MEGAHOUSE DAIWA EMERALDAS NUDE 3.0

Learning to use strobes and a light meter is an essential requirement for product photography. When I’ve been asked what’s your most important or best investment photographic item, hands down it is my Sekonic L508 light meter, 23 years old and still gets used everyday, no other product I have owned has lasted so long and continually delivers the goods.

Shooting products on a pure white background is not as simple as many believe, it’s not just about light, but other factors like correct white studio material for the background, white balance, reflections etc all are contributing factors. Most will just go for overexposing and subjects in the image like this will have the edges lighter or blown out, thus loosing the color, defining edge and clarity.

In this case three lights are used, all with different modifiers and power settings set by the light meter and all are balanced with an Xrite Colorchecker for perfect white balance. Each light is set separately, first the main light to get the correct power setting to light the subject, then the fill light is set to fill shadows and finally the under/back light. Once all are at the correct power and WB settings the product will have perfect exposure on a white background, less editing in Creative Suite afterwards and more time to shoot and play.