Last month I was shooting product photography for a new client. They sell a range of protective clothing, as you can see in the photos below. The brief was to create product shots of the different suits on a pale background, so they could be cut out by a designer for posting on a website (a pretty standard request). Nothing fancy required – just clear, clean photos showing the suits in full: front, side and back views, and in a few cases close-ups of some features such as protective flaps and zips, taped seams, and so on.
We spent a morning in the studio, shooting the different suits (including a few that I haven’t included photos of). What was interesting was that a representative from the company was there, assisting with the shoot (and teaching me a lot about the differences between the different fabrics used, what the suits were used for …. and basically, the different levels of protection they offer. In case you’re interested, the yellow suit is the most protective of all, and is used when doing pretty horrible jobs like scrubbing out chemical tanks).
An interesting conversation happened near the end of the session. Rebecca, the company’s representative, made the comment, “Nobody will believe the amount of work that’s gone into getting these photos”. That was after a few hours of pinning, pegging, tweaking, removing creases and generally doing our best to make the suits look as good as possible. In fact, that process had started a few days earlier when I suggested taking the suits out of their packets and hanging them up to let the creases start to fall out. Once in the studio, it was then a case of getting the best stance from model George (a real trooper by the way – those suits were quite warm, but he stood there doing his job like a true Pro). It’s amazing the difference a slight twist of the arm, a lift of the elbow, a crook of the knee can make. That’s true in any kind of pose involving showing off clothing – even clothing like this that’s cut generously to accommodate a range of shapes and sizes.
But it’s that eye for detail and desire to make everything look it’s best that marks out the professional, I think. You wouldn’t know how much time and effort was needed to create such a ‘straightforward’ set of photos. You might not appreciate the difference that slight change in pose would make to how a garment looks. But that’s why you hire a professional like me, to use my expertise to do these things for you and make your products look their best.
I’ll leave the last word to a regular client, Mike from Avancer, which sums up the service I offer to everybody, no matter what their product is.
“We have used Martin for a number of photographic jobs over recent years and despite our products being quite dull visually, Martin has managed to make them vibrant and interesting. The quality of the images and the service we have had always is first class.”
If you’d like a quote for shooting product for your business, please get in touch via the contact form or give me a call on 07766 815703.
