Great product photography should be instant, engaging and memorable. It will show your products in their best light — literally and figuratively.
Our approach to product photography centres around careful art direction and technical excellence, whether for use on a website, in a catalogue, or for out-of-home advertising.
Product photography is a specialised discipline focused on capturing the essence and appeal of products through visual imagery. It serves two primary purposes: visually communicating the product’s features and benefits and showcasing its value to customers. Product photography can be categorised into four main styles:
Product photography can take many forms, including photographic composites, computer-generated imagery (CGI), and 3D photography. Each technique is crucial in modern product presentation, often requiring a balanced combination to create distinctive and compelling product images. Achieving the desired visual impact requires careful art direction, frequently involving collaboration between designers, art directors, and photographers to define the final image.
It may seem like a recent innovation, but brand imagery has been employed for over a century. During the late 1800s, commercial advertising transformed how companies interacted with customers, promoting new ways to capture and share their products and services. Early examples of branded photography include:
Coca-Cola first used brand photography in the mid-1890s. Art director and photographer Jacob Riis was brought in to help create a new vision for the brand and was tasked with capturing the products through reportage-style poses for use in advertising materials. Although this style of imagery is commonplace today, staged use of the product was an innovative concept and helped to drive new levels of brand exposure and recognition.
Ford Motors was also an early adopter of brand photography, hiring various photographers to capture its new factory and cars. This was one of the first examples of branded photographic content used to tell a story about its people and products. The art direction demonstrated authenticity by showing customers a side of the Ford brand they were not usually exposed to.
In the 1930s, brand photography increased the use of compositional elements to attract attention and communicate brand values. This is often seen through careful cropping or intense symmetrical compositions, as in Campbell’s Soup brand photography. Campbell’s also used brand photography to tell the story of its brand and products through reportage, as Coca-Cola had done decades before.
Branded photography was often used in the 1950s and 1960s to communicate authenticity through a rugged, masculine style. By the 1970s, however, we began to see more storytelling in brand photography, with images that tell stories and evoke emotion. This is most apparent in one of Marlboro’s branding photographs, where we see a cigarette-smoking cowboy against a brilliant brand colour under a bright skyline.
Brand storytelling has become essential to brand building as customers seek brands that stand for something. While well-produced brand photography can illuminate a company’s values and products, it can also help build an emotional connection that is difficult to achieve with illustration or typography alone.
Photography can offer a personal brand experience that is difficult to communicate with other brand-building tools. When this effect is combined with a trend towards authenticity in brand communication, it’s easy to see why brand photography has become so prevalent in the modern marketplace.
There are countless types of product photography. Every variation brings its distinct style, so brand owners must work with their agencies and production partners when deciding on the kind of brand photography that suits them best. The most common types of brand photography that we use in our practice are:
Product photography that showcases products, either on their own or in use.
Brands like IKEA often do this to showcase how people might use the brand’s furniture within a home setting, while outdoor brands will show off technical equipment and clothing in motion.
These brand images are used for catalogues and online directories where you need to show a brand’s packaging, design and logo. They can also be used on retail websites or for magazine brand listings to help the brand stand out from its competitors. These are often shot against a white or neutral background to focus on the products.
Product photography that showcases a product in its natural environment. For example, an outdoor brand like Berghaus would use this photograph to show off their clothing and equipment while worn or used outside. This can be achieved by shooting on location with models (as seen here), but it is vital to ensure the brand’s logo and values are still visible and used in the final edit.
These brand images show off the details of a brand’s products, especially for jewellery and clothing brands. For example, you could use this photographic style if your brand sells luxury watches or bags with unique details like engraving that are worth showing in photographs.
Product photography is essential for any product-led brand looking to connect with consumers. Product photographers create imagery highlighting the product’s value and appeal by showcasing its offerings in the best possible light and blending visual storytelling with attention to detail and precision.
Product photography is a cornerstone of effective marketing. It is widely used in advertising, e-commerce, and promotional materials to build brand awareness and drive sales.
Though product photography may seem modern, it has roots dating back over a century. In the late 1800s, the rise of commercial advertising revolutionised how companies presented their products, leading to innovative methods for capturing and sharing product images.
