Product Photography Workshop by Globe myBusiness

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP | GLOBE myBUSINESS

Globe myBusiness with Craft MNL and co.lab, Manila Workshops held a series of workshop dubbed as “Growing Your Homemade Business.” During the workshop, professional photographer Jeryc Garcia talked about the basics of photography. Moreover, Garcia gave some DIY tips and tricks to get small entrepreneurs to create eye-catching product images. Workshop participants showcased their own products as their subjects while Garcia ably answered their queries on the best way of presenting their wares in photographs.

Product Photography Workshop by Globe myBusiness

SOME PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP TIPS

Product Photography is Selling a lifestyle

 Product photography aimed at showing the best of the product through photographs.

To sell a product is not just the objective of a good product photography, it promises a lifestyle.

Product photographers must aim at telling stories, and not just any stories, but the stories of the audience seeing it. It must catch their attention and touched their hearts. Any product photographer must aim at making the audience relate to the visual personally.

Photographs which tell stories of people is the most effective way to excite the audience about seeing any products; it must create a strong desire for them to travel when seeing your great photographs of nice places and beaches or even make them feel hungry seeing the savory delicacies you are serving or whatever lifestyle your product is serving to.

Set your product up to tell a story

To tell stories about your products requires so much of creativity and imagination. To do this, you must know your wares fully. What is it about? Why was it created? What was the inspiration for the design? What are the ways it can be used? How do you want people to see it?

The moment your ideas are clear about your product, you can now think of many ways to get photographs to convey your message.

The art of expression through visual is not really that difficult to learn. In fact, there are so many tips available in the net to help you out hone your skills. The best thing maybe, to begin with, is to get some pegs. Instagram and Pinterest are a rich resource for inspirations.

The moment you have decided on your peg, then it’s the time to choose the setting in which your product will be shoot. There are 2 basic setups to choose from:

First is the Closed Set Up or it is also called the Seamless Setup. The Seamless Setup is oftentimes used when making a catalog. The Closed Set Up are elegant and tasteful set ups which showcase the product in a clear and straightforward manner.

The second is the Open Set Up otherwise known as  Environmental setup.  This set up puts your product in the world and contextualizes it. It’s a flip flop on the shoreline. A creamy lotion applied on a beautiful skin. A sexy bikini by lovely models in the beach… It’s up to your imagination. Though this setup appeared ideal to tell stories in product photography, it’s imperative to bear in mind that environmental setups can sometimes be distracting, and if not properly handle might put your wares out of context.

Maximize the product in photography

 Showing the best feature of your product in photography is not only about creativity, its is also being technical. So it is very important to examine your product carefully and dissect all its visual properties. Is it glossy, transparent, or opaque? What about the color? Is it flashy or earth-toned? Is the product itself attractive or you need to shoot it with a nice packaging?

There are many aspects which you must consider to create a good image of your product. Choosing its most engaging visual element and highlighting this is very important. This is also where lighting comes in significantly.

The lighting is the most important tool a photographer used to literally show your product. The lighting will influence the mood of the photograph and in effect the mood in which you wanted your product to show.

The overrated-ness of cameras

 Many photographers are quite insecure whether their cameras are good enough to get high-quality photos or “professional looking” ones. However, many seasoned photographers would attest that the camera is only as good as the photographer. In fact, many professional photographers are more concerned with the proper lighting, good composition, the right setting and the concept than the camera they are using. While a good camera is a plus factor they are not going to do the job for a lazy photographer. Most digital or point and shoot cameras, even the not so popular mobile phones has the ability to capture images that are high resolution.