Studio lighting for product photo/video

Finnegan

Finnegan

Well-known member
I was wondering if any product cinematographers or photographers out there could advise me on lighting to get that crisp, white light look that is heavily used in tech video. I'm doing more video work of tech products in the studio as opposed to on-location nowadays, but I've not been thrilled with the look of softboxes with tungsten globes, which is what I've been using. Whenever I shoot anything against white backgrounds, there's always a tint of color even if I custom white balance. So what's the best method to get that really neutral hospital like white, the type you see in Apple's iPhone commercials.

Here's an example of a video I shot for our review of Nintendo's brand new console came out.


I shot it on a 5D Mark II and used a wavy plastic white backdrop with a fold out stand about two and a half feet long (the name escapes me) and some weird cheap flourescent photography lights that I'm convinced are not meant to be used as continuous lighting for video.

What are the proper tools to shoot this type of video, and what's the approach in using those tools?
 
I would say big soft sources are your friend and the softboxes with tungsten globes are really not too far off. Really the main thing you're looking for is an evenly lit diffusion or bounce source, as you don't want specular highlights in the product. Instead what you want are those nice even white highlights that accent it and make it shine. I did a product shot recently for a nearby winery and it was really about placing pieces of showcard, either the black or the white side, in just the right places to appear as reflections in the bottle. Depending on the size of the product you might make up some little pieces of various showcard with a little thing to prop it up in the back. That way you can place them around the product wherever you like on the table, and not have the reflection of the stand in there.

As far as getting the crisp clean hospital white? Perhaps thats as easy as going with a cooler white balance or a bit more color correction. If you're using tungsten lamps, the light is definitely not the problem.

After a closer look I feel like your white is just not really white....It looks like in that first shot of the black Wii U where it tilts up you were really fighting the reflection in the top right of the device, forcing you to bring you overall exposure down pretty far and eventually causing your whites to not be white. Try and take an eyedropper tool to some product shots you like, compare your seamless values to each other and I think you'll figure out what you have to do...
 
what you're looking for is a light tent. We used to surround the product with fomecore but it's better to use a full translucent box or dome over the product and light through it. It's very common for jewelry also. It will give a very slick plasticky look. (FWIW I prefer a hard light with broad white reflectors for some specularity and modeling)
 
The example you provided is made with CGI and we often do these kind of things for all sorts of cell phones. I've also shoot some product videos and placed a white background way back and lit that with Kino flow panels. Then placed the object at a white surface and lit that also with Kino flow panels. I would definitely wrap the set with black clothing the more reflective the objects surface is. Be sure to turn of all other lights to only have some sort of soft light source and no spill from window light, other lights or surfaces.
 
I've been a still product shooter for decades, and most of my techniques transfer to video very well.

Big, white, soft light. A softbox is handy for small items. I tend to use 36x48 white flags (silks on a frame) often when i don't need all the blackout a softbox offers (to keep spill from lighting up a room, say).

I can't tell you how many commercial gigs I've shot with white diffusion fabric hanging from a c-stand. I often add a 2nd layer of diffusion closer to the lamp.

For that look, the fixtures just aren't as important - it's how soft you get 'em and the size of the diffusion relative to the product or subject.

For hard-plastic consumer products, reflections are really important. I've often cut black cards into wavy shapes to reflect a little shape.
 
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