Your product photos sell your product – so how do you make sure you get the best product photos?  Based on my experience with clients who run product-based businesses, I have discovered 6 secrets to a successful product shoot:

Vision/A Goal

What is your goal for these photos? This helps us narrow down how and what to shoot. Do you want to create a variety of content to grab from for the next four months? Are you looking for simple e-commerce listings? Do you want to show off your product in action on models to show moms how durable your products are? What holidays or sales are coming up that you’ll want to talk about on social media? What new products are launching and what do you want your customers to know about them? Take time to figure out what your goal is with these photos.

Be Clear On Your Brand

What style is your brand? What colors? What feel do you want to convey? What message do you want to send to your potential clients? If you don’t already have a mood board for your brand, start one! Create a pinterest board and pin things that give you the feeling you want your customers to have when they interact with you and your products. Is your brand playful and funky and colorful? Is it sophisticated and muted and soft? Keeping things in mind will help keep your photos on-brand and send the right message to your community in your posts.

A Plan

Let’s go in with a plan to make sure that you get the images you need.  Do you need images of each product separately, or do you sell in collections where items need to be photographed together? Use your mood board and We create a shot list based on your vision so that you walk away from the shoot with images that you need, and will use.

Location/Backdrop

Your vision determines the type of location or backdrop we use for your shoot. The right location or backdrop appeals to your ideal customer and convey the message you want –  whether that’s simple and bright, dark and moody, a natural setting, or on a kitchen or bathroom counter. We plan this together! Backdrops can be for flat lays and basic product shots where we are shooting in a 24′ space, or they can be a whole building or outdoor space to match the style and give the vibe you want.

Great props

Props add texture and dimension and create compositions that appeal to your ideal customer! If you’re going to be posting about fun summer ideas, then we incorporate fun summer props! If you are prepping for Christmas markets, then we incorporate Christmas props. Is your brand earthy and organic and simple, or bright and fun and colorful? Props help us convey these things! You can find props anywhere – great places to start are your house, thrift stores, HomeSense, Etsy, etc.

Communication

One of the most important aspects of working with your brand photographer is getting on the same page and communicating what you want from the shoot. My clients get a questionnaire that is so helpful in uncovering what they want the photos to say about their brand, who their ideal customer is, what they want to show off about their products, and what specific requests they have. These things are KEY in getting the right photos and maximizing the investment of both time and money. I come up with a shot list so we make sure we get what we need – pretty photos are great but we need to sell your product and that takes intentional shooting!

 

Send me an email using the Contact form to ask me any questions you have about brand shoots!