Photographing crystal — commercial photography

My gallery client said, “I tried 15 different times to shoot this art! All of them are horrible. Can you help?” And, of course, the answer is yes.

Photographing Crystal

Photographing crystal art is challenging. It’s a reflective surface that shows everything that it sees. This piece also has a crystal cube with colors suspended inside which is its own can of worms. My client shared that he kept seeing himself in the reflection in addition to the piece looking ‘flat.’ As always it comes down to proper lighting and staging of the art.

Photographing crystal — the set

I initially was going to go for dramatic lighting on a black background. I quickly dispensed with that idea as the crystal was picking up dark reflections from the surroundings. I switched over to a white seamless background.

Lighting set and product

The crystal was flanked with white diffusers which were lit from behind. This gave a nice simple clean white set with a little dimension. I used an LED flashlight and an LED light cube. A slightly higher camera angle with the subject turned a little to the side showed that the art is a cube. The main light was also an LED flashlight shined from camera right to give final illumination and cast a dramatic shadow and reflected light adding depth and dimension to the scene.

When in doubt experiment

I played with a few different lighting ideas before coming up with the final combination. Use one light at a time to see the effect. Then build in the next light, and make adjustments so the two work together. Then add the final light. I recommend going into any commercial shoot, especially photographing crystal, with an open mind.

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob