Lighting for Product Photography: The Digital Photographer's Step-By-Step Guide to Sculpting with Light

From magazine ads to web applications, this instructive handbook details the ever-expanding area of product photography and discusses the unique skills required to be successful. Beginning with the basics for creating professional-looking shots, the qualities of light and the rendering of color and texture are covered while the tools to be used for controlling those qualities is explained through a step-by-step lighting setup. The latter half of this guide compiles images created on actual assignments, depicting a variety of products photographed in a range of settings. Each image is accompanied by a discussion of the clients intent and the realization of those objectives. Offering procedural images, diagrams, and set-up shots to illustrate the addition and modification of light sources, problems can be identified and corrected on-set making this an invaluable tool for amateur and professional photographers alike.

Allison Earnest is a professional photographer who has worked for Boeing International, NASA, the United States Army, and Phillip Morris. She is the author of The Digital Photographers Guide to Light Modifiers and Sculpting with Light. Her photographs have appeared in Darkroom and Camera magazine, Studio Photography & Design magazine, the Village Voice, and numerous medical journals and books. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.