How to Photograph a High-end Handbag

Handbags come in all different shapes, styles, colours and textures, which makes them interesting to photograph. Unfortunately, it also means they can present a number of challenges. How do you ensure the bag’s structure looks right? How do you get the handles to stand upright? What do you do when the bag has a reflective shiny surface?

In this information-packed photography workshop, recorded live and available to watch as a replay, Karl shows you how to effectively overcome these challenges and produce high-end photographs of handbags.

He goes into detail about the importance of colour and how it can be used to improve your photography. You’ll see this as he uses opposite and complementary colours to get the very best out of three different shots.

He also explains (and demonstrates) why soft, graduated light isn’t always the best option for product photography. Working with a simple, but slightly unusual lighting setup, he produces a stunning shot of a handbag using just bare-bulb lights. You’ll learn how to control these lights to achieve almost shadowless light and how you can adapt this setup for a small studio.

Karl also shows you how to freeze movement using fast flash duration and how you can use this to capture more fun and interesting images.

In this class:

  • Product photography: How to photograph a handbag
  • Product photography tips
  • Understanding your audience
  • Colour theory & juxtaposing colours
  • How to achieve global illumination
  • How to control shadows
  • How to freeze movement using fast flash duration
  • How to photograph in a small studio

You can learn more about colour theory and how to use colour in photography in the following classes:

To learn more about product photography, visit our Product section.

Questions? Please post them below.

Comments

  1. Hello Karl,

    I want to express my gratitude for the incredible effort you put into creating such comprehensive classes. After being a member of your platform for a few years, I recently upgraded to a lifetime membership, and it has been a great decision.

    As an experienced professional, you may have encountered periods where creative ideas seem to run dry. I have delved deeply into studying photography, including through books, your platform, and academic degree programs. I feel fairly confident in understanding the scientific aspects of light physics and the behavior of recording media. However, my biggest challenge lies in coming up with original and creative ideas that are distinct from what I see online. I am genuinely impressed by the creativity of others and how they apply the laws of physics to their work. This reminds me of a quote by Albert Einstein, who emphasized the importance of imagination, saying things like “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

    I would love to hear your thoughts, Karl. How do you break free from the monotony of science and reignite your imagination when faced with these moments? Thank you as always.

    Myles

    1. Hello Myles,
      Thank you for your kind words and continued support on this platform. The team and I are always pleased to hear when one of our members benefits from the content that we produce.

      I had not heard of the Einstein quote before but it is superb and I will try to remember that. My work as you know is largely derived from the science of light, colour and human perception and I apply that knowledge to induce an emotional response in the viewer, a reaction that hopefully people will perceive as creativity. But yes often we need ideas beyond the science, we need narrative, emotion, connection and depth to truly absorb the viewer. The level of absorption by the viewer and how long they want to view an image is really the marker of how successful the image is.

      For me inspiration comes from many places and each artist it evolves as ‘their style’, I certainly don’t consider my style to be as creative as many of my peers but I’m also happy with the work that I produce and how people react to it. Beyond the pure joy I get from how light interacts with objects other sources of creativity for me are films, books, art and especially music. All of these things help conjure up images in my mind that provide me inspiration for the narrative of a photograph that I create. It’s more difficult to create narrative in my product work than it is in my fashion work but where I can’t bring narrative I try to bring dynamics, juxtaposition, balance and other factors to help excite the viewer.

      I hope this helps, all the best Karl.

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