Professional photographers go to great lengths to perfectly control the lighting around pack shots. They shape the reflections and illumination to communicate the form and materials that have been so carefully considered in creating the packaging design. Packaging is an extension to the brand, which is why it’s so important to get the lighting perfect.
High quality images of packaging are needed throughout the entire process from design through to final implementation in advertising shots. In many cases pack shots need to be better than photo real. In most cases photographs are retouched for super real, super dynamic imagery that a photographer would struggle to capture with the constraints of real world lighting in the studio. This is why CGI imagery of packaging has become so popular. It’s ability to deliver visually perfect and pure imagery.
Successful CGI images must jump off the page and leave you in no doubt of the form and materials of the packaging. Shots don’t look 3D unless they are properly lit. You don’t know an object has form or is reflective until the light helps you describe this.
HDR Light Studio provides a new approach to lighting packaging – clicking directly on their surfaces to precisely place lights so they reflect and illuminate exactly as you want them.
It’s amazing to gain such direct control over the lighting. It also means pack shots can be lit within moments with perfect results that satisfy the most demanding imaging professionals. This object centred lighting process; working directly within a final shot is such a productive way to work, so much faster than building lights with mapped images or ramps and moving them in 3D space, in a trial and error approach.
Check out our gallery to view more packaging shots lit with HDR Light Studio.
