The Complete Commercial Photographer

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Product photography is everywhere in our lives, everywhere we look, everywhere we go. Magazines, brochures, the web, and advertisements all show products for sale. All these products were photographed in…

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Here is a close up of one method to hang your background on the poles. I purchased a 10’ electrical conduit from Home Depot. It is tapered on one end…

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This is a very simple setup and an example where overhead light is not always necessary. I set up a large light box on a stand and placed it camera…

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Here is an example of the steps just described: On this image, the light box is feathered towards the background. Notice how much brighter the background is. The front of…

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Reflections and Highlights Most objects you photograph will be illuminated by reflections you place strategically just like above. This is deliberate control of highlights and most of the time this…

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  This  photo is an example of making a custom size reflector to create a custom highlight on a product. This small piece of foil board is attached to the…

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The Climbing Equipment Co.

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The solution was to switch to an extra large light box that spread much farther left and right and this allowed the concave part of the spoon something to see…

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Glass This sophisticated wine setup uses simple lighting. In this case no overhead light was used because of where it would place a highlight; right on the front of the…

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Real Assignments/Simple Shoots The idea was to shoot a very simple photo of a bunch of credit cards illustrating the variety of credit cards you could get with scenic photos…

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VIDEO CAMERAS This assignment was for a company that published many magazines and I was one of their contributing photographers. The photo was for the monthly Product Review Column in…

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Simulated Window Light This photo was shot for a  book publishing company. We set barn wood on sawhorses and placed all the products in a manner to support the “star”…

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Simple Setups So many products you will shoot will require nothing more than the most basic lighting setups. This is often one light and some reflectors. In the case of…

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ELECTRICIAN In this image I needed to come up with a way to realistically portray and electrician at work. But there was no budget to go find a home under…

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Start by putting each light about 6 feet away from the wall that the painting is on and 6 feet away from the imaginary line. Take a test and if…

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of the watch. The card was the same length as the watch or roughly 4”x8”. I start by having my assistant raise the white card while I look through the…

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This image is a lay down apparel shot for a magazine. Notice the hard light coming from about 1 o’clock (upper right)? This light is about 2’ above the floor…