January 17, 2023

Enhance Product Photography with Spekular

Whether you’re taking product shots for your own business or for clients, the KYU-6 light wraps from Spekular are a fantastic tool to create eye-catching ‘hero’ shots of important products. Spekular KYU-6 are the world’s thinnest Cine-Lights featuring magnetic mounting, allowing you to add endless creative opportunities to your photography.

Below are two examples from real photographers to give you an idea of the many ways you can use KYU-6 light wraps in your product photography. Professional food, drink and still-life photographer Scott Choucino used the KYU-6 light wrap to add a dynamic element to a simple background. Whereas professional food photographer Jena Carlin used several KYU-6 light wraps to add accent lighting to a scene for a stop-motion video. These two examples give you a glimpse into the countless creative opportunities at your disposal when you have Spekular in your gear bag.

Add a splash of light and colour to simple backgrounds with Scott Choucino

One of the quickest and easiest ways to amp up your product photography when you want to get that ‘hero’ shot is by using Spekular KYU-6 light wraps to light-paint a simple background. In the example below, professional photographer Scott Choucino photographed a can of tonic water using a KYU-6 light wrap to create an eye-catching image that draws attention to the product.

The Setup

Scott began by selecting a simple coloured background to complement the colour of the product in question and positioned the can on a pedestal cropped out of the frame. With a tethered workflow, Scott was able to quickly test the positioning of the can and adjust if needed by checking the test shots tethered to his monitor.

The Shoot

Once Scott was happy with the composition and lighting, he began experimenting with the KYU-6 light wrap, painting light behind the product to enhance the image. The approach to this was trial and error; Scott wanted to use the KYU-6 to achieve geometric lines behind the product. After a few attempts, he got the perfect light paint behind the can that draws the eye to the product, making it stand out against the background.

Using KYU-6 light wraps as accent lights for bottle photography with professional food photographer Jena Carlin

KYU-6 light wraps are a fantastic tool that you can use to add accent lights to all sorts of images, as they are so flexible and versatile. They’re great for adding distinct pops of colour to scenes, directing attention precisely where you want it to give depth and dynamism to your shots. For example, they make a great addition when photographing products made from glass or clear plastic, as you can add light through the product to create interesting highlights that capture attention.

Food photographer Jena Carlin demonstrated how she uses both the KYU-6 Bi-Color LED Light Wrap and KYU-6 RGB Light Wraps to add interest and intensity to her Blue Moon beer stop-motion sequence.

The Setup

Jena arranged the bottle on a bedding of sand to pair with her background choice, a night sky timelapse of a mountain which she displayed on her BenQ monitor. When working on product photography, don’t forget that something as simple as a monitor display is a quick and easy way to create eye-catching backgrounds. Just make sure to use copyright-free images or even one of your own!

Using the four KYU-6 light wraps, Jena added accent lighting to the scene. She positioned two RGB light wraps to the left and right of the bottle, both out of shot to focus coloured highlights on the sand. Then she placed two bi-colour wraps directly behind the bottle to illuminate the amber colouring of the glass. None of the KYU-6 wraps were visible as they were concealed by the sand or the bottle itself, but both provided the perfect glow through the glass bottle.

Jena also had her camera tethered to her laptop using Tether Tools tethering cables so she could instantly view her shots as she took them. This is useful in every photo shoot, but particularly when the scene is constantly changing (due to the timelapse on the BenQ monitor) and you need to adjust the positioning of your light wraps and product.

The Shoot

The RGB light wraps, placed to the left and right of the bottle to highlight the sand, were initially set to blue. However, the colour of the night sky timelapse video changes as it cycles through its run, starting blue but then going more purple and eventually into red and yellow tones. The background also grows darker as it progresses, and this is where the flexibility of using RGB light wraps, with their 15 different colours, comes in.

Jena adjusted the light wraps to reflect the overall look of the background scene. As a stop-motion sequence, pressing play and pause while adjusting the colour didn't affect the flow of the shoot. Using a tethered workflow meant that Jena could select an accurate colour on the light wrap, and as the background steadily grew darker, it helped her to decide when it was time to remove the KYU-6 light wrap that sat camera-right.

All that remained was to stitch together the series of images to create her stop-motion video! Watch the full behind-the-scenes of Jena’s shoot here.