AI product photography for candle brands
Updated ยท Stillhouse
The short answer
Stillhouse photographs every candle in your range in the same room and light, lit and unlit, with the label restored from your own photo. Each frame is checked before you see it, and a candle that comes back with the wrong jar or label is thrown away and retaken.
Photographing candles
A candle is sold on mood. The customer cannot smell it through a screen, so the picture has to do the job: warm light, a surface that suggests a room, a flame that looks like a flame. That mood has to hold across forty scents.
The product itself is simple. A jar, a wax surface, a wick, a label. The difficulty is that every part of it is easy to get subtly wrong, and the label is the part a customer reads.
Common photo problems
- 01
The flame is the wrong colour
A flame lit by a studio strobe goes white and flat. In a room it is a small warm source that lights the glass, the wax and the surface around it.
- 02
Glass is hard to light
Amber, smoked and clear glass each need different light. Glass lit for a white background looks muddy once it is placed in a warm room.
- 03
Scent labels are small print
The scent name, the weight and the burn time are text a customer reads. An image tool that redraws small text gets it wrong.
- 04
A range looks like a market stall
Forty candles shot on different days in different rooms do not look like one brand. The fortieth should match the first.
What the studio does about it
- Lit and unlit from one set. The same room can show the candle lit for the mood frame and unlit for the clean product frame.
- The label comes back from your photo. The scent name and weight are restored from the photo you uploaded, so the type on the jar is your type.
- Every scent in the same light. Reshoot an approved frame for each scent or jar colour. Only the candle changes, and each is checked against its own photo.
The shot list for candles
- Hero of the candle, unlit, label facing the camera
- The same candle lit, with the glow on the surface beside it
- Detail of the wax top, the wick and the lid
- In a room: on a shelf, a side table or a bath edge
- Scale, with a hand or a book beside the jar
- A silent clip of the flame for the product page
Questions
Can the candle be shown lit?
Yes. The room's light and the flame's glow are part of the frame, and the product is checked against your photo. A lit candle is the frame to look at most closely before you publish it.
Is this the same as your homeware page?
No. The homeware page covers throws, ceramics and objects. This one is about the candle itself: the wax, the glass, the flame and the label.
Will the scent name on the jar be right?
The label is restored from your product photo, so it matches what you uploaded. A blurry photo gives a blurry label, so shoot the front of the jar straight on.
Can I get a short clip of the flame?
Yes. Any approved frame can become a few seconds of silent film: a push-in or ambient motion that loops. A clip is five credits.