Product photography is my favourite genere. Here I will dive little bit more into my style of shooting that I developed over the years. Compared to classical catalogue products rendering on simple and plain background, a story telling product photography with distinct and organic style is creative and challenging - it needs to be narrative, autentic and realistic with personal signature of the photographer.

That kind of photos makes clear visualisation of the products and adequate scene needs to be carefuly blended into the theme. I love to choose different textures and backgrounds to setup a scene that is suitable to the product.

lightning

Lightning is very important – most of the time I choose diffused and soft side or back light whether it’s natural or arteficial. I tend to aviod direct and harsh lightning or positions where products looks flat and boring - a main subject needs to stand out from the image.

Gear

Photography gear that I recommend for start is one that I’ve used at the beginning and I’m still technickly using the same combo for most of my product shots. I have starded with affordable APS-C sensor camera paired with nifty-fifthy 50mm prime lens which is almost allways one of the cheapest fixed focal length lenses in any system. That focal length lens has great reach on small sensor (short telephoto field of view), it helps with product proportions avioding the distortion compared to wider lenses and phone cameras. Also decent apperture is gamer changer making products to stand out by producing very soft and natural background blur and focus falloff - creating the separation of the subject from surroundings.

Currently my lens of choice in Fuji X system is XF50MMF2 R WR, which is very sharp and contrasty with great resolving power to bring every detail of the product on the image. Also I appreciate short minimum focus distance combined with focal length so it could be used for close up shots.

Establishing photo

The first and the main product capture that I love to take is the establishing shot - a product photo which is almost a portrait of a subject. I love to take a shot directly with slight changes of the angle that makes product to look somehow heroic and standalone on the scene.

Detail photo

Next one is detail shot, a photo of a small detail or texture of the product. For these type of photos there is always great to have a macro or semi-macro lens, or any longer glass with short close focusing in the arsenal.

Action photo

Action shots are the most difficult when it comes to product photography. This type of images has to create some sort of dynamic of the product. The best way is to capture the moment how certain product is used, with slight energetic accent to draw attention to the viewers.

Lifestyle photo

This photo category is difficult to define but what I consider a lifestyle photography for certain product are captures where subject gets sense of context adding a human element in the frame in adequate ambient creating the perfect scene. It is like an interactive scenario with product which is realistic, organic and believable.

Flatlay

Flatlay is a top-down type of product photo taken from above where the product is laid out on a flat surface. Nowadays flatlays are really one of the most popular product images, they boost creativity for setting up the scenes.

POV photo

POV or Point of View photos puts viewer into the scene in a first person scenario. They are my favourite type of images, providing intimate connection with products from the owners perspective.

My lens of choice for this style is XF35MMF2 R WR which gives me the perspective that our eyes see since it has normal field of view and compression compared to wide angle or telephoto lenses.

Product photography