Your Guide to a Successful Product Photography Booking

So, you’re full of ideas and you’re ready to arrange that photoshoot!

To help you get the most out of your photography shoot, we’ve put together this guide with practical steps to take before you book.

The following list will help you avoid any common mistakes and ensures the process runs smoothly. Once these details are taken care of, you are ready to book in and we can get both relax and get ready to shoot! (the fun part!)

What we need to know before shoot day

What is the product?

We need to be made aware of how your product operates. Are there any key features that need to be emphasised?

How Many SKUs?

How many variants are there of your product that we need to shoot? Are there a range of different colours available? Are there notably different sizes?

When do you need the images to be delivered?

When booking your shoot - please bare in mind that as a standard our turn-around on images after your shoot is 10 days, however this can fluctuate based on the complexity and size of the shoot.

If you have left things a little too late and have an urgent deadline, do let us know before the shoot and we will do our best to get your images over to you faster for a small additional fee.

Usage & Licensing

Where will your images eventually end up? We include a perpetual license for use online with most of our shoots. If the images will also be used in print or on digital billboards in a public space, let us know before hand so we can let you know our usage fees up front.

Shoot Location

You are welcome to attend our photo shoot in person whilst we photograph your product in one of the various studios across Manchester.

Alternatively, we offer a remote photography services in which we set up a temporary studio in your space. This can be perfect for businesses with products that are difficult to transport.

Product Delivery

When and how will the products arrive? You are more than welcome to ship your samples to us, or if your business is in Manchester city centre then we are happy to collect your shoot samples in person!

Deliverables

Speaking of delivery, let us know what formats you want your final images to be delivered in and If you have any specific requests for image resolution.

Shoot Samples

Because of how detailed our images are, we need the products that will be used for the shoot to be in the best condition possible.

We encourage clients to provide as many copies of each sample as they can provide. This saves us time cleaning up your products in post production and ensures that any cosmetic damage that may have been caused in transport doesn’t impact your images.

The Brief

This will guide everything from our lighting to our lens choice so it’s important that this part delivers a consistent theme.

Your shoot brief should contain the following:

Visual Inspiration

This can be a Canva presentation, a Pintrest board or simply just a selection of images attached to an email.

Again, the key here is to show a consistent message that are able to tap into, through our selection of props, set colours and lighting choices.

Specifics (Shot List)

Next we need a shot list detailing which products need which assets.

A good shot list will tell us the following for each SKU

Angles required (Front on? Three quarters? Detail/close ups?)

Number of shots required

Group shots Required (and which products need to be shot together)

Image aspect ratio needed (portrait, landscape or square?)

Once we receive this initial brief, we work with you to order the right props, set materials and backdrop colours to make your vision come to life!

Providing this information up front sets everyone up for success and ensures the final images are not just visually appealing, but also strategically aligned with your brands message.

Now that all of that is out of the way - we cant wait to work with you!

And if you haven't reached out to us yet, get in touch today and discover how hiring a professional product photographer can take your brand to the next level!

Professional Still Life Photography: Complete Guide from Pre-Production to Post-Production

Introduction:

In this blog post we will go behind the scenes on a still life photography shoot for Manchester based sleeping mask and silk pillow brand Dreamsilk.

Pre production planning

Before every shoot we do, we discuss the following with the client:

Shot list

How many images?

This is important so we can gauge the clients expectations and so we can ensure that we book enough studio time in to get everything shot on the day.

Where are the images going to be seen?

Knowing the purpose of the images we will make can influence a lot in production. For example if we know that the shots will be used in e-commerce only, we might assume that as the images will be more likely to be seen all in a row next to each other on site, consistency from shot to shot is something that the client may need. If the shoot was only for social media, this is unlikely to play as much of a part and instead the focus may be more on styling and making images stand out to grab attention on social feeds.

For this shoot, the client wanted the shoot to be split between e-commerce photography for the Dreamsilk online store and creative assets for their site and socials.

Creative shoot planning

Some brands begin to plan their shoots long before approaching photographers and will only approach a photographer or photography studio once a clear plan has been made.

Other brands can be more flexible and will approach the photographer whilst still in the ideas stage and ask them to provide artistic direction on the shoot.

For this shoot I showed the client a mood board containing a shoot I did previously for another brand in the same market as a reference and we agreed that a similar set up would work well for the Dreamsilk sleeping masks.

E-commerce Shoot planning

For the e-commerce shoot the brand needed 3 shots per item. They wanted everything shooting on a white background with every image cut out in post production so everything can sit transparently on the site.

Production

Production schedule

Now we have an idea of shot complexity and timings, we ask the client what the order of priority is here, so we can ensure that the most important work is top of the agenda and is shot first. In this case the e-commerce work couldn’t wait as they had to be ready for the site launch earlier than the social posts were scheduled to go out.

Equipment & Lighting

For this shoot we used a Nikon D850, a 110mm Macro lens and 4 strobes on each set with 2 rolls of diffusion material used to create a softer quality of light and lesson any remaining wrinkles in the silk material.

Workflow

An organised workflow plays an essential role in professional photo shoots. We always shoot tethered to a laptop or monitor to ensure the client is happy with the images before moving on to the next shot. Tethering also helps us organise and rate files as we shoot so that every selected shot can be easily found for post production. All of the tethering process is carried out in Capture One.

Imperfections

To tackle imperfections in the product and props, these items are essential on every still life set:

• Iron or steamer for creases in fabric - this was extra important on our shoot as we were working with all silk products

• Lint remover

• Dust blower

This helps to minimise removal of dust and scratches in post production.

Post Production

Image selection and culling

Because we took care on set to rate and review images as they come in this part of post production was successfully avoided! This is one of the many benefits of having somebody from the brand on set.

Colour Grading

At the end of every shoot we take a grey card and colour checker reference image. This is to ensure that all of the products colours are represented accurately. We then take this reading and use it to set white balance and calibrate our cameras icc profile.

Once this process is complete we export the selected files as high resolution tiff files ready to retouch in photoshop.

Retouching

The Retouching process is when we make the finishing touches to the shoot before sending them over to the client. In this case the bulk of the retouching time was spent reducing the creases on the silk fabric which didn’t iron out totally on the day.

Exporting files and formats

The final step in post production is simply exporting the files in the clients desired format, in this case as hi resolution JPEGS and PNG files.

Final delivery and client communication

After the export I sent the files over to the brand and checked they were happy with everything.

Discover how hiring a professional product photographer can take your brand to the next level!

Contact us today for bookings and pricing.