Continuous Lighting: Series 1, Part 3 – Product Photography: Perfume
EBERHARD SCHUY
ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER As a photographer,
I do advertising photography. This is my core business. I have worked there for
many years. Each product has its own particularity. My job is to decide
which aspect I want to emphasize. A perfume is a fragrance.
It's an emotion. When I hold
one of these bottles in my hand, it lights up in no time. What light brings out volume,
transparency, shine? But also this golden color? I start by defining
my lighting plan. I plan the sources
and the lighting atmosphere. The product will thus be illuminated
by the light that suits it.
These three sources
really interact with each other and each has its function. It’s obvious on this set. On the face, we find this L7. It is filtered by this diffuser. It makes the gold lettering
look really nice and golden. I adjust the color temperature,
to around 4000 K, to reinforce the golden color. "We need to turn the source
a little to the left, to make the 'A' stand out a little more." “A little more!” "Again, again. Stop!" "That was too far.
Come back a little." “Can you make the beam a little wider?” “Here we are. Great!” “A little louder, please.” "It's beautiful!
It shines nicely now." "Perfect. Let's
not touch it again." Now we need to bring out
the roundness of the lid. For this,
I will use the L5. The L5 is set to 5600 K
because it may be colder. I decided to soften it
a little on the left, using a translucent plexiglass.
On the right,
I also put a reflector. It reflects a lot of light. Finally, I take care of the green color. I like it very much. To create a feeling of sunshine,
I use a backlit source. I use an Orbiter. It is really powerful
and produces shadows. It is quite hard but different from a point source
because it does not create a flare. The softness
and matte appearance are still there at the same time as it creates a halo.
This is why I use the Orbiter. I'll probably set it
to a little over 5600 K. The ideal setting is somewhere
between 6200 K and 6300 K. I can also play
around with the green-magenta cast. Thanks to this, I can highlight
the color of the bottle. It allows me to control
many parameters. I can directly see the result. This is one of the advantages of working
with continuous light sources.
Providing a product with
the lighting that suits it and saying to yourself: “You can still
give it more shine” is possible with this source. This explains the popularity
of continuous light sources in advertising photography..