I’m always looking for beautiful brands to work with. A couple of weeks back, we received an inquiry for product photography. The brand makes luxury candles. We were excited to see what project they have lined up for us!

Oh! When I say we, I mean me and my husband, Vishi! He loves to keep himself low key and invisible!

Ok, coming back, the brand came with a challenge! And before any discussions I said yes!!!

The candle jars were mirrors! Concave jars with high reflections ! We needed to photograph it keeping in mind the luxury of the brand, the reflections and use props that create a romantic mood!! Vishi asked me how confident I was to say yes in just a sec!

I love challenges! I knew I could crack this! Well we did! And that gained us beautiful trust from the brand and ended in happy smiles!

I have to admit we do not own too much gear! We are too new as a business to invest in a lot of gear and props! But, the satisfaction of creating something beautiful with what you have to its best makes it all worthwhile!

I really wanted to share with you how we cracked this challenge with simple theories and one light setup.

Initially you need to study how reflective is the surface. In this case, its completely reflective like a mirror. also note that its cylindrical in shape. Once you place the subject, then comes the add ons; the props.

Placing the props on either sides or in front of the reflective subject is going to reflect back on the subject. Also, if you notice, the surface of the subject looks matte due to the matte surface on which I’ve placed the bottle.

Placing a plexiglass or mirror as the base add to better and clear reflections on the subject.

It’s also crucial how you place the light and how you angle your camera to create that perfect reflections to bring out the best mirror finish luxurious look.

Here, I’ve placed my artificial continuous light at a top down 45 degree angle (I’ve used an octagon softbox) preferably a strip or rectangular softbox.
If you use natural light, it’s a lot dependent on what’s outside your window. Having clear skies act as a soft box but having trees or the street just outside the window might reflect back on the subject.

Angling the camera also on a top down 45 degree from in front of the subject has helped me get rid of unwanted reflections from what’s infront of the subject (room, table top, etc). The prop reflections exist. So let’s handle that situation now!

Placing props behind the reflective subject eliminates any unwanted reflections on it. I really believe in getting the shot right and edit minimally. I don’t want to be spending hours cloning and brushing on photoshop!

Now, there’s one more thing that bothers me! There’s just so less of the clean, neat light reflections on the subject.

By just a simple white foam panel from the left has helped in bringing light from the left and looks absolutely beautiful, making the photo complete!

Finally, editing it to a clean classy photo makes me smile! It’s really that simple! No expensive gear, light setup or post production! Don’t fret to say yes to your client or just go ahead and have some fun trying to photograph a shiny Christmas decoration ball! I’m sure you’ll be mind blown with the results!

Here’s a small video to explain my setup, visually.

Hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial and let me know if you do try shooting something reflective!

Tag me on @ALetterToMyFood on Instagram and let’s share our learnings and findings and grow this community stronger!