Product Photography Lighting at Home Without Special Equipment

Hard light comes from a small source, such as direct sun through a clear window or a bare bulb. It creates sharp shadows and bright glare. Soft light comes from a large source, such as an overcast sky or sunlight passed through a thin curtain. It wraps around the product and creates gentle shadows.

For nearly every product, soft light looks better. Your job at home is to make the light source bigger and gentler than it naturally is.

• Choose a window that does not get direct sun at the time you shoot. A north-facing or shaded window gives the most even light.
• If direct sun is unavoidable, cover the glass with a thin white curtain, a white bedsheet or a sheet of butter paper.
• Shoot at the time of day when the light is bright but not harsh, and take your photos in one window each time so lighting stays similar across products.
• Switch off tube lights and bulbs. They add a colour cast that shows up in the photo.

Put a table close to the window so the product sits sideways to it. Light from the side creates shape and texture. Light from directly behind creates a silhouette, and light from the camera's direction flattens the product.

1. Set the product on a table beside the window.
2. Put the phone on the side away from the window, pointing at the product.
3. Check the screen. If one side of the product is very dark, add a reflector on that side.

A reflector bounces light into the shadow side of the product, so the shadows lift and detail shows. You do not need to buy one.

• White chart paper or a sheet of thermocol gives a soft, neutral fill.
• A piece of white cardboard held near the product works the same way.
• Aluminium foil glued to cardboard gives a stronger, harder fill, so use it sparingly.
• A piece of black card on the opposite side deepens shadows if the product looks too flat.

Shiny surfaces reflect whatever is in front of them, including the window, your phone and you. To control this, use a larger, softer light source such as a bigger diffusing sheet, and change your angle a few degrees until the brightest reflection moves off the important part. For particularly reflective items, the jewellery guide covers glare in more detail.

• Hard shadows: soften the light with a curtain or sheet and add a reflector on the shadow side.
• Orange or blue colour cast: turn off room lights and shoot in daylight only.
• Flat, dull photo: move the product so light comes from the side instead of the front.
• Dark photo and blur: bring the setup closer to the window rather than turning on a lamp.
• Colours that look wrong on screen: compare with the real product in daylight, and correct brightness rather than heavily filtering.

A catalog looks organised when the light matches from product to product. Mark the table position, the reflector position and the time of day you shoot, and repeat them. If you plan to use generation tools later, consistent source photos give you more consistent results, because the tool starts from similar inputs.

After the photos are taken, tools such as Listing Photoshoot can build clean scenes around them, but they work best when the source photo is already evenly lit and sharp.

Before you shoot a whole batch, run a quick test with one product so you know your setup works.

1. Put the product beside the window and take one photo with no reflector.
2. Add a white card on the shadow side and take another.
3. Hang a thin sheet over the window and take a third.
4. Open the three photos on a large screen and pick the one with the softest shadows and truest colour.
5. Note which combination won, and repeat it for every product.

Doing this once teaches you more about your own window than any guide can, because every room has its own light.

Small items such as jewellery, cosmetics and stationery fit easily inside a small tent or on a table by a window, where the light source is much bigger than the product. Large items such as furniture or bags need more room and more light, so shoot them in the brightest part of the room with the window to one side, and step back so the phone does not distort the shape.