The Importance Of Good Product Photography

Visual content today, now more than ever, is 40 times more likely to get shared across social media than other content. If you want your product or service to stand out from the crowd, quality photos are essential. Moreover, if a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine the value good product photography will add to your company brand. Great photography adds authority and legitimacy, which in turn, generates trust from the customer.

So excellent product photography is essential. We've established that. However, what type of photos should you invest your time and money? Professional product photographers can range from $125-$200 an hour, plus expenses, post-production, and image licensing. It's certainly not a cheap endeavor, but if you're serious about your product brand, you shouldn't cut any corners with your photography budget. In short, do invest in good photography as a critical component to your e-commerce or print advertising efforts. Do your homework and find a trusted studio, with whom you can clearly outline your vision and goals.

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Again, we know that product photos are essential, but just how important are they? Well, from a recent poll, 22% of online product returns are because an “item looks different than the photos.” We all love an excellent lifestyle photo shoot, but it’s important to remember that representing your product accurately will save you money and time. No one wants to deal with returns and unhappy customers. Even if you’re showing your product in its best light, make sure your photos accurately represent what you’re selling.

78% of product photos today are created on white backgrounds. This fact is due mainly to the prominence of the Amazon marketplace. That means if you’re looking to build a unique brand, there’s room to use bright colors, prints, or lifestyle settings to help differentiate your products. Just remember, if you want to sell on marketplaces such as Amazon, white is mostly unavoidable.

Speaking of Amazon marketplace, E-commerce is more dependent on photography than any other kind of sales channel today because it breaks away from the traditional, physical shopping experience. Consumers cannot just walk into your store, pick up a product, try it on, feel the texture, before making the purchase. Your website needs to convey all the same information through much narrower mediums, primarily photographs, words, and video.

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One important consideration is to create alternative views of each product. Close-ups, underneath, from the inside, looking out, and so on. The more detailed options you can show your potential customer, the more they will understand and see the value of the product, leading to fewer questions and returns. All of those details will also help minimize the risk of purchasing your product, do to a lack of understanding.

Your brand should be aiming to showcase their products to their fullest to potential customers. Today’s web-savvy customers are eager to find out information that will inform and validate their purchasing decisions, such as reviews, social media shares, vloggers, to name a few. Therefore presenting products through quality photography enables e-commerce retailers to cut through the ‘noise’ and add value, legitimacy, and trust.

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Simplicity is key. We want things to look sleek, unobstructed, and easy to understand. A photographic style that supports this thinking also creates a statement that is bigger than just one product. Stripping out the clutter in your photos and focusing on the product not only creates a more versatile image that you can use for multiple applications but can also help elevate the perceived value of your products and your brand as a whole.

Also, do not forget the context of the image and the background. Context is relevant for both product images, where a consistent backdrop allows the focus to remain on the product, lifestyle images showcase your product in real-world situations that consumers can mentally "inject" themselves into the scene. They can see themselves living a similar lifestyle if they only had your product.

In every business there are trade-offs. Understanding product photography pricing, then deciding what you want to invest of your often limited budget, can a difficult decision when you’re just starting. There’s no magic formula and tactics that work for one business might not work for you, and vice versa. Just remember the key here is the age-old mantra, be consistent and be great!

TRAVIS DUNCAN  |  ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALIZING IN: PRODUCTS, PORTRAITS, AND ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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Boys & Girls Club of America | Promo

Advertising Photography | Black & White Portraits

Hey guys & gals. Travis Duncan here again. Wanted to share a new project that I shot recently for the Boys & Girls Club of America. I gotta say that I'm really proud of it. Every year I collaborate with the B&G's Club to create a series of photographs of our local chefs, winemakers, and brewmasters to help promote their annual fundraising event for the club. This year I opted for a simple black and white headshot, but with a twist. The idea was simple. Clean black background, with a small pencil-line highlight halo, all the way around our subjects. The rest was all about expression and the character. I love the outcome and hope you enjoy taking them in.  

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Thanks for stopping by and taking a quick look ... also ... drop me a line in the comment section below! I would love to hear from you!

