Easy Natural Light Product Photography at Home

How to photograph products or objects using an easy natural light setup at home. 


Items used to create this photograph


First thing

Pick the product/object/food you’d like to photograph. Make sure that if it has a label on the container it is straight with no scuffs and that the container itself looks nice. If you are buying a product to photograph take the time to pick the best one. For food, create a “stand-in” dish so you can set up the camera, settings, and prop before putting in the real food dish. This keeps the food looking fresh and yummy. 

Window Light

There are a few key components to taking clean, professional photographs of products at home. The first thing is to locate a North or south-facing window in your home. Use the compass app on your phone to locate your windows.


The bigger the window the better. Why does that matter? A North and south-facing window light will stay the most consistent throughout the day. North light is always soft with soft shadows and South light is very sunny and harsh with strong shadows. Both can be used for photography depending on the mood of the photograph.


East and West-facing windows have the most variable light changes as the sun moves east to west throughout the day. You’ll be running in circles, because once you have your shot set up the light will change!

North Facing Light and South Facing Light

See examples below of each lighting and how different they are.

Direction of Light

Placing your product and using the direction of light to best show off its features. Notice where the sun hits your product. In this example, I used South facing direct sun in order to clearly show the direction of light. Below, I am showing three different ways of lighting the product top down to give a nice effect. See how the light best hits your product depending on size and transparency. 

Move your object around and notice where the shadow lands and what looks better for the product.


Underlight Technique

The Underlight Technique is the Most Famous Horror Lighting Technique Ever. Aka, lighting coming from the bottom up gives the same “spooky” feeling as holding a flashlight under your chin. Not a preferable light, unless you’re photographing something creepy or want an uneasy feeling! Combine this light and photograph your product with a “Low” angle (we talk about later) and you get a really epic emotive photograph!

Your photography set up

Shoot as close to the window as possible for maximum light (see examples below). Set your product and background up on a table or side table, somewhere you don’t have to work off the floor. Your knees and back with thank you! Set up your camera at the angle you desire. Play around for a while to see what angle looks the best. Even handhold the camera until you figure out the angle that works best. I recommend always using a tripod for product photography; it makes everything 100% easier. If you don’t have one, try using a stack of books or something similar. 

Set up for photographing directly on to the product

Set up for photographing overhead, or top down on your product


Depth of Field & Camera Settings

Your camera settings are important to find the perfect setting. Setting your camera to Manual gives you full control of how your photographs look. Using Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO in combination is a practice and you’ll get better over time. If you are new, try using only Aperture priority to get the depth of field you prefer. Here are some tips to get your going.


Depth of Field or your aperture is very important for product photography. Shooting at f/2.8 creates a very shallow depth of field which gives a lovely vibe but if you want your whole product in focus opt for f/5.6 or f/10. Play around with this and see what works better.


If you are shooting handheld it is recommended to set your shutter speed to 1/250th a sec or higher, unless you like a blur effect. If you are shooting on a tripod and have no moving object set a slower shutter speed (below 1/250th a sec) to let more natural light in.


As for ISO opt for around 200-400 ISO. If your camera can handle high ISO, go ahead to push it. Just know, the higher the ISO the more grain and noise will appear. Sometimes grain looks cool, but I always prefer to add it later. Always best to shoot for the now and not fix everything in post.



Focus

When you have the shot and props framed to your liking, do a final focus check. Change the focus from Auto and Manual and try not to bump anything. This allows every frame to be the same focus and cropping for easy photoshopping later. The photographs will line up seamlessly saving you time and the headache of trying to line up two frames.


Rules of Thirds

Pay attention to the rule of thirds. (aka where your product sits in the frame.) The rule of thirds is a guideline for cropping photographs. It can greatly improve the composition and balance of your images. The rule of thirds is a guideline for cropping to improve the composition of your photograph. Rule of thirds means the object/subject isn’t in the center of the frame, but a bit off to one side or the other. Your subject does not need to be centered, but keeping it in touch with one of the red circle points below helps ground it. (see the 3rd example below.)

