For on location product photography, thought goes into where to do the shoot.
When you are selling a product on line, it's often a good idea to have photography for the website and social media that has those products in use. Finding a location for product photography takes some thought, and that is part of the 'creative call' that I have with clients in advance of a shoot. For the Leon Boot Company, who sell colourful, lightweight boots, I felt it was important that their target market could identify with the terrain that they might be using them in. And that was going to vary from the more urban to the more rural.
Who is going to be in the product photoshoot?
How to model the products and show them in use in photographs also needs discussion, and is part of my pre-shoot consultation. It doesn't have to be elaborate and sometimes more abstract images without people can trigger a response in the target audience. For this shoot my contact was with thier marketing agency, PP8 Marketing, so on the creative call with them we worked out that, for the intended use of the images and the time available, we would only need one model, with changes of clothes, and different locations. I was able to intersperse the model photos with having creative fun with the kiddie boots placing them amongst the leaves, on tree stumps and on patios with small plants in them...all whist the model was changing clothes!
As a professional photographer on the Berkshire and Surrey borders,
I'm lucky to have a great selection of environments to create lifestyle photography for websites and social media campaigns. Product photography that shows the reality of using the product is crucial for website photography and social media to be authentic. So we made sure that there were photos in locations that weren't pristine. The other element of the shoot was to ensure that we got every colour that was being promoted by the business, and a mixture of close ups for in store Point of Sale posters, as well as more environmental images that sell the lifestyle of a Leon Boot user. Planning is a key element to a product photo shoot.
