What Is Product Photography?

Hi everybody. Welcome to Episode 40 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick McEvoy and I explain one photographic thing per episode in plain English in less that 10 minutes without the irrelevant detail. I have well over 30 years of experience in photography so I do know what I am talking about!

In this episode - What Is Product Photography?

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.

Listen for more, or check out the transcript and even the blog post - so many ways to find out more!

What’s next?
Episode 41 – What About The Other Types Of Photography?

Transcript

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 I 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 the 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.

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 a 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 what I know more about and I'm happy to speak about from my experience. I've done a bit of research. Number two, 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.

I wrote a blog post about this, which I need to update (as it is rubbish). I'll add a link to the transcript on the photography explained podcast website (soon).

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. The photos are on the blog post, check out the transcripts, there should be a link to it at some point after this has been published.

And it gave me one of those times when I'm looking at these photos thinking, did I really take them? They look like they've been taken by, should I say, dare I say, a professional 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 (not juleps) 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, again, I just wanted to broaden out the possibilities for what you call the product. 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.
So the outcome of how you do product photography is you create good product photography. So 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 you don't, you're at risk of misleading customers. And that's no use to a client. And in this cottage, I was trying to say litigious, that was a mistake, in this age of lawsuits being popular, that's the other way of saying it, this is not good.

5 What good you need to fight for product photography.
Sorry, I tried to put the number five in the middle of that one. Yep, 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, you'll see hundreds and hundreds of these.

And obviously for construction product photography, I use the whole range of gear, 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 suspects, suspects, 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 none. Anyone can do this. But knowledge will help. Image capture and processing being the key ones?

10 How do I start as a product photographer?
Spend the tenner and photographs 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, refine your technique to the best that you can.

So this is genuinely something you can learn at home for virtually no cost.

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.

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.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

photography, product, photograph, photo, podcast, tent, rick, photographic, construction, photographer, blog post, word