Studio lighting - cell phone

[lee griggs]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knew if of any decent studio lighting tutorials for lighting a cell phone out there? If not any similar sort of studio lighting tutorials would be appreciated.

cheers,
lee

[Asylum Steve]

any similar sort of studio lighting tutorials would be appreciated...

Hi Lee, welcome to the forum. Check out the first sticky post here for some good basic lighting tutorials. Phone cameras are really no different than many other types of digital capture devices, so learning about lighting in general should help you with your shooting...

[gahspidy]

I have a feeling Lee is wanting to photograph the cell phone as a product, which should be the same as most any other product photography.

[Asylum Steve]

I have a feeling Lee is wanting to photograph the cell phone as a product, which should be the same as most any other product photography.

Right you are, Gary. I didn't read that right...

[lee griggs]

Yes, sorry I should have been more specific. I want to photograph a cell phone using a studio interior. Below are some examples:











More on google:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?cl...N&hl=en&tab=wi

Many thanks in advance,
Lee

[jetrim]

At least 30% of the reason these 5 shots look this way is due to post processing, so keep that in mind. The two biggest obstacles are reflections and refractions. All of these were shot with soft diffused light, most with a softbox. The last 4 were shot on glass or plexi suspended above a white background (second & third shot were likely done on a product table with a light firing from below the white plexi tabletop and behind the subject). All made use of carefully placed flags/gobos (stands for go-between) and reflectors to get that "illustration" look. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but it is way more difficult to produce shots like this than I ever thought it would be. You really have to understand the behavior of light to pull these off, much like shooting high end jewelry.

Edit: Pay very close attention to the few reflections present on the buttons and screens, they leave a lot of clues regarding the different set-ups used in these shots.

[lee griggs]

Thanks jetrim. You pretty much summed up my assumptions.

There seems to be so little out there that shows exactly how to replicate such a photograph.

I will look into jewellery photography to see if it will give me any clues as to where to exactly place the lights/gobos/flags.

Thanks again,
Lee

[Photo-John]

First of all, since this is a serious photography site, we ask that you don't post photos that you didn't take in. We want to treat photo ownership with as much respect as possible. Please just post links if you have examples you want to share.

I've shot tons of studio photos of cameras and handheld devices like cell phones. The photos above all look like pretty standard shots. They were probably done using light tents or big softboxes. I've found a couple of big softboxes usually do the job. A fair amount of post-processing is usually necessary of you really want to lose the backgrounds. The straight shots usually end up with gray backgrounds. For the product reflection you can shoot on white plexi or make the reflection in Photoshop. One important detail is that you always have to do separate shots for the LCD display and the product. The exposure and white balance for the phone and LCD are very different. But it's easy enough to make two exposures and composite them in Photoshop. I do this for all photos that have an LCD display.

[lee griggs]

First of all, since this is a serious photography site, we ask that you don't post photos that you didn't take in. We want to treat photo ownership with as much respect as possible. Please just post links if you have examples you want to share.

oh sorry, I did not realise it would be a problem.

They were probably done using light tents or big softboxes. I've found a couple of big softboxes usually do the job.

Yes, I know this. I am trying to understand about the exact position, size, angle etc of these softboxes. I guess words are not enough. It would be helpful to see some photos of what you mean. Are you be able to provide some links to what this sort of setup would look like?

One important detail is that you always have to do separate shots for the LCD display and the product. The exposure and white balance for the phone and LCD are very different. But it's easy enough to make two exposures and composite them in Photoshop. I do this for all photos that have an LCD display.

Thats very useful to know, thankyou.

cheers,
lee