Lighting Printed Surfaces
Lighting printed surfaces does not sound that hard, does it?
If you have a business that sells printed material on a web site, and you want your customers to quickly understand exactly what the product looks like, and any intricate printed surfaces associated with that product, then let’s have a conversation!
Whilst training a printing company on how to best tackle creating their images, I discovered that a small blue business card with spot varnish was actually quite challenging! It needed the right set up and approach so the final image represented the product correctly. Getting the colours right, and communicating the material finish was key to this being a successful teaching session. So how did I end up doing it? Watch this tutorial to find out!
Workshop 1 was the perfect place for my customer Lauren to start her learning on how best to tackle shooting her products. Her job is in marketing. Her company, instantprint, has many different types of printed products for sale. Go and check them out! The challenge is ensuring customers find out on their web site about how the different printed surfaces look. They can then start to make their own choices about what they wish to buy. It is an important part of the buying journey.
However, Lauren had already learned the hard way that finding the right approach to shooting the products was tricky. The wrong result meant the customer could not understand, differentiate between paper and print finishes. So we spent a day each on Workshop 1 and 2 looking at general photographic approaches and lighting methods and then a focused day at her work concentrating on lighting printed surfaces, using their kit and shooting space to teach and learn about how to think about the photography required.
I put this tutorial together as I wanted to find a simple and useful solution for Lauren when shooting business cards, especially the one with the spot varnish.
This tutorial offers some core and simple methods for anyone wanting to raise their level of product photography. Check out Shoot Products Like A Pro for details on how you can learn to be a much better product Photographer
If you need help in understanding why capturing the material finishes is crucial to a professional looking image, check out my Phil Sills website for inspiration!
Enjoy the video!
Phil
Shoot Products Like A Pro – Product Photography Course and Tuition