Framing and Angles

If you are shooting 3/4 of an angle or straight toward the middle of the product on pay attention to your camera angle and framing. Are you shooting onto the product making the top of the product more prominent? Are you shooting up toward the product giving it a more powerful presence? See the examples below of how both angles look.


Low angle shot

A shot looking up at a person or product often makes them look bigger in the frame. It can make everyone/everything look heroic and/or dominant.


High angle shot

A shot looking down on a product often isolates them in the frame, making the subject seem smaller, and can be used to emote a specific feeling.

Slightly high angle photograph

Overhead shot aka “Top Down”

Below, the photograph was taken with the camera directly over the product. Commonly also called a Top Down Shot.

Props

Props are key to elevating your product photography. These can be items around the house, blocks, cubes, books, plants, fabrics, textures, cups, plates, bowls, etc. Clear cubes (seen below) are the best way to prop up an object or elevate a product or prop that can be easily photoshopped out. 

Composition with Props

Propping is the key to a lovely photo yet can make or break it. Try to stick with a theme and keep it realistic. For example, when photographing perfume you would associate this with doing makeup and putting on jewelry, so add those as props. Small bowls and napkins add depth and flowers are always fun to play with. Pull a bunch of props and pay around. Add, remove, use the full prop, use a part of it, and try experimenting.


This is why a tripod is key. Put in a prop, take a photo, and see how it reads in the photograph. Sometimes taking a step away and coming back gives you fresh eyes. Pay attention to how you want to crop, will it crop out some of your props? Is that okay or should you adjust your props a bit?

When adjusting products or props, try to see what you are moving from the camera’s angle!

Fill Cards and Bouncing Light

You’re getting so close! Let’s bounce some natural light with fill cards. Fill is used to lighten shadows and bounce light back onto the product. I love this step; you really see how much light comes from a tiny white card. (Silver/Gold boards: https://amzn.to/3K4kqF5) Below you can see shiny silver, solid matte white, and solid matte black. Thicker card stock is easier to use, but thin card stock still works. 


(You can also use the white & black card stock as a background!) Computer paper, a white t-shirt, or a towel also works great as a white fill! (secret hint: the mirror is very similar to a silver card.) You can use a gold shiny board which gives a “warmth” to your subject while the silver gives a “cool” tone.


Seeing the Fill in action

As seen below, each fill card is placed the same distance away. (The soft shadow is from a north-facing window.) You can see how no fill allows the shadow to spill naturally. White fill bounces a soft light back on the product. Silver adds a sharper fill back on the product, see the blacktop on the bottle to see the differences. 

Fill Distances make a difference

Below are examples of fill on a harsh shadow from a south-facing window. You can see with no fill, the shadows are sharp and extreme, which can be used to create more edgy product photography lighting! Then you can add a fill 12” away for a little bit of definition in the shadow, or even closer at 6” from the product. 

Use fill cards hands-free!

You’re ready to shoot, but what to do with the cards? To get them to stand on their own, use a A-Clamp (A-Clamps: https://amzn.to/43s9LL6 ) see the orange clamp below, on the edge of the board. I have a white and silver board stacked together. Or you can put a piece of tape on the back of a card and create a gaff tape (Gaff Tape: https://amzn.to/3OlFppe) “bend” and clamp onto the bend. (See second example!)

Gaff tape “bend” no hands clamp stand!


My Final Photography Set Up

This is how I set up my shot. I have my light source, the window. I have a white bounce card to the left of the product, slightly leaning toward the product (so not just straight up and down.) At the bottom of the product is a little silver bounce, silver gives a bit more shine than white. Optional, is a tiny black card cut down to 2” tall by 4” long set toward the top of the black bottom to keep that edge sharp. I took two photos, one with the black card and one without. Then photoshop the black card out later.

A diagram of how I set up my product and used fill cards to bounce light for the photograph above.


So there you have it. This is a lesson in basic photography lighting skills for an object. These skills will translate for all photography. Use whatever camera, even a phone! Try them out if are photographing a person! I’d love to see what you create! Happy shooting!

Using Format