As a college student with not much money I have struggled in the past to complete assignments for my digital media design class. One of the most difficult to complete assignments was to shoot product photography because I just didn’t have the right set of lighting.

Well the good news is that if you’re in the same position, you can get creative and no one will even know it wasn’t taken in a professional studio. 

First, you need to find a spot with good enough lighting that you can put a table in front of. Getting a spot with good natural lighting is really important. For me, I have this huge window in the dining area of my apartment. In the mid-morning it extrudes lots of beautiful natural light. 

Next, you want to defuse the light from the window a little. A plain white sheet will do that perfectly. Just hang the sheet over the window to dim the light just a little bit. 

Now the set, think about what kind of photo look are you trying to go for? Are you looking for a bright springy photo? Something related to the holidays? Maybe dark and mysterious?

For the background, I simply set up white paper down on the table and put down some boxes behind it and taped white paper to the boxes. You can do whatever color you want here, my product was Chapstick lip balm, so I wanted my photo to have a nice clean look.

Place the product on the set to see what else needs to be done. Maybe shoot a few photos to get a good visual on where you need to improve your set. For me, the side that the light from the window was hitting from was too overpowering so I needed more light on the other side of the product. I have a natural light makeup mirror that I placed on its side to balance out the light.

In the end, my photos looked like they were taken in a fancy studio and nobody knew that it was taken on my kitchen table.