Product Photography Lighting Tips: The Gear We Actually Use at BLNK

If you’ve ever gone down the rabbit hole of “best product photography gear” lists, you’ve probably seen a lot of affiliate links, $2,000 lights, and cameras that cost more than your car.

Coming from someone who has been working in this industry for nearly ten years, I promise you, you don’t need all that.

What you do need is a simple, reliable setup and a few tricks that we use every week inside BLNK Studios here in downtown Daytona Beach.

We’ve shot everything from reflective sunglasses to melting food, and while every shoot is different, the same lighting principles apply.

1. Start simple

2. Build light intentionally.

3. Don’t overthink it.

Here Are Our Go-To Product Photography Lighting Tips

Start with One Big Soft Light

Our go-to move? An empty white background laid over a table with one product sitting on it (or plexiglass if we want clean separation), and a single big softbox. From there, we add more lights or reflectors only if we need them. It’s way easier to build light than to backtrack from a cluttered setup.

Soft, even light is the foundation of most product shoots.

Strobes Beat Continuous Lights (Most of the Time)

We’re team strobes at BLNK. The sharpness from a strobe just can’t be matched by constant lights. Our everyday setup includes a mix of Godox strobes and a few battle-tested White Lightnings that are older than Seth & Cece(seriously, I think our White Lightning Ultra 1200 is from the mid to late 90s).

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Budget tip: Don’t sleep on used gear. Marketplace finds can be gold, and older strobes are basically bulletproof. Have some questions about a light you found online? Shoot me an email, I'm happy to help ya out! 

Pro tip: One of our favorite product photography lighting tips is using a giant umbrella overhead with white foam boards on the sides. It's perfect for controlling reflections on shiny products.

Don't Forget the "Cheap" Gear

This is where I'm going to take you into a different direction than the polished "photography gurus" you see on social media. I'm not trying to make any money on affiliate links, so my opinions are just that, an opinion. But we've built BLNK with a couple of bucks rubbed together and some ingenuity.

White Foam Boards as Bounce Cards

The $1.92 white foam boards from Walmart? Buy some. They get about as much use in our studio as any of our expensive lighting attachments.

Make Your Product Float with Plexiglass

If you're shooting a product and need to shoot at a flat or even slightly upward-looking angle, plexiglass is a lifesaver. You can raise it up with a book and make it so your product appears to be floating. This is especially helpful when you need to mask out the product, like a bottle of lotion or something.

Springs Clamps and Gaff Tape

Just trust me. You'll find a use for them. We have an entire box filled with Spring Clamps we bought at Home Depot. Skip the photo store upsell on spring clamps.

And if you've never used Gaff Tape, consider your life changed. This tape is strong, leaves no residue, and is SUPER easy to rip down to size.

Backdrops Make or Break The Shoot

For most e-commerce product work, Seamless Paper is the GOAT. Projects where you are given a little more creative freedom or portfolio work, it's always a good idea to mix it up.

Our building mate, Copperline, has a rustic, southern country aesthetic with aged wood in their aesthetic. For the Cowboy Killers shoot we did for their merch drop earlier this year, we used pallet boards on the wall as our background and brought in some other visual elements and "smoke" to bring life to the background.

Invest in Lenses and Storage, Not Just Lights and Camera Bodies

Camera bodies come and go. Lenses will last a lot longer, especially if you stick with the same system. We shoot most of our product work on a 10+ year old Canon 24-105 f/4. It's versatile, sharp, and saves us from constantly swapping lenses.

But please, please, please do not skip on good memory cards and hard drives. I can't even tell you how many times we have heard stories of photographers losing shoots and years of work because a drive failed. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, like the Synology NAS we recently upgraded to.

Tripods Are Non-Negotiable

For product photography, a tripod will be your best friend and assistant. Repeatable angles, tack-sharp images, and easy adjustments. Handheld works great for portraits, but for product photography, we are advocates for a proper, solid tripod.

Try Before You Buy! Not sure which lights or lenses fit your style? Rent them before you drop serious cash. At BLNK Studios in Daytona Beach, we stock Godox strobes, continuous lights, and lenses like the 24-70mm and 50mm so you can test gear in a real shoot.

Wrapping It Up

Start simple, add as needed, and don't underestmate the power of a sub $2 foam core. Slowly acquiring gear over a long period of time is the safest and most sustainable way to go about it. And don't be afraid to sell something you have sitting on the shelf and haven't touched in months. If you ever have any questions about where to start or what camera lens makes the most sense for you, shoot me a message. I'm always here to help out! 

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