I did a presentation on commercial photography for the Professional Photographers Association of PA. One of the sets allows for adding a deep rich color. I’ll share it here with you. By the way, if you are in Pennsylvania in the area surrounding Harrisburg, you’ll want to check out this photography group!
Vibrant color
Many newer photographers have difficulty in rendering deep vibrant color for commercial photography. I know I had issues because it is counter intuitive. In order to get richer color you need to underexpose the light and use a black background. It took me a while to figure that out. I was using gels on my flashes and tried to add too much light which would wash out the colors. It’s much easier these days. Today’s RGB LED lights allow you to dial in exactly the color for which you are looking. Below is the layout of the set.
Black is key
My recommendation is to use black seamless paper. For larger commercial photography sets, a 53-inch roll works well. If you are shooting a very small product you can get away with a 16×20 piece of construction paper. The black background is placed behind the set. Depending how you want your lighting pattern to look you can place small LED panels outside camera view. Or in this case, I wanted the light to rise up and fade behind the products. I used an LED light tube which was placed behind a wooden cutting board. With the light hidden the feather works nicely to add some extra interest. Changing the RGB numbers and the brightness of the light changes the color rendering.
Once you start to play with this concept, you’ll find different ways to achieve whatever color you are looking for. To get lighter, softer colors, you can change from a black background paper to middle grey or white. With those three paper choices and RGB LED lights the rainbow is at your command!
Yours in Creative Photography,
Bob
