Product shots

The most important element when setting up a product shot is actually not the product at all, it's lighting.

You can have the most delicious-looking hamburger, beautiful dress, or in my case, sparkly necklace, but if the lighting isn't perfect the shot is not going to turn out. And I'm not talking about natural light from a window. Product shots that you see in magazines, commercials and on billboards are carefully  lit, often with three-point lighting that makes use of a key, fill and back light. The key light shines directly on the subject, while the fill light shines on the product from a side angle and the back light from behind to highlight contours. 

Jewellery, like the necklace I shot below, can be difficult to get a great shot of because the diamonds are so small and even if they look sparkly to the eye, the sparkle doesn't always show up on camera. In this case, I used a fill and key light to light the product and bounced a third light off a white poster board for a softer effect.

The diamonds are still not as sparkly as I would have liked them to look on camera. If I were to do the shot again I would try using a dark backdrop instead of white to see if that helps them pop. 

What do you think?