Lighting for Product Photography

The keys to the ideal lighting for product photography are diffusion and light colour. 

Diffusion

Harsh lighting can cause shadows, glare, reflections and hotspots. 

The EZcube® is the ideal way to diffuse the light.  Although it is possible to illuminate the EZcube^® using sunlight, the availability of sunlight tends to be unreliable so a professional lighting solution is the best approach.  A good balance of lighting is achieved by illuminating the EZcube® from two opposing sides, although please note that no single light position will work for every item or every situation and many and varied results and effects can be achieved by adjusting the angle and position of the lights.

We recommend using Perfect Daylight 5000K Compact Fluorescent Bulbs because they:

	are the perfect colour for the Northern Hemisphere, giving light identical to natural daylight (see below)
	use very little power relative to the light they produce
	stay cool and so are safe to touch
	do not heat up the lamp holders, EZcube® or the products being photographed (especially important for some products)
	have a long lifespan (typically 8000 hours)
	are eco-friendly

Light Colour

The colour of light (correctly known as the "colour temperature") is measured in units of Kelvin (K).  The range of the Kelvin (K) scale for visible light is 1500K to 9000K. The lower the number the warmer or more yellow the light and the higher the number the cooler or more white and/or blue the light. The human eye is not able to see all of the colour in the range of colour temperature. 

The ideal colour temperature for product photography is 5000K as this provides the best colour balance and representation without the need for filters or software editing.  This ensures correct colour rendering and balance such that the colour of the image closely resembles the colour of the original item.  This is very important if you are selling items online as your customers need to be sure that your image accurately reflects the genuine colour of the item.

Mixing Light Colours

It is important to be sure that you do not mix light colours - all the light sources that you use at one time need to be the same colour temperature.  No camera, no matter how good or expensive, can cope with more than one colour of light at the same time.  All the light sources that you use together should be the same colour temperature.  Remember that UK Daylight is 5000K so it is safe to use our 5000K lighting with natural daylight from a nearby window (for more about this see below)

Daylight Balanced Lighting

There is a lot of confusion about "daylight" or "daylight balanced" lighting.  Lighting described as “daylight” can be anything between about 4700K and about 6500K but not all of this range is suitable for specialist product photography.  The range of suitable lighting is very much smaller, in the region of 5000K to 5500K maximum.  

Our lighting is 5000K because this most accurately reflects true natural daylight of the kind that will be coming in your window.  As mentioned above, it is important always use lighting products that all match in their Kelvin value and this applies to window light just as much as to any artificial light you might use.  Unless you want to work in the dark (at night or with blackout blinds) then the artificial lighting you use should be the same colour as your natural window light.  Natural window light can actually be used to advantage providing that your artificial lighting is the same colour.   

The colour temperature of “natural daylight” (the daylight coming in your window) depends on where you are on the planet since the colour temperature of “natural daylight” varies with latitude.  The colour temperature of “natural daylight” on an average day in the UK and Europe (Northern Hemisphere) is 5000K.  Colour temperature of 5400K only occurs at noon on a very sunny day (very rare in the UK) and so lighting of 5400K is inappropriate at any other time or under any other circumstances.  Lighting of a colour temperature above 5400K is suitable only for Central Latitudes.  The diagram below illustrates this well.

It is clear from this explanation that for perfect colour representation, so that the colour of an image appears identical to the way the object would appear under normal UK daylight conditions to someone who was viewing the object (and not an image of the object), 5000K will give the perfect match.  Therefore, lighting of 5000K will give the very best images without problems or corrections.

Why spend hours editing the images when you can take them right in the first place! J

Warm White - 2700K

Warm yellow colour (similar to normal household bulbs)

Cool White - 4200K

Less yellow colour - a mix of the green, yellow and orange parts of the spectrum.

Daylight - 5000K

Clear natural and full spectrum pure white light (ideal for product photography)

Super Daylight - 6400K   

Clear natural and full spectrum light with large shadows (unsuitable for product photography)