It took a whole day to photograph all my Etsy pots! I never thought it would end. But toward the end the anxiety of it subsided and I was able to have some fun with lighting using a candle. First I only used it because the bird feeder that I made doubles as a candle holder. But then my orchid pots hadn’t been photographed and I figured, what the hell, let’s try the candles. Maybe I can get some cool shadows.

First Set

This is the bird feeder/candle holder. I used one of my 3 regular lights with an umbrella for the outside lighting. The light was pretty far away from my setup (6ft away maybe), behind me and to the right, so that it balances out the candle light without overwhelming it.

These guys above are my orchid pots. The narrow cut-out flower petals turned out to be great for crisp, pretty shadows. On the brown pot the candle also made a nice glare and brought out the little specks and pattens in the glaze. These guys got the same treatment as the bird feeder – one umbrella in the far right/back and the single candle.

Second Set

Inspired by the success of my pot photos, I borrowed a couple of pieces from Travis, my studio mate (ex-studio mate now, i guess), who made a bunch of candle holders over the summer.

By the time I got to photographing these, my candle must have burned down because you could hardly see it and the first set of photos was unusable. To achieve the drama and sparkle that these pots deserve, I updated my setup with a black poster board (photo below on the left) and a much bigger flame (photo below on the right). The board helped offset the whiteness all around; I don’t know the technical terms/effects here, but it helped. For the larger flame I stuck together 4 birthday candles.

And, Ta-Da! Here are the results:

Thanks to Travis for letting me use his beautiful pots!