MADE BY PWR

STUDIES

Product shots, lit and graded.

Ten objects, each one a different lighting problem: matte glaze and polished brass, a white object on a white ground, worn steel, a label that has to stay legible. Same rig every time, so what changes in the pictures is the thinking and not the equipment.

What is ours here, and what is not. The objects are CC0 scans - public domain, free for any use, no attribution required. We did not model them and we do not claim to. What we did is the part a client pays a studio for: the lighting rig, the surface response, the camera angle, the exposure and the grade.

That is also how a real product shoot works. Nobody builds the bottle; they light it. These were rendered in a browser with physically based materials, under one rig kept identical across all ten so the set holds together. No real brand appears on any of them - the subjects were chosen for that as much as for how they look.

Client work is a separate thing and it is on the work page, described without pictures because the terms on those projects do not let us publish them.

  1. A yellow cordless drill standing on its battery pack, lit from the left on a cream background.

    01

    Cordless drill

    Tool

    Moulded plastic in two finishes, a rubber over-grip and a battery pack that has to read as a separate part. The lit edge down the body is what tells the eye it is plastic and not paint.

    How it was lit
    Three-quarter view, key from high left, one bounce filling the shadow side. The battery is turned into the light so the label stays legible.
    Material
    Textured ABS, soft-touch rubber, brushed metal chuck.
  2. A grey and red megaphone with a coiled cable, angled towards the camera.

    02

    Megaphone

    Electronics

    The hard part is the horn: a wide curved surface with nothing on it, which shows every flaw in the lighting. It carries a single soft gradient from the key and one rim highlight along the lip.

    How it was lit
    Turned to put the mouth of the horn towards the lens, because a megaphone photographed side-on stops reading as a megaphone.
    Material
    Painted steel, anodised red body, coiled rubber cable.
  3. A black 1980s portable stereo with twin speakers and a raised aerial.

    03

    Portable stereo

    Electronics

    Twenty separate surfaces - speaker mesh, brushed trim, moulded knobs, a cassette door, an aerial a millimetre thick - all of which have to hold together at one exposure.

    How it was lit
    Lower camera and a longer key, so the speaker grilles catch the light across the weave instead of flattening out.
    Material
    Textured plastic, speaker cloth, chrome trim, worn decals.
  4. A dented red steel jerrycan with worn paint, lit from above left.

    04

    Jerrycan

    Industrial

    Pressed steel with a lifetime of dents in it. Worn metal is harder to light than new metal: the finish changes across the surface, so the highlight has to break up rather than run clean.

    How it was lit
    Key raised until the pressed ribs cast their own shadows, which is what gives the panel its depth.
    Material
    Stamped steel, oxidised red paint, bare metal at the wear points.
  5. A red cleaning-product tin with a knurled metal lid, shot square to the label.

    05

    Tin

    Packaging

    Packaging photography, where the label is the product. The can is turned so the band runs across the frame and the lid stays out of the specular hotspot.

    How it was lit
    Exposure set for the red, which clips before anything else in the frame does. The lid is let go slightly bright on purpose.
    Material
    Lithographed tinplate, knurled steel lid.
  6. A blue and white patterned ceramic vase on a cream background.

    06

    Blue and white vase

    Ceramics

    Transferware under a glaze: the pattern sits below a reflective layer, so the highlight has to pass over the decoration rather than through it. That separation is the whole reason it reads as glazed.

    How it was lit
    Broad key close to the axis and a long falloff round the body, which keeps the pattern legible all the way to the edge.
    Material
    Glazed earthenware, cobalt transfer decoration.
  7. A white porcelain vase with a flared lip, against a cream background.

    07

    Porcelain vase

    Ceramics

    A white object on a near-white ground, which is the standard test of a lighting setup. It stays visible because the shadow side is allowed to go a full stop darker than the background.

    How it was lit
    One key, one bounce, no rim light. Anything more and the silhouette starts to dissolve into the backdrop.
    Material
    Unglazed porcelain with a fine throwing texture.
  8. A tall polished brass vase with a flared rim and a turned stem.

    08

    Brass vase

    Metal

    Polished metal reflects the room, so what you see on it is the lighting rig and nothing else. The bands across the body are the softboxes; getting those to fall where they do is the work.

    How it was lit
    Softbox positions adjusted until the reflections describe the form - wide at the belly, tight at the stem - instead of blowing out.
    Material
    Polished brass, lightly tarnished in the recesses.
  9. Two brass candleholders with white candles, the larger one in front.

    09

    Candleholders

    Metal

    Two pieces at different distances, which is a depth problem rather than a lighting one: the far one has to stay clearly behind without falling out of focus or out of the light.

    How it was lit
    Composed so the arms of the larger holder do not collide with the smaller one in silhouette - the most common mistake in a two-object shot.
    Material
    Aged brass with darkened chasing.
  10. A brown lidded stoneware pot with a matte glaze and a small knob.

    10

    Stoneware pot

    Ceramics

    A matte glaze with almost no specular response, so the form has to be carried entirely by the gradient across it. There is one highlight in the frame and it is on the lid.

    How it was lit
    Key pulled round further than the rest of the set, because a matte surface needs the light to rake rather than face it.
    Material
    Salt-glazed stoneware, iron oxide in the glaze.

The same rig goes on your product

A product render costs less than a photo shoot and does things a shoot cannot: every colourway from one setup, a angle changed after the fact, an object that does not exist yet. If you have a model we light it; if you do not, that is a separate line on the quote. The price is published like everything else.

See every price What we can actually do Describe a project