Shooting reflective surfaces (basics)

Struggling to shoot shiny or reflective surfaces?
Start here — with a simple, practical guide to photographing flat, mirror-like objects.

We’ve been photographing all kinds of reflective surfaces for years — and we’ve shot a lot of them.
From experience, we can say this with confidence: reflective objects are some of the hardest things to shoot in product photography and video.

I’ll include some of my portfolio images below.
Please note: these photos are not from the lesson itself — they’re examples from our past work with reflective surfaces.

🔍 What This Lesson Covers

This lesson is not a full guide to shooting all types of reflective objects.
Instead, it’s a deep dive into one specific scenario:
How to photograph a flat, mirror-like surface in a controlled environment.

You'll learn:

🔸 How to make a surface actually look reflective
Lighting alone doesn’t show reflection — you need to reflect something into the surface.

🔸 Why standard lighting doesn’t work on mirrored objects
We demonstrate what happens when you try to “light” a mirror — and why the result is just a black patch unless you reflect a light source at the right angle.

🔸 How to shape light through reflections
We explore multiple ways to create reflections and gradients.

Here’s what we’ll be shooting:
The metallic label on a perfume bottle. We’ll show you how to achieve all the variations you see in this photo — using different lighting techniques and setups.

Being able to shoot highly reflective surfaces is a critical skill for any product photographer.
The difference in how you capture something like a metallic label can be dramatic. One photo might end up looking like total junk — while another, with the right lighting, can look absolutely stunning.

The lesson is in video format.
Available immediately after purchase.