light. It had a grid attached to it and pointed at the couch. I had it just high enough to get the hotspot on the couch and have light spills and fall off throughout the frame. Once I was happy with it, I over exposed for the hotspot just a bit so that this will be the highest point in my contrast. Oh by the way, my shutter was set at the highest sync speed. I wasn't letting any available light in. Next light to come was for the plant and the side table with the basket lamp on it. I didn't have a softbox big enough for the desired softness I wanted so I just bounced the light onto the white wall at camera left just outside the frame. To prevent light spill beyond the side table, I used a black cardboard as gobo. Next I lit the round stool with a small softbox then placed it real close to the stool just outside of the frame. On the other side of the frame, I had a light on a floor stand pointed towards the basket on the floor. I had a sock on my light's standard reflector and flagged it so I won't spill light towards the orange chair. Last I had a gridded light aimed towards the back wall and floor to have separation between that and the orange chair.

I set my aperture at f/11 to get good depth of field for this shot. I can't remember the exact power settings of my lights, I chimped for this shot and everything was seasoned to taste.

Hope this helps, happy shooting!