At-home studio shoot of a dark bottle

What you see to the right is a quick shot of some hot sauce that was done at home, to show some friends what the bottle looks like.  The setup I used is rapidly becoming one of my favorite techniques for doing a quick at-home photoshoot that looks like it should be done in a lightbox.

Basically, when you’re doing a lightbox shoot, you’re trying to create an environment where light is diffuse, outside light doesn’t interfere, and you can control all aspects of the shot. Oh, and it has to be quick!

So, setting this up: first of all, I made sure that this was taking place after dark.  No light from outside to interfere.  Then, move to a room where light can be turned off.

Now, with the lights on, setup everything.  In this case, I setup a cookie tin in the back, and stole a pane of glass from a picture frame.  This became the bottom and the sides.  Then, one flash firing towards the back – to illuminate this guy from behind.  One more flash to the right, to give a kick to the site, and for some separation from the background.  Last, a softbox overhead, to light up the tag and make the lid stand out.

Below: a look at the overall layout, courtesy of the Online Lighting Diagram Creator.

Quickshot Layout