Product Photography: Why it’s Essential for Every Brand

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Photography is often somewhat of an afterthought. But, when planned, executed and used properly, product photography can elevate your brand in a myriad of ways. 

Don’t just take our word for it though, in this blog we’ll explain why it’s essential for every brand, give examples of those that do it well, and spill the beans on product photography from the agency side, with examples from our work with the renowned Concha y Toro UK (yes, the wine brand that’s worked with Pedro Pascal, we’re crazy about him too!). 

What is Product Photography and How Does it Elevate My Brand?

Product Photography is a collection of images that visually represents your brand’s most important assets. Every image, colour, prop, and element should align with your values and guidelines and, above all, complement the product on display. 

This will make your images consistent and therefore instantly recognisable to your customer (you can read more about this in our importance of branding blog – how helpful are we!) 

Whether you go for highly polished images, user-generated content style, or a purposeful mix of both across platforms, your photography can play a key part in your sales and customer acquisition journey. 

Successful photography should capture your target audience’s eye, convey the feel of your brand, and communicate the value of your product. The chances are if your photography isn’t hitting the mark then you may find it harder to sell! 

Before the customer even reads a word of copy or tries a drop of your product, they probably already know whether your brand is right for them, whether they want to know more, and whether they want to purchase your product. That is how perfectly executed product photography can elevate your brand, by appealing to the target audience at a first glance. 

Take our work with Concha y Toro UK, for example, they came to us with a brief to create a new portfolio of lifestyle images for their Casillero del Diablo and Isla Negra ranges. After an initial discussion and a brand deck from their lovely team, we were able to tailor each image to the feel of the individual brands and accurately portray the ideal setting for each wine. Take a look at the images above to see what we mean, and you can read more about the projects here – sadly there’s no Pedro in these ones.

So, How Do I Get Started with My Own Product Photography?

The first step, before you approach a photographer or agency (like…we don’t know… Graphic Brands perhaps? You are already on our blog so what’s the harm!), your brand will need to decide what it is that’s needed from the project. 

Our photographers have a wonderful ability to create visual magic but it won’t be true to your brand unless we know what your values, beliefs and goals are. 

The better your brief can be, the more successful the photography will be, so we’d advise the following: 

1. Figure out the kind of vibe you want – yes, we said ‘vibe’ but it’s useful here because you don’t have to be overly specific. Make a moodboard of images that remind you of your brand, it can be other photoshoots, a picture of the sunset, something off Pinterest, literally anything that will convey to the photographer (and later your customer) what your brand is all about. 
2. Then, do get specific. The agency or photographer will need to know what your brand colours are, what logos and messaging (if any) you want in the images, what product(s) that you want to feature in the images, and in what combinations, to name just a few. The photographer or project manager will also help with this but it’s useful to have a grasp on what you want before you start the process with them to make it so much smoother. 
3. Plan where your images are going to go. The images, sizing and editing will vary depending on where they’re going so it’s good to have a plan, will they go on social media? If so, which ones? Are they going on a billboard, or a brochure, or in a magazine? Are they going on a retailer website, on in-store promotional stands, or on merch? 

You want your campaign to be memorable, impactful and perfect at conveying your values – how does the saying go? A picture can tell a thousand words…and the more planning you put into your brief, the more the photographer will be able to achieve for you. 

Hey, would you look at that, we just gave you a briefing guide too! 

Once you have decided on all of the above, then you need to find a photographer or agency who understands your brief and your brand, and check that they have the skills and equipment to execute it perfectly. 

As you can probably imagine, there aren’t many studios that can do elaborate on-location shoots and tight-budget, studio one-day shoots too. But you would be surprised at what tricks you can create with a good photographer, a few props, good lighting, and some handy editing. 

For example, on our CyT UK Isla Negra shoot, we were photographing a variety of lines but one variety’s labels hadn’t been printed yet. Instead of this curtailing the whole shoot, we photographed another wine in its place and edited the finished label onto that bottle in post-production – magic, right? 

Got it, Now Give Me Some Examples

Brand photography comes in all shapes and sizes, and it is, of course, dependent on your product. 

But, some examples we’re loving at the moment are:

Feel particularly inspired by any of these images? Or want to discuss a project you may have in the pipeline? Get in touch via the contact us page and we’ll get the conversation rolling!!