Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 40 of the Photography Explained Podcast. In this episode, what is product photography? I’m your host, Rick, and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details.
My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help you and me with our photography and no more. It is also my aim to try and say this without having to read it off the page. I am up to Episode 40, and I’m still having to read it out.
Oh, well, maybe next time.
I’m a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience, which I share with you on my podcast.
So what is product photography?
(note to self to stop using the word so at the beginning of sentences}. Here is my answer.
Product photography is the specialism of photographing products to show them at their best for display, sale, and marketing purposes. Product photography is used to allow buyers to make informed decisions about the purchase of products. Product photography is a key part of the marketing of products online, with excellent product photography allowing products to stand out.
Now, that’s all my own words.
And we can put it another way, which I will come back to in my one-line summary. Product photography is used to sell products.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Okay, now, before I go on, if you’re thinking of product photography, like I was some time ago, as in just photographing tiny things on a tabletop, we all need to think a lot broader and bigger than that.
I’ll get on to that – trust me, this is good stuff.
1 What is product photography used for?
Now I touched on this in the answer that I gave you earlier. If you think about it, any photograph of a product you’ve ever seen is a result of product photography. Now, if you just think about that for a minute, that’s in theory, any photo, and the possibilities with this genre of photography (I’ve used the word genre finally) are quite literally endless.
Any product you’ve ever seen a photo of – that’s product photography – that’s quite a thing, isn’t it? And we can be confident in the knowledge that there will always be products. And that there will always be the internet.
So there will always be a need for product photography.
2 Do I love product photography?
I’ve not done the Google questions this week, because this is one that I know more about and I’m happy to speak about it from my experience. And I’ve done a bit of research as well.
Do I love product photography?
Actually, I do.
I’ve done a few commercial shoots, which were of completely different subject matters. So what were they?
A table and some plastic caps
Well, the first one was a table made of stainless steel, I think, with a glass top. I photographed the table in someone’s house who was manufacturing it.
That went fine.
I went back and photographed another version of it. That went fine. And then I was sent a number of coloured plastic caps which go on the corners, which I was asked to photograph.
Now that one took a bit of working out. I had to buy a tent to take photos in, and this is your classic tabletop product photography.
So I bought this little tent with LED lights in it. And it cost me about a tenner. It’s ridiculous. And the photos were, well they were pretty amazing I have to say.
And it gave me one of those moments, I’m looking at these photos thinking, did I really take them? They look like they’ve been taken by, should I say it, a real photographer.
Yes, I still suffer from imposter syndrome.
So if you do as well, don’t worry about it. Possibly not a bad thing.
So that was three product shoots from one enquiry, do one job right you get more jobs.
Construction product photography
I’ve also photographed construction products. Now there have been a few more but these are the ones that sprung to mind when I was drafting out the notes.
Dulux Paint
The first product was Dulux paint. Yes, I have photographed paint after it dried on a wall thankfully. It was a challenge. It was flame retardant paint in a stairwell in some flats in Dorset.
Rockwool
I’ve also photographed Rockwool insulation being installed on a major refurbishment project in Portsmouth.
Catnic
I have also photographed Catnic lintols (not canning lentils) being installed at a new Doctor’s surgery in lovely Corfe Castle.
Isover Insulation
And also Isover insulation being used in the construction of a funky new house in the middle of Wiltshire.
These are all very, very large, famous significant companies.
- Dulux
- Rockwool
- Catnic
- Isover
Or as the transcript came up with
- Juleps
- Rock wall
- Cat, Nick
- Isover!
They’re massive. And I have photographed their products, which is great.
And getting even bigger
I’ve also photographed another product, which I just wanted to mention to broaden the possibilities for what we call product photography. Temporary buildings for ElliottUK no less, another big name in construction. I photographed a number of their temporary buildings and even a petrol station.
2.5(!) So where does product photography end?
While the buildings have products in them, if you think about it, is a temporary building a product? It doesn’t really matter. It’s just worth thinking about and not necessarily constraining yourself to small things in a small tent on a table in your house.
3 How do you do product photography?
Well, it depends on what you’re photographing, you’ll photograph a small rectangular piece of plastic in a different way than a petrol station.
I’ll say it again, don’t restrict your thinking, I can’t really answer that one here.
4 What is good product photography?
If you’re commissioned to photograph a product, you should issue images to the client that show the product at its best, and also technically correct.
I am talking here in terms of
- Size
- Shape
- Colour
- Scale
- Proportion
The product has to look as it is because if it doesn’t you’re at risk of misleading customers. And that’s no use to a client. Do this and you won’t get paid for your photos, and the client will get someone else to take them.
5 What do you need for product photography?
I bought a tent. It was called the “photo studio tent and mini foldable photography studio, portable light box kit with LED light”. Snappy name, but a tenner on Amazon (other shops are available).
Just go online, and you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of these.
And obviously, for construction product photography, I use the whole range of gear that I have, so you really are going from one extreme to the other.
6 What’s the best camera for product photography?
Well, I use a Canon 6D. And it’s wonderful. Whatever camera you’ve got is probably fine – don’t sweat it too much.
7 Do I do product photography?
Yes, I do.
8 Can you make a living from product photography?
I think we’ve established this as a potentially endless range of subjects. Sorry, I’m going to go back to my elocution lessons after this (I’m not obviously) but yes, you can make a living out of product photography, or product photography can contribute to you making a living might be a better way of putting it.
9 Do you need specialist knowledge?
No. Anyone can do this. But knowledge will help. Image capture and processing are the key ones.
10 How do I start as a product photographer?
Spend the tenner and photograph stuff at home. Take it from there. That is the beauty of this. You can spend that small amount of money, you can buy some great gear and then you can photograph anything that will fit into it, which is fantastic practice.
And the costs are minimal with digital these days. (I assume you are using digital because I certainly am).
It costs you nothing to process these images, play around, and refine your technique to the best that you can.
So this is genuinely something you can learn at home for virtually no cost. And let’s not forget everything else.
OK nearly done
So that was product photography.
My one-line summary
Product photography is the photographing of products to help them sell.
That’s nice. I like that.
What do I want you to do now?
1 Do this one thing, photograph a product
2 Let me know how you got on
Send me a message on Twitter to @rickphoto. Share a photo if you want.
3 Subscribe to my podcast
If you enjoyed this episode. This helps me.
4 Rate and review my podcast
If you enjoyed this episode, this also helps me
5 I’m asking a lot aren’t I?
Tell one person about my podcast. This also helps me as well.
Next episode
Okay, I’m not going to go through the 20 most popular types of photography I listed in Episode 32. So I’m going to do a wrap-up next episode of those titled What About The Other Types Of Photography?
Out of time
Okay, I’m done slightly over time, but not as bad as previous weeks.
Thank you very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. Check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography where you can find out all about me and my architectural and construction photography work, as well as my blog where you can learn lots more about photography.
Photography Explained Podcast website
Also, check out my Photography Explained Podcast website, where you can find out how to ask me a question, find the list of episodes and also things that I’m going to explain in future episodes.
This episode was brought to you very much by the power of caffeine early on a Monday morning.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 11 minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode. Not quite 11 minutes so quite happy with that. Bye for now.
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is there already.
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And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
