Natural Light Vs Artificial light for your brand product photography
After multiple DM’s and comments on Instagram, I am here to talk all about lighting.
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to your choice of lighting, it purely depends on what you want to achieve from it in terms of the tone and mood. In other words, sometimes, artificial lighting is better than daylight and vice versa. Personal preference plays a role as well.
To keep things simple to comprehend, let’s first talk about what they both mean. Artificial lighting is basically everything that excludes daylight and is generated using a source example a strobe, LED etc whereas day light on the other hand is quite self explanatory and very easy to find.
Now something you’re probably wondering is, which one is better for product photography? Is natural light better or artificial light? There is certainly not a right or wrong answer to this question, but there are pros and cons of both. In this Blog post, I’ll review the key differences between natural and artificial lighting sources, as well as the pros and cons of using either of them.
Natural Lighting for product photography
Advantages of Natural lighting
Most people starting out with their photography journey tend to use natural lighting for their product photographs. The biggest advantage being that it’s free, looks nice, easy to use and find as well as does not require much additional investments.
All you’d need to get started would be your camera and some natural light! To create natural lighting for your photos, you could shoot your photos either late in the morning or early afternoon. These particular times offer beautiful sunlight and will give sufficient lighting to your frame if next to a window. In addition to that being said, they’re also a few tools you can buy such as diffusers, reflectors etc that can make your experience shooting with natural light more seamless.
Disadvantages of Natural lighting for product photography
Although Natural lighting is easy to implement and use if you have a big window, it can be highly challenging as the lighting does not remain constant during the day. It is highly impacted by the weather, time of day, location, seasons etc. This can result in dull, grainy images on a dreary day.
The biggest con being that natural lighting is highly unpredictable- you might want a nice evening glow in your images, but it’s an overcast grey day. In case you’re shooting for an upcoming launch, only depending on natural lighting can result in delay and uncertainty.
Artificial Lighting for product photography
Advantages of Artificial lighting
Although it may seem daunting at first, using artificial light is a real game changer. You have full control to create the look you are after and are not bound by daylight hours (I’m specifically talking to people setting up their biz around a full time job and all the mumpreneurs working when their kids are in bed). You can create different looks, there’s so much you can do with just one light!
Artificial light is constantly available throughout the day and night, thus allowing you to skip planning your shoot around factors like the time of day and the weather has no effect on you.
Based on the specific type of artificial light you select, you can even mimic sunlight in your shots, giving the impression that you worked with natural light when you really didn’t. The photo below is a prime example of an artificial light setup mimicking sunlight. It’s all about experimenting and allowing yourself to try new things.
In addition, using artificial lighting gives you the opportunity to achieve a certain look or mood. Different modifiers achieve different looks without having to worry about a cloud blocking your light or the weather changing.
Disadvantages of Artificial lighting
The disadvantage of artificial lighting is that it does require an initial investment, which might feel daunting with so much choice. There are many affordable options within the market, you just need to know what you are looking for in terms of power output and modifiers (eg softboxes), I’ll dedicate a blog post on this soon.
You also need to have the space to set up the lights and move them around a bit to get the right angle for the look you need. If you’ve products are larger you will need more space than if they are small.
To get the results you desire, you will need time to practice using the lights and a bit of patience to develop your eye for what looks good and how to tweak the lighting.
Verdict
Which do You Prefer? What’s the final verdict? In my personal opinion, I’ve always been someone who enjoys the control that artificial lighting brings. I’m too impatient for daylight which changes every 10 minutes!
I’d still suggest starting with natural light and then making your way towards artificial lighting once you’re confident and ready for the investment!
I’d love to know your thoughts and preferences. If you fancy a chat or need some help, feel free to send me a message. You can find me on Instagram @brandphotographyclub
Are you ready to invest in lighting to level up your product photos?
