Recreating sunlight in studio
This final image was composited in Adobe Photoshop with an Adobe Stock Image grass texture.
Modern product photography, where the bold, direct sunlight tells its own story. This trend, blooming across Instagram, brings products and dishes to life in a raw, earthy light, creating deep shadows and emphasizing textures in a way that's utterly real and irresistibly cool. This style speaks volumes: "This is the real deal. This is the moment."
In this blog, we’ll explore how I replicate the sun in the studio. The technique is pretty simple, and for these images, I just used the following:
1 Monolight Strobe (Godox AD400 Pro)
Green Posterboard I purchased at an art store)
White piece of foam core board that I used as a reflector)
I aimed to test a few different modifiers and the bare bulb to see which technique provided the most realistic shadow and overall look.
The modifiers that I used are the following:
Rectangular Softbox (without Diffusion) 24x35in)
Stnadard Metal Reflector
Longthrow Deep Metal Reflector
Also, I used the grid on the softbox to add a shadow texture to replicate a tennis net. I ended up not using it for the final image because I didn’t think it was necessary, but it still worked pretty well.
Let’s get into the shot-BY-shot comparIson
(Final images were cropped, and the color of the green background was slightly shifted. I also applied auto levels to all images. Final images were processed with Capture One Pro. For those who are curious, images were captured with the Canon R5 and the RF28-70 lens.
Softbox w/ Grid + Reflector - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ Grid (No Reflector) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox Only (No reflector or grid) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ reflector board (no grid) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ reflector board (no grid) - Light Positioned High
Softbox Only - Light Positioned High
Bare bulb - Light Position High
Deep Long Throw Reflector - Light Position High
Small Standard Reflector - Light Position High
Softbox w/ Grid + Reflector - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ Grid (No Reflector) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox Only (No reflector or grid) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ reflector board (no grid) - Light Positioned Low
Softbox w/ reflector board (no grid) - Light Positioned High
Softbox Only - Light Positioned High
Bare bulb - Light Position High
Deep Long Throw Reflector - Light Position High
Small Standard Reflector - Light Position High
In the end, I think the four methods of lighting work well, and each one provides subtle differences in the shadows and the highlights. I think the most realistic is obviously the bare bulb as this looks most like the sun.
As you know, the sun is a very bright but small light source relative to the distance. So, a bare bulb is going to make the most sense, which is why it’s the winner.