Natural Lighting for Self-Photographing Products: 6-Step Guide

Natural light can be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to product photography for an online store. No amount of editing can save a photo from poor lighting.

Lighting and camera settings determine the outcome of a shoot from start to finish, so understanding the basics of lighting will help you achieve amazing product photos that you can use on your website and in marketing campaigns.

It is unlikely that an online store owner will have access to a photo studio and all the equipment needed to take professional product photos. So in this post, we will try to look at how you can master the technique of natural lighting yourself, creating photos using a simple smartphone or a professional camera.

Find the right lighting conditions

The most important part of the camera setup process is setting up the lighting. It is also the most difficult.

There really is no quick fix on how to do it right. Different products require different lighting, and it is up to you to determine what works best for your products. Once you know the basics, it will take some trial and error until you find the perfect formula for yourself. Let's take a look at the different types of natural lighting.

Natural light from a window is an ideal solution for several reasons. First, anyone can use this method. Second, natural light from a window has a single direction. This creates natural shadows, adding a 3D effect and texture to the photo object, thus bringing it to life.

When photographing using the window method, it is better to shoot when the day is brighter. Evaluate the weather. Is it sunny or cloudy? Not always a sunny day may be the best choice. The best way to get your bearings is to practice photographing in different weather conditions. As you can see in the photo below, thanks to shooting with natural light, the highlights and shadows of the photo change significantly.

Use natural light

Good natural light is essential for great images. By manipulating the shadows created by natural light, you can add different elements to your product photography.

But one of the most predictable things about nature is that it is unpredictable. So natural light changes frequently, which means you have to be prepared for change.

As the sun moves across the sky throughout the day, the light coming through the window also changes. Therefore, choosing the best lighting may be related to the time of day. Watch how the light from the window changes throughout the day to choose the right lighting for a particular subject.

There are three types of natural light:

• Frontal lighting is when a stream of light falls on the product from the front.
• Backlighting is when light hits your subject from behind.
• Any other lighting angle where it is important to understand that it will cast a shadow on the opposite side of the subject.

To better understand how to work with natural light, place a table or chair next to a window and place a white sheet of paper on it, holding it at a 90-degree angle. This will give you the right combination of good lighting and soft shadows. The white sheet should not be placed in direct sunlight, as this will create dark, unsightly shadows.

If the sun is too bright, you don't necessarily have to wait for cloudier weather or a better time of day. Instead, you can use a thin white sheet as a light filter, placing it between the light source and the subject. Try to avoid harsh light, as it intensifies colors, highlighting even the tiniest imperfections that are invisible to the naked eye.

How to Use a Reflector to Enhance Shadows

If the sun suddenly disappears behind clouds, reducing the level of natural light, make sure you have a reflector on hand to help increase the light, thereby increasing the accuracy of shadows. A whiteboard or any other object with a white surface can be used as a reflector.

Without enough natural light, this jacket will create shadows from the folds.

If you are using a reflector for the first time, you should find the optimal level of light coming from the reflector surface. To do this, simply move the reflector closer or further from the subject.

With a reflector, the folds in the jacket become less visible as the shadows are filled with light.

Look where the sun's rays are pointing and try to make them reflect in the direction of your subject. The angle of reflection is always 90 degrees. Proper placement of the reflector will give your image the maximum amount of light, eliminating shadows.

When taking my photos, I always stand so that the window is to my right, while the reflector is to my left. This position of the reflector allows me to illuminate areas where natural light from the window does not reach at all. This gives a softer contrast to my photos.

Don't be afraid to play with the angle of the reflector to find the right balance between light and shadows. When shooting a product in backlit mode, try placing the reflector in front of the product. This way, you'll get light on the front of the product as well.

When shooting with side natural light, shadows can be especially harsh. Use a reflector to bring them back into balance.

Prepare a background for your product

When taking photos of a product, you need to take care of a clean background for the subject. It can be used to add various elements to the frame, which, when played up with natural light, can produce wonderful photos.

Unlike lifestyle photography, the background for these shots should always be white, as white reflects natural light onto the product, resulting in an evenly lit photo. A white background is especially useful during the editing process, as it makes it much easier to remove the background. It also creates a unified look and feel across your site, making it easier for shoppers to browse and compare products.

Beauty brand Megababe uses a white background for its main product images, offering site visitors a clean interface to navigate.

If your products are small, then to create a white background, it is enough to use a white sheet of paper attached to the wall behind the product or to the chair on which the product is located.

When photographing large items, you can buy a roll of white wallpaper and arrange it in several stripes on the wall.

As you can see in the photo above, I am shooting against a white wall, leaving room for a reflector. I used white paper and folded it slightly under the product itself. This helps make the background seamless and spread the light across the subject.

To fix the paper, I pressed it to the chair with a clamp. You can buy such a clamp at your local hardware store. It is important to fix the paper so that during the shooting it does not accidentally move, destroying the chosen angle of lighting and shadows.

Look for different shooting angles

With your product photos, you should be able to answer all the questions your buyers have that the product description cannot answer. That's why having different angles is so important.

Shoe brand Isleñas, for example, shows photos of its shoe products from the side and from above.

Give visitors the opportunity to examine your product as closely as possible to demonstrate all its features. Ultimately, the user should clearly understand what your product looks like from every 360-degree point.

Taking photos of the product from different angles will also show your creativity. As practice shows, the main image of your product should be a frontal angle at eye level. It is recommended to take up to 12 different images of the product, highlighting its main features.

If you are unsure what features to show in the photo, focus on the quality of your product. Take a close-up of the fabric, detail, structure, or show the product in action. Be sure to highlight the small elements of your product that may interest customers.

If you are not satisfied with the position of the product relative to the camera, it is better to move the product, leaving the camera in its place. This way you will keep the background unchanged for the entire series of product shots. In the future, this will allow you to spend less time editing the photo.

An experienced photographer can do without a tripod , choosing the best angle and shooting perspective. In search of the best shooting point, try to shoot the product from above instead of from the front. Shooting from above allows for more variability. Especially if you want to show the product in the context of other elements. Or why not shoot the product from below, visually making it larger?

Here are the basic angles you should know and experiment with while shooting:

• At eye level: Shows the product exactly as we see it in reality. This angle is recommended for the main product photo.
• High Angle Shot: Shows the product from above, as if you are looking down on it from above.
• Low Angle: Shows the product from below.
• Bird's eye view: Shows the product as if you were standing directly above it.
• Slant: Shows the product from the side, as if you were leaning to the right or left in front of it.

Use your camera's manual settings

The beauty of using a professional camera is that you have control over every aspect of the settings. But before you start setting up, you need to set up a tripod. Using a tripod is essential to getting the most out of your photos. If you don't have a tripod, a stack of books can do the job.

A tripod is essential to provide stability, minimizing tiny shifts that could ruin a great photo. I would recommend that you make sure that your tripod matches the height line where the product is placed. This makes it easier to experiment during the photo shoot.

For best results, I recommend shooting in manual mode only. Mastering manual mode allows you to better adapt to the environment you are shooting in, whether it is outdoors or in a studio with different lighting.

Shooting in manual mode gives you control over all the parameters available to your camera. In this case, you don’t have to worry about incorrect automatic adjustment. Here are the main parameters that you should set manually:

• aperture;
• ISO;
• white balance;
• shutter speed (exposure time).

Aperture

First, let's look at the aperture. I would recommend that you use a higher f-stop because it helps keep every detail in focus. I prefer to shoot between f/8 and f/14 because this aperture allows you to not lose much light while keeping the product in focus.

If you want to be sure that the product will be in focus in your photo, set the aperture to f/12 . Ultimately, the higher the aperture setting, the sharper the photo will be.

ISO

Next up is the ISO setting. Adjusting the ISO changes the amount of light in a photo. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive the camera is to light and the higher the image quality. But too high an ISO makes the images look grainy and pixelated . When shooting in dark environments, a higher ISO is necessary. But you should essentially experiment to find the best ISO for your conditions.

Once you find the balance between lighting and image quality, your photos will look fresh. My studio has great natural light, so I use ISO between 300-500 depending on the weather conditions. On particularly cloudy days, I use higher settings, achieving better image clarity.

White balance

Choosing the right white balance will allow your camera to accurately adjust colors based on the light level. As a beginner, you will probably want to use automatic white balance adjustment. This will allow your camera to choose the appropriate white balance based on the current lighting.

Once you become more confident adjusting your camera settings, I would encourage you to try manually selecting the white balance. This will help you achieve the exact photos you want to see. The goal is to get a photo that is as close as possible to what you see in your camera's video lens and in real life.

Instead of choosing the optimal lighting, you just need to adjust the parameters of your camera. Oversaturation of the photo of the sunny color or harsh sunlight will make your photos overexposed. Such photos will not be possible to correct in a photo editor, since overly illuminated objects will not have all the details in the photo that they have in reality.

Shutter speed (exposure)

Once you have set the aperture, ISO, and white balance, you can finally set the shutter speed. A longer shutter speed helps the camera take in more light. As a result, the photo will be sharper.

Manual settings for smartphone camera

There is no doubt that using a professional camera is the ideal solution for product photography. But don’t let that hold you back. Smartphone technology is improving every day, and most of them have excellent built-in cameras. At the very least, you will be able to take some good quality photos with such a camera, and edit the rest to get the best result.

Here are some key tips for photographing products with a smartphone camera:

• Avoid using the zoom feature as it reduces the image quality.
• Avoid blurry photos by investing in a tripod for your smartphone.
• Avoid taking pictures from the front camera as it is not as good as the camera on the back of the smartphone.
• Avoid using flash memory to store your photos, as it may distort the colors of the image when processing and compressing the photos.
• Try not to use unnecessary details in the scene and a dark background, preferring a white background.
• Avoid re-editing your photo as this will reduce its quality (except for minor details).

There are various applications that can help you get photos similar to those taken with a DSLR camera. The one I recommend using most often is Lightroom CC.

I recommend using Lightroom CC on your desktop computer, syncing it with the mobile app. I prefer editing photos on the desktop version of the program, as the larger screen allows you to better see the details that need editing.

Start taking photos of your products

Now that you have everything set up, it's time to start taking photos. You'll undoubtedly have to make adjustments to your settings as you go along, but it's fun to practice. Enjoy the process of shooting and expressing your creativity. Take lots of photos from different angles, writing down what settings you used to see what they turned out like.

If you have time, download all the photos to your desktop computer to look at them in more detail. Once you have selected the best photos, it is time to start editing them.

About the Author: Rachel Jacobs is the Head of Content and Partnerships at Pixc, the leading e-commerce product optimization service. Pixc transforms average product photos into professional images that increase online store conversions.