Black on black product photography using two lights

In this video, Karl works with broncolor’s Urs Recher to demonstrate a simple rim lighting technique for cosmetic product photography.

Together, the pair demonstrate how to use a single backlight to create beautiful rim lighting around a black product on a black background. Using two of the simplest, and most affordable modifiers — softboxes — Karl and Urs clearly show the importance of each individual light, as well as reveal the key to achieving gradient lighting.

Topics covered in this class:

  • Black on black product photography
  • How to rim light products
  • Creating gradient lighting for product photography
  • Techniques for reducing flare
  • Using softboxes for product photography
  • How to photograph small products

Further product photography classes you may enjoy include:

If you have any questions about this class please post in the comment section below.

Comments

  1. That’s a great ‘bite-size’ chunk of education. Would be interesting, too, to see the effect of altering the distance between the scrim and the product, so I’ll give that a go myself. Really like your work with Urs.

  2. Hello Karl, happy new year.
    I was wondering if I use a frosted acrylic instead of the scrim, the results change?
    Regards and say hello to the team.

    1. Hi Victor, where have I tweaked the lighting or what can you see so that I can look at that an explain. I’m afraid this shoot was a while ago so.

    1. Hi, I’m not quite sure what you mean, we used a piece of black card with black velvet clipped behind the subject. It was clipped with a manfrotto clamp onto a manfrotto flex arm.

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