1. When you see a product image on an E-Commerce website, have you ever wondered what kind of work & effort that the photographer put in to produce that image? Well lets break them down below.
2. Before we continue, I would like to thank all my product photography clients who have given me the opportunity to photograph their products. In this post, I will just use an example from one of the product photo that I have in my archive.
3. This example is from a product photo from a beauty & skin care company. The clients wanted several images of their product set to be featured in their E-Commerce website.
4. The breakdown will consist of works done in pre-production, during production as well as post-production.
PRE-PRODUCTION
5. Before we start any product shooting session, we have to determine the product that we are shooting, have an idea of the angle & view that we want to shoot, the draft image composition (how the final result is going to be) & what props that we need to enhance the final image. These ideas & concept have to be conveyed to the client in the initial stage in order to avoid time wasting & re-shoot.
6. Next the products are prepared for the shoot. We have to clean the products to ensure only the things we want to show, will show up in the image. We will clean up any grease, pen marks, smudges, finger prints, price tags, stickers etc. Normally to ensure the products are clean through out the process, we will use gloves during the photo session.
7. After that, we will prepare the props. If the props are not available for the shoot, you might want to purchase them before hand. In some cases, the client may have specific props that they want to use for the shoot, as in my case. However I do add in my props in addition to the ones given by the client. The props prepared by me in the image above are the pebbles, ceramic plate & container, fruits, oil & the table runner. Others are provided by the client (wooden tray, dry flowers). What kind of props to we put in & what props to buy? Well It depends on the initial concept. As for me, I will normally propose to my clients to use props that either highlight the products' main/active ingredient or to highlight the product function. In the example above, we highlighted the product ingredient which are Mangoes & Peaches.
DURING PRODUCTION
8. Once we have all the elements ready, we will set up the camera to find the best angle & also the lighting. Lighting is important in order to highlight the product shape & features. For all products, we need to highlight the surface texture as well in order to communicate the material used. The lighting position & angle will determine the shadow angle & quality as well as the reflection on product surface.
9. During production, we will normally shoot several arrangements & options to be safe just in case some other arrangements are actually better than our initial idea. It is important that we ensure the product name, label and logo is clear & not being obstructed by any of the props.
POST-PRODUCTION EDITING
10. Once we have done the shoot, we will take the image into a post processing software & enhance it. We may need to adjust or enhance the alignment, exposure & brightness, the White Balance & Colour among other items.
11. Finally, we will need to clean up the image to remove any visible spots, smudges or any other imperfections which are not supposed to be in the image. Some job requirement may need some photo composite work.
12 We also receive client request to include additional text & captions such as product name & logo, slogans, descriptions, price, simple specifications such as dimension and not forgetting the company watermark.
13. These are what I normally do for a product photography. The work process for other photographer may vary. If you require further information regarding this topic or you would like for us to provide you with a product photography service, please feel free to visit our website www.muhdikmal.com
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