The Importance of Gradient Lighting in High Gloss Product Photography
High gloss products, such as plastics, cosmetics, and luxury jewelry, can be challenging to photograph due to the dark reflections and high contrast. Professional photographers often use gradient lighting to create a luxurious look for these products. However, using gradient lighting requires professional knowledge and skill, and large scrims and diffusion materials may be necessary, which can be unwieldy for most photographers.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of gradient lighting in high gloss product photography and how it overcomes the challenges of shooting high gloss products. We will also talk about the Light Cone, a tool designed by a professional photographer to improve the lighting and luxury feel of high gloss products.
Overcoming the Challenges of Shooting High Gloss Products
When photographing high gloss products, it's essential to realize that they act like a mirror and reflect all elements of the studio from all directions. As a result, photographers need to overcome reflections by blocking them with a more suitable light source. Gradient lighting, which creates a lovely, luxurious look to these products, can be used to achieve this. It is created by diffusion, a process of spreading out a point light source to create gradations.
Softboxes, a homogenous light source that creates even exposure from corner to corner and in the center, can be wonderful for many types of photography, but not for glossy products. When using a softbox, it creates a uniform patch of light on the glossy surface, which finishes abruptly and goes from a white stripe to a dark stripe. This doesn't suit most product images.
The Light Cone: A Tool Designed for High Gloss Product Photography
The Light Cone is a tool designed by a professional photographer to overcome the problems of shooting high gloss products. The tool has special optical density properties and the right material to provide the perfect gradations for studio lighting. It improves the lighting and luxury feel of high gloss products by controlling the gradations of light on the product's surface.
The Light Cone overcomes the challenges of shooting high gloss products by providing the following benefits:
- No need for large scrims and diffusion materials, making it more accessible to most photographers.
- Suitable for many types of high gloss products, including spherical products that large scrims don't work well for.
- Provides the perfect gradations for studio lighting, creating a luxurious look for high gloss products.
Controlling Gradations with the Light Cone
The Light Cone is a tool that controls the gradations of light on the product's surface, creating a lovely, luxurious look. It is used with three studio flashlights, which allow photographers to control the power independently of each light. The Light Cone is placed over the flashlights, and the gradations of light are controlled by moving the lights around manually.
To demonstrate the effect of the Light Cone, the photographer takes a photograph without the Light Cone and another with the Light Cone. In the video, we can see how the gradations of light are controlled by turning lights on and off and moving them around manually.
