Photographing some fabulous autumn leaves that I found the other day reminded me that one of the big challenges when you’re capturing something on camera is making sure it doesn’t look flat and the viewer gets a good idea of what its shape and form is  in real life.  That’s particularly important if you’re showing off one of your products on your website or blog.  The good news is that the direction of light in your photograph can really help the viewer to see your product’s true form and texture by casting shadows that give the brain big clues.

It was a cloudy day when I photographed these leaves so both the pictures below were lit with soft window light – you can see that the shadows have soft edges which gives you a clue that the light was diffused or softened by something, in this case the clouds.  The position of the leaves on the slate is the same for both photographs – all I did was turn the slate through 90 degrees.

One is lit with the light coming from the top of the picture, the other is lit with the light coming from the left hand side.   Look at where the shadows are falling to determine which is which, then scroll down to check your answer.

The position of the shadows should tell you that the first picture was the one that was lit from the side.  So which is best?   Lit from the top, you can see lots of the veins in the leaf, but it’s not obvious how curled the leaves are.  Lit from the side the shadows reveal how pronounced the central stem of the leaf is and the shadows and highlights show the curl of the leaves.

So lighting your subject from a side angle is best for showing its form.  The best angle will depend on your subject.  Move your product in relation to the light until you get the best image. And if it’s something large that can’t be moved, try moving your light if you can.  If you can’t move the light source, move yourself so you’re photographing it from different directions.

If you’d like to learn more about taking photos for your business, I run “Photography for busy business people” workshops which give you lots of tips and hints for using your smartphone or point-and-shoot camera.  If you live further afield, I’m busy turning the workshop into an online course, so sign up here to be one of the first to know when the online version goes live and get a special launch offer too.