Lighting a device mockup so it looks like an object

A device render is mostly flat surfaces and edges, which means lighting is doing nearly all the work of making it look real. Get it wrong and you get one of two failure modes everyone recognises: a black slab with a glowing rectangle, or a plastic-looking shape with no edges at all.

Three lights, in order of importance

A key light at roughly 45 degrees defines the form and casts the main shadow. A fill light on the opposite side, at a fraction of the key's intensity, keeps the dark side from going solid black. A rim light behind and above catches the top edge and separates the device from the background — this is the one people skip and the one that makes a render look professional. Add lights only when you can name what each one is doing.

Why metal and glass render black

Reflective materials do not have a colour of their own; they show you the environment. In an empty scene there is nothing to reflect, so chrome renders black and glass renders like a dark grey slab. The fix is not more light on the object but a brighter environment — a mid-grey surround with a couple of bright panels in it. This is also why a device that looks great on a light background goes lifeless when you switch to a dark one, and why the environment should be adjusted whenever the background changes dramatically.

The contact shadow does the grounding

A device floats unless something connects it to a surface. That connection is a small, dark, tight shadow directly under the contact point — not a large soft blob offset to one side. Keep it close, keep it subtle, and let it fade within a device-width. If the device is floating deliberately, a faint, much larger and lighter shadow below suggests height without pretending it rests on anything.