NARS

NARS Orgasm blush compact and lip gloss on a deep red background with mirrored reflections.

Personal work is so important for creatives. It’s where we test new techniques, explore ideas and prepare for future assignments that may be outside of what previous clients have wanted. It’s a way of showing exactly what you can do beyond of your current body of work so you’re not asking a prospective client to take a chance on you sight unseen. I’m a firm believer in only showing work that you want to do in the future, so with that in mind, I thought having more cosmetics in my portfolio would be a good thing.

What I love about product photography as opposed to the more straightforward food or drink photography is that the higher-end examples are more often about ideas than simple documentation. A photo of a bowl of soup is generally going to be a bowl of soup, no matter how beautifully lit or extravagantly propped, but cosmetics photos (and photos of other “luxury” items of all kinds) are often more about mood and creativity than simply showing the product’s features. You could easily buy less expensive versions of these items, so there’s an even bigger push to create desire with our photos.

With that in mind, I picked up a couple of products from the NARS line in their popular “orgasm” colorway. The new packaging has a mirror finish, which I knew would be an exciting challenge to light and would offer me the opportunity to play with product in a way I don’t often get to.

The first image in this post highlights texture and color while communicating depth and richness with the deep red surface. I chose a simple lighting setup that made use of the compact mirror to provide the main light on the subjects, which gave it lots of dimension with interesting shadows raking across the surface.

NARS lip gloss skyscraper composite with pink clouds and flying birds.

This image was much more conceptual and came about when I shot the lip gloss from a high angle. Looking at it on my monitor, it felt like looking down on skyscrapers. To make the tubes feel more monumental, I layered in pink clouds to keep all of the images in the same color family, then added birds and their reflections to complete the illusion. It’s not something I often do, but I love how it turned out, and it gives me direction for future work.

If you’re looking for creative product photography (or even more traditional work), drop me a line! As a former art director, I’m comfortable working with you to develop concepts, but can easily shoot to spec if that’s what the project calls for.