 

TRAVIS DUNCAN  |  ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALIZING IN: PRODUCTS, PORTRAITS, AND ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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Construction Job Site | Architectural Photography

CONSTRUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Hey guys, thanks for stopping by. Today, I just wanted to post a quick entry to show another angle, or perhaps a better description ... "another side" of our photo work. Typically I tend to show our more highly produced and polished imagery, used mainly in advertising ... so this is nice departure from that work.

For this project - I was commissioned to shoot a series of images, documenting a single commercial hospital construction site. The image licensing was primarily for a social media campaign to promote many of the building materials used on the project.  Using a small 3 man crew, we moved throughout the job site creating a nice variety of aerial photos, close up details of the laborers, and pulled back shots to help illustrate the size and scope of the job.  

Enjoy a look at the photos, hit me up in the comments if you have questions ... and thanks for reading!

-td

 

TRAVIS DUNCAN  |  ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALIZING IN: PRODUCTS, PORTRAITS, AND ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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Stone Hill Winery | Lifestyle Ad Shoot

ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY | LIFESTYLE | MISSOURI WINES

Thought it might be fun to pull together a few images from a past advertising project I shot with Stone Hill Winery. The shoot took place over two days and consisted mainly of harvest photos, but also touching on the lifestyle "sociability" aspect of wine. It was a fun project, and I learned quite a bit about the process. 

Stone Hill is actually Missouri's oldest, and most awarded winery in the state and they have an absolutely beautiful winery that you've got to see! Well known for the very tasty Norton grape (which you can see in the photos below) and also here's a bit of trivia for ya ... the Norton happens to be Missouri's state grape. Yeah, I didn't know Missouri had a state grape either!

So anyway, if you ever make it to Hermann Missouri, do yourself a favor and stop by for a tasting and tour. Check out more of their great Missouri Wines at: http://stonehillwinery.com/ and also if you're interested in learning more about some of the oldest wine companies in the world, do yourself a favor and check out: https://www.wineturtle.com/oldest-wine-companies/ for some great information! - thanks for reading! -td

TRAVIS DUNCAN  |  ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALIZING IN: PRODUCTS, PORTRAITS, AND ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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Monster Energy | Product Shoot

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY | LOCA MOCA DRINK

Here's one of my latest product shots with Monster Energy.

Since I'm such a coffee junkie I was eager to take this one on, and I felt there was no better way to show off this product than having a can of Java Monster Loca Moca exploding out of a large pile of coffee beans. I think we nailed it with this one.

As a commercial studio, we take in a variety of different types of projects each month which tends to keep life more interesting for me & the crew. But of all the different types of projects that come across my desk, I have to say that my favorite work always revolves around Product Photography of some kind! 

Why product photography you ask?

Great question. Shooting products and making them look as interesting as possible, creates endless challenges for us on the set. (and yes, I love a good challenge) The bottom line is, I love photographing products because it tends to be on of the most challenging and rewarding disciplines to work in. If done well, an inanimate object can inspire emotion from the viewer in the same way than a well executed portrait might.

Thoughts? Comments? Leave em' in the comment section below, and thanks so much for checking out the blog!

-td

TRAVIS DUNCAN  |  ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALIZING IN: PRODUCTS, PORTRAITS, AND ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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EDITORIAL ASSIGNMENT | MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY

I do a fair amount of magazine work which I enjoy immensely.  Sometimes when an art director or photo editor calls, they might have very specific direction for me, while other times it's pretty much a wide open canvas. When I go into a situation where I have creative license with respect to making the picture, I will look for scenarios that "tell" as much of the story as possible without having to use words. I very seldom know specifically what the piece is going to say, so as a general rule I will try to imagine the image running with no copy. This helps me a great deal when trying to decide on a location, props, gesture etc ... Below is an example of layering story elements into the frame without being excessively overt. It's an absolute favorite of mine. There are so many layers to this photograph, it just may be my favorite portrait from 2016. -td

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TRAVIS DUNCAN PHOTOGRAPHY | A COMMERCIAL SPORTS, PORTRAIT, AND PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN THE MIDWEST.  SPECIALTIES INCLUDE: SPORTS, PORTRAITS, ARCHITECHTURAL AND PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Travis Duncan Photography | Advertising • Corporate • Editorial

Web - www.travisduncan.com

Studio - 573-893-9917

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