How to Light Paint a Product Photo Background Using a Smartphone

Here’s a fantastic 16-minute tutorial by photographer Dustin Dolby of workphlo (he’s like the Bob Ross of product photography) on adding a creative background to a product photo by light painting with a smartphone.

After walking through his lighting setup and individual shots (to composite later) in the first 6 minutes, Dolby jumps into how he revisits the set in complete darkness and shoots long exposure light paintings with colored backgrounds displayed on his phone screen.

Once everything is post-processed and then combined in Photoshop, the results look like they’re ready for use in a magazine advertisement.

You can find more of Dolby’s great tutorials on his popular workflo YouTube channel.