How to prepare for a product photoshoot for your brand

Planning a product photoshoot for your brand and no idea where to start?

Planning a photoshoot be it with a professional photographer or a DIY shoot gets the best results when you do some planning ahead of time!

This ensures that you capture all the shots you want and need of your products for your product listings, website, social media and marketing!

So what can you do in advance to get the most out of your photoshoot!?

1. Create an Inventory List of Products to be shot

I highly recommend completing an inventory list of everything you want shot and make a note of any products you want shot together or in a flatlay etc so nothing gets missed on the day! It is amazing how quickly the time can go and without a full list to refer to it is easy to miss shots. Now that’s not to say that once I have taken the money shots, I don’t get creative and tweak the styling and shooting angles - sometimes that’s when the magic happens. But it means you will nail the absolute essential shots.

It will also help you estimate how much time to set aside for the shoot so you give yourself plenty of time. I recommend 5-10 minutes per product depending on how many different shots you want of the setup.

And don’t forget to refer to your marketing plan to think about any upcoming product launches, special offers or even any blog, newsletter, video or podcast content you plan on writing so that you ensure that you have images that will support your messaging and marketing!

2. Make sure your products are clean and pristine

Whilst you can sort out MANY problems or flaws in products in post production, this can be tricky and time consuming. So do take the time to clean and check all your products ahead of the shoot to make sure they are pristine. It is amazing how much detail the likes of a macro lens can capture! For small items you may want to check them with a magnifying glass or loupe to make sure you are happy with everything up close.

For fabrics you can use a lint roller to make sure there isn’t any dust or fluff on them.

For jewellery give everything a clean with warm, soapy water and a polishing cloth to make sure they are sparkly clean.

I recommend storing your products individually in paper bags, plastic bags or their own pouches or boxes and kept in a dry, dark place so they are not damaged when being stored. This also prevents dust and other marks forming on the products.

3. Create duplicates for group shots

Group shots can really look amazing and are perfect for banners, hero shots and upselling other items in the same collection! So it is worth creating duplicates of your product samples for group shots. These means you can show different sides of the products at the same time or different finishing or colour options for customers.

I like to photograph group shots with items in multiples of 3 or 5 as these numbers are the most pleasing to the viewer. Any more products can overwhelm the viewer.

4. Gather your props and backgrounds for the shoot

Once your products are photoshoot ready, its time to gather any props or backgrounds that you want to use during the photoshoot. Props should always be :

Relevant (and help tell your product story) - your props should always make sense for your product and your brand

Be an appropriate size. If your products are small think of small scale props so the props don’t overwhelm the product.

Create layers and texture. One of the key roles of props is to create movement, layers and texture that make your products pop! Again, the textures and layers shouldn’t overwhelm your products.

Be a good fit for your products. Props should be relevant and on-brand colour-wise so it is worthwhile creating a moodboard for your photoshoot that creates a colour palette for your brand imagery.

Do check out the Canva Moodboard Template that I created to help you capture the look and feel you want to achieve with your photoshoot.

5. Create a shot list

This is such a handy tip particularly if you created an inventory list of products to shoot. This helps you plan out your setups and shooting angles. Now once I have taken my shots on my shot list I do always freestyle different angles and tweak the styling as sometimes that’s when the magic happens. But having a shot list makes sure you cover the absolute essentials and it is very satisfying to check your products and shots off the list as you are working!

6. Pack and post your items carefully

Your products are super special! So if sending items to a photographer, I recommend wrapping everything up carefully so items aren’t damaged in transit. Wrap everything individually in tissue, bubble wrap or boxes so they don't get damaged or scratched. This means that items will look their absolute best for their glamour shots.

And don’t forget about the likes of your packaging and gift vouchers! These things make buying from you special so it is worth capturing gorgeous shots of these items too.

7. Set aside enough time for shooting & editing

Using the product list and shot list will help you estimate how much time you need to dedicate to shooting your products. I recommend 5-10 minutes per product to give you time to tweak your styling and positioning of the product, take the shots and then carefully pack them away when you are done.

Editing your images can often take as much time as it took to shoot the image so I recommend at least 5 minutes per product for editing. You won’t want to edit all your photos. You will want to cull your shots to create a short list of the best shots to edit. I typically do the following:

• An initial cull to remove dud shots that I am not happy with.

• I use 3 stars in Lightroom Classic to flag the photos I want to inspect in more detail

• I use 4 stars in Lightroom Classic to flag my edited shots (I always at least crop, brighten, sharpen and adjust the contrast, highlights of every image). I will use any local adjustments needed to make the product pop. I can also do basic touching up in Lightroom.

• I use 5 stars in Lightroom Classic to indicate my favourite shots.

• I do a more detailed touch up products as required in Photoshop if products are damaged or scratched.

8. Store your beautiful new images safely

Once you have your gorgeous new images you are going to want to save and store them securely so you always have easy access to them when you need them. I recommend saving a high resolution (300DPI) version that can be used in print, and a low resolution (under 150KB) for web.

I recommend storing your images on your computer (if you have enough storage space), a removable hard drive (backup), and in the cloud so you always have backups. I also store my image on a long-term storage device that does regular auto backups to a duplicated drive so if all the other methods fail I can access my images.

I store my images in folders using the shoot date, client name or collection name depending on the project so I can easily locate the files I need.

Also remember to rename your images using descriptive keywords that customers might use to search on google to help with the SEO of your website!

To Conclude!

Regardless of whether you have booked a professional photoshoot or have scheduled a DIY Photoshoot for your products and brand. By doing a little bit of preparation ahead of the shoot you will not only capture all the shots you want and need, but it will make the whole process stress-free.

I have created a handy checklist of things to remember when planning your shoot so click on the button to download your checklist!

And if you want help capturing beautiful images of your products I am now taking bookings for 2021! I offer all Clients a consultation planning session prior to their shoot and from January 2021 ALL Clients (even mini shoot Clients!) will receive a photoshoot moodboard prior to their shoot as it has worked so well for my Full Day and Half Day Clients.

From January Full-Day and Half-Day Clients will receive my new enhanced moodboards with a styling guide and shopping list for props and backgrounds used during their photoshoots so they can replicate the styling at home for their DIY Product Shots. I am so excited about these and I think they will be a massive help for brands wanting a consistent and on-brand visual style!

I offer no obligation discovery calls if you want a chat about my packages and to find out if I am a good fit for you and your brand! So please click below if you want to book a call to chat about how I can help you!