Comb suspended in air on infinite black background after post production fixes

Comb suspended in air on infinite black background after post production fixes

“While you’re shooting the video, can you just snap a few photos of our product line too?” Sometimes we hear that question and remember when we thought it was easy too. Eric Wolfram, product photographer and videographer in New York, cautions us on why photography or videography of products isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

So…you are photographing a little product. It’s a still subject, how hard could that be? When that image is expected to, at the very least, not interfere with a potential sale, then it can be difficult indeed.

And if you want the product photo to evoke a positive emotion, to associate itself with a lifestyle or feeling, then the shoot is likely to be artistic, tricky and time consuming.

Time will be spent finding items to photograph with the product, the background textures, the strategy to hold the product, is it on shiny black glass or suspended magically in an infinite background white?

Sometimes you can just set a product on a table and snap away. But does the product stand up on it’s own? A bag, a piece of clothing, or these combs shown here — you can’t just sit them on a table. They need to be stuffed, propped up or fit onto a model. And even if you can just set it on a table in a white box — is that what you want? Maybe not.

After deciding what to do, you will spend the morning lighting the stage and finally photograph each product from different angles. Close ups. With accessories, without accessories. With packaging, without packaging.

And no matter what you do, every mistake is seen. Every piece of dust. Every little plastic nib that you would never notice when you’re holding it, sits there like a big wart on the nose of your product when you look at the photos on your computer screen.

So every photograph needs post production work. The color curves need to be perfect. The black must be perfectly black and the whites must be perfectly white. And the colors must be correct and saturated.

Close-up of flaws in product photo

Close-up of ample flaws in product photo – dust, those annoying round indents that are on all plastic products and yet, never appear in their beauty shots. The strings needed to hold the product, the tape accidentally seen from behind.

Particular care is needed if the product has shiny surfaces that can reflect light (and the other people in the room). And no matter how much time you spend dusting and cleaning the product and the surfaces around the product, dust is in the air and it is falling and attaching via static cling to your products the very second you put the compressed air down.

Although it’s more forgiving at 1080×1920 resolution, Video presents additional challenges because it’s not as easy to remove props and strings in post. Also you now have the issue of camera movement. You can’t simply place the product in a whitebox and you might need a larger set.



We’d like to help you get the absolute most elite photos and video of your products. If you know you want to look really good, and if you know that it can take time and effort to get great results, we will give you a fair, itemized and upfront billing structure. Fill out the quick quote form on this page and someone will get back to you soon.