If used in an environmental kitchen shot, there can be nothing else that could draw attention away from the mixer in the shot. Putting a well-designed product on a cluttered background is a disaster that ruins all the hard design work. Its completeness and not needing a bunch of other stuff also conveys a message of competence and quality. If I use one of those expensive KitchenAid mixers as an example, a lot of money went into the industrial design, the paint is gorgeous, and the finish quality tells the buyer something about the device. Either the background is used to isolate the subject to focus viewer attention or it provides environmental context where the product excels. The background in product photography can only have one of two jobs. I cannot tell you what to buy, but you absolutely get what you pay for when it comes to lighting. If you do not, and do not have a colour meter as well as the skills to use it properly, your light is not going to be successful. Whatever you choose, purchase all the lights from the same manufacturer. No windows, room light, table lamps or anything else. If you are using continuous lights, they should be the ONLY light sources. If you’re shooting with speedlights or strobes, set them in manual mode. The lighting must make the viewer WANT ONE of whatever it is. If your lighting does not do this, whatever your product is, it will look lousy and the project is unsuccessful. You must design your lighting to highlight the shape, the lines, the mass (or lack thereof) and the differentiation of your product. Your lighting goal is to make the product look awesome whether you are shooting a pencil, a food processor, a personal entertainment device or a motor vehicle. Your work just got harder as you will be doing high dynamic range (HDR) shooting via bracketing. The exposure readings will not matter because they will be wrong. Use your in-camera spot meter to measure each and figure out the range. You also need to know the darkest part and the lightest part of your subject and to determine the dynamic range between the two. You want shadows and textures and direction to create dimensionality. Flat light is boring and creates two dimensional images.
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