What is studio product photography

A studio product photography shoot combines carefully planned and executed lighting, styling and professional image retouching, and is an excellent option when upgrading your website, catalog or social media imagery. Here are the key steps involved in a studio product photography project.

Once your brief is completed in whichever format you prefer, the next step is to send it across for review. During this stage, I will take a detailed look through your brief and familiarize myself with your project’s unique needs, before providing an estimate for your bespoke studio product photography.

Your detailed estimate will clearly define not only the approximate overall price for your project, but a proposed timeframe for the work to be completed within. Your estimate will be carefully broken down into sections to help you understand exactly what you will be paying for. If you’re happy, you will be able to approve your quote with the click of a button. Take a look at our sample estimate if you’d like to familiarize yourself with this stage further.

Due to the complex nature of our work, we only consider jobs where a deposit is agreed upon and received. The deposit required will typically be 50-100% of your job’s total price, depending on how you want to exchange the files, through out the project. Deposits can be paid via wire payment or bank transfer. We also accept PayPal payment; however this option requires an additional transaction fee which you will find detailed on your invoice.

When your deposit has been received, you can send over your products ready for photographing. It is always preferable to use a reputable courier company like Fedex or DHL with tracked shipping to ensure your products reach us safely. We also ask that you inform us of your shipping numberto track your parcel’s progress and include a return address, so we can ship your products back to you post-shoot.

Styling is essentially the process of creating a ‘set’ for your products, and your mood board is incredibly useful in this stage. Depending on your vision and goals, styling can add layering to your images, introducing a combination of expertly selected and positioned props to the set.

Lighting is perhaps the most important element in any photoshoot, and one that is often overlooked. I take great pride in ensuring the lighting is perfect for each shoot. The right lighting can tell a story; in fact, a huge chunk of a project’s success is often down to complex lighting techniques.

Half of the final results are completed after the shoot itself. During this stage of production, I collaborate with retouching experts who are responsible for adding the finishing touches that really bring your concept to life. Retouching commonly involves things like the adjustment of shadows and lighting and removal of strings holding products in place during shooting.

Depending on your preferences, there are two ways in which we can exchange files. If you would like to pay the 100% project fee upfront, we can share high resolution files as we progress through the project. If you would prefer to pay only the deposit 50% before completion of the project, you will be provided with low resolution images throughout for collaboration purposes, and will receive high resolution versions when full payment has been made.

Your final images will be delivered within 14 days of production, and you will receive them in a digital format with a URL to the gallery. On receipt of your collection of images, they will be available to access and add to your website or preferred platforms whenever is convenient for you.

Before the download is registered, all images are copyrighted to me as the creator and proprietor. On receipt of your images, you will become a licensee and are free to use the images freely as you see fit, without constraints.