Here are suggestions to help take great pictures of your pottery. Step by step lighting set up that defines three dimensional form and shows true vibrant colors.
Move a table close to a window. To make the light coming in from the outside easier to work with it’s a good idea to tape a piece of tracing paper to the window. For more information on how to do this please read this.
Blocking some of the light helps give dimension to the pot. Put a piece of black cardboard one one side of the product. Use black, any other color will reflect some light back and change the colors of your product.
To put light in the front of the clay pot put a piece of white cardboard on the other side.
Light coming from the window will reflect on the white board, brightening the front. The black cardboard will make one side a darker.
Diverse tones help define better the pot’s three dimensional form.
The closer you put the cardboard to the pot, the larger the effect it will have in making the pot darker, or lighter.
Place the pieces of cardboard as close as you can to the pot but let enough space to be able to move the camera around.
Now you are ready to start taking pictures.
Clay Pot a loan from Clay Lick Creek Pottery
When photographing a glossy object you may get areas that are very bright.
Sometimes these bright areas help give a feeling of what a glossy object looks like.
And then other times these highlights just blot out detail that you would like to show.
The tracing paper softens the light coming from the window but to avoid highlights we need to use an even softer light. Take out the black piece of cardboard so as to be able to take a picture from that angle instead.
Using the white board to reflect back the light coming from the window will make light even and soft.
This kind of light light creates less highlights and less shadows. However, like everything else in life there is a trade-off. Soft light makes things look flat and colors dull.
Every other week we post a new product photography tutorial showing how to take at home the pictures we create at the
Via U! studio.