Packshot Product Photography

Want to perfect your packshots? Find all the tips you need in this comprehensive tutorial.

Discover how to achieve a clean white background, photograph reflective surfaces, control unwanted reflections and shadows on your products, and much more!

When you’re shooting packshots, speed and efficiency are key. That’s why it’s essential to have a lighting setup that’s both suitable and simple.

In this class, recorded LIVE, you’ll learn how to set up, light and and capture successful packshots.

Working through multiple products, Karl demonstrates just how important perfecting your lighting setup is. Starting with a simple two-light setup, he shows you how to achieve a professional result quickly – even if you’re working in a small studio and using basic modifiers.

In this class:

  • Product photography: Packshots
  • How to photograph packshots
  • Studio lighting setups for packshots
  • How to achieve a pure white background
  • Small studio photography
  • How to control shadows
  • Controlling reflections on shiny objects

If you enjoy this class, check out Packshots: White Background Product Photography.

Questions? Please post them the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Hi Karl
    Would a larger light source (softbox) achieve a more even illumination compared to P70 with scrim (see 07:00)? cheers

  2. Wonderful class. Best thing that I have done this year is to join visual education. Loving all the content. Thanks Karl for all this knowledge.

    Please pardon me if this is a very silly question. In the cutlery shot, Can I use a softbox at the same spot where the ceiling is lit by the barn door light (according to angle of incidence equals angle of reflection)? I mean rather than lighting the ceiling and seeing that reflection on the surface, can we use a light directly at the angle same as the ceiling. What exactly would be the difference in results?

    1. Hi and thank you for your kind comments and feedback. In answer to your question yes you could have used a softbox and if your angles of reflection were the same then the results would have been similar because this cutlery was a matt finish but if this was polished metal then you would not get the same result because the gloss surface would be an image forming reflection of the light source itself and a gradient light source would look better for this such as bouncing a beam or light or using a scrim. We have more about gradient lighting in our product photography introduction section.

  3. Hello Carl, this is really great, not a dull moment. I admire your openness to reveal secrets of the trade, your fantastic energy. Also I love your patience with not very considerate people.

  4. Hey Karl,
    I’ve got a big project coming up where I’ll be shooting around 150 products for e-commerce. It’s all hair care stuff like shampoos, etc.
    Since there will be multiple shoot days, some with the client present and others done remotely, I’m a bit worried about getting inconsistencies in lighting and camera positioning. Do you have any tips on how to keep everything perfectly consistent across all 500 photos? Thanks a lot!

    1. Hi, yes that’s relatively simple. Once you have your tests done for your first shots and you are happy with how the lighting is looking then first off all take a snap shot of your setup on your phone so you have a record. Then draw a lighting diagram (plan view) and write down each modifier you’re using on each light etc BUT the absolutely two crucial points are to 1. write down the power setting of each light as well as the settings of your camera and then 2. Meausre the distance of each light from the subject, the distance of the background from the subject, the distance of the camera from the subject etc etc.

  5. Thanks for the video! I haven’t had experience with studio lights before and would like to purchase my first couple. Would 600 Ws monolights be able to achieve the same effects here (bouncing off background, shooting through lightbox/scrim)? Or even 400 Ws?

    2. Hi, yes 600’s are pretty good allrounders, remember the difference between a 600 and a 1200 is only one stop so if you changed from 100 to 200iso it would make the 600 seem like a 1200.

    1. Hi, no I think you will need to completely surround the product because it has mutliple facets/angles that will reflect from all over the place. You could surround it with a home made box of diffusion material or use a Lightcone.

  7. Hi Karl

    Thanks for your videos! Very useful .If I achieve 255 on the background, I have insane amount of flare. I have put 2 massive plyboards painted back on the sides- did not help much. The ceiling is very low in my studio (it`s my garage, so it`s quite small in general) and I separated the background as much as possible. Does this mean that I just need to move my studio elsewhere?

    Many thanks
    Kseniia

    1. Hi Ksenniia, what happens if you acheive R250, G250, B250 for your background? Do you still have flare? This is a very important question because if you do then the flare is not from your background, so test that first and come back to me.

      1. Hi Karl

        Thank you for coming back to me. I have done more tests and, unfortunately, it’s flare from the background light. After achieving back background at around 230, I started adding light slowly (2/10 of a stop) and flare was growing very noticeably.

        So I have found out the following:
        – it helps a bit if I move background light closer to the background and further from the subject. As I have only 2 light sources at the moment (one for back, one for subject), I tried just exactly like on the video- the light is under the shooting table. This gave a lot of flare even when background was 245-250. So I moved it away, closer to the background (but could not move too close at the same time, as it was getting visible on the shot)
        – I also made the longest possible distance between the background and the subject. It turned out about 2,5 meters
        – I have also noticed that you shoot with a hood. So I change my lense from 85 mm to 24-70 just because it has got quite a large hood.
        – of course, 2 large polyboards painted black on both sides

        So all this in combinations helped a lot. But flare is still there and technically does not let to achieve a picture with a good contrast and pure white background.

        I guess a very low ceiling (I think it’s about 2m only, or a little bit higher) and close walls bounce a lot of light from each other.

        So I thought maybe to try 2 light sources for the background but with barn doors? Do you think it might help?

        Many thanks
        Kseniia

        1. Hi, if you think it might be coming from nearby walls and ceiling then it would be best to black theses but I don’t think it is. Flare only occurs when a light that is over 255 goes into the lens directly or grazes the lens at an angle. Or if it is light reflecting off of a wall I (such as your background) with a value higher than 255. Other things that can affect flare are dirty lenses, damaged lenses etc as well as the working aperture. Smaller aperture is usually less flare. I would like to see a wide angle photo or two of your entire setup to see if I can spot anything obvious.

          2. Hi, your main problem is that you are trying to light an imperfect background that has wrinkles and ripples and you are trying to do it with one light from a very low angle and with the light much too close to the background. This type of background setup would never allow you to get an even 253 exposure across the background area which means you would then have to increase the background light to compensate for the ripples and the steep gradient. First of all I would recommend a solid white background (flat) and then moving your background light much further away from the background. It is much better to light a flat background with two lights too if you have them. Alternatively if I only had one light then I would set up my background with the light as in this video to get an even background https://visualeducation.com/class/how-to-use-continuous-led-lighting-for-packshot-photography/ (ignore that this one is LED and pretend it is flash)

  8. Hello Karl! Is there a tutorial on how to shoot the one at 1:07mins with one light?

    Thank you so much!

    1. Hi, you can’t you can apply a neutralise colour setting on the RAW file if you have used a colour checker card but this is not ideal it would be better to paint the walls pure white.

  10. Your video worked great for my shots. But my client wants these shots delivered in a clipping path.
    I have no idea what this is. I usually take my shots into Photoshop and just place them on a white background. Should this be an additional charge?
    Can you suggest a video where I can learn this?

  11. Your video worked great for my shots. But my client wants these shots delivered in a clipping path.
    Can you suggest a video where I can learn this?

  12. I have a commercial shoot with the food packaging company. The specs for the photography request a 15 degree elevation from the top of the packaging.
    How can I ensure I have the correct angle?

    1. Hi, I would put a spirit level from the top of the product and then a protractor off of that to calculate that angle and use a piece of string if you need to be absolutely sure. Or go the other way and use a protractor from the camera being completely level and tilt down 15 degrees.

      1. It went very well. Thanks for your brilliant Education videos,

        It turned into some 1,800 products. Two twelve hour days. The advice you give is spot on. Each challenge I was presented at the session was easily answered within your videos.

        Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and tips here on your site. Now I can afford a lifetime membership here!

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