Bella Rosa Books approached me for some lifestyle product photography. They already had catalogue-style product imagery of their books, so they were looking for something more engaging and appealing to customers. The idea being that the photos would attract more attention, showcasing the products in environments that both suited the individual books and made sense in terms of the holiday / souvenir concept that applied to the range as a whole.

One of the joys of being a product photographer is that you’re never entirely sure what you’ll be taking pictures of next. This was certainly the case when I was approached by Leamington Spa-based artist Amber Stephen, who needed photographs of her art project - a handmade sterling silver “grub grinder”.

As a product photographer, I mostly work with products in my studio. It’s not a huge space, though, and when local furniture company Woodberry of Leamington Spa asked me to capture images of their ranges of outdoor furniture, it would have been impractical to try to photograph them on my own premises.

So, what are the practicalities of outdoor product photography, and what do you need to consider if you want your product shot in an outdoor environment?

Adapt+Grow are a company dedicated to producing high-quality nutritional supplements. In the lead-up to releasing their first products - a complementary pair of new all-natural supplements designed specifically to help people deal with stress and achieve better sleep - they needed to product and brand photography to establish a brand identity and get ready to sell online.

Many of my clients are looking for clean and crisp pictures to help sell their product on Ebay, Amazon, or a similar site. I recently simplified my pricing for this type of product photography, making it easier to understand how much a set of product photographs will cost. In this post, I take a closer look at what’s involved in creating what might at first glance seem a very simple photograph of a product.

Product photography for large products, or for those too delicate or valuable to send through the post, can be a challenge. If it can’t be sent or brought to the studio, can you still get studio-quality images? Yes, you can - it just needs a different approach, the right equipment, and a photographer able to adapt to conditions that might not quite be ideal.

You’ve got something to sell, and you’ve found a product photographer who’s a good fit for your brand. All that’s left is to send it off, and then sit back and wait for the amazing images to arrive, right?

Not quite. Believe it or not, not all product photographers can read minds. When an item arrives, it can be a simple matter of working out the best angles and lighting to make it look great, but more often than not, it takes a bit more effort to get images that are really going to work hard to sell your product. So, how do you make sure you get what you need?

Can you get decent product photos without the expense of hiring a product photographer?

Maybe you run a business that’s suddenly had to shift its sales online due to coronavirus; perhaps you’re selling happily from your website anyway, but want to freshen up your product images; or maybe you’re just trying to use some of your time under lockdown conditions to list a few items on Ebay?

Whatever your situation, I hope you’ll find the following information helpful.