Today, product images remain the dominant digital asset when it comes to selling competitively online. Over the last five years or so, 360 product images have become a popular companion or even an alternative to standard product images. Your business, like most out there, is probably either considering 360s, experimenting with a few top selling products, or are in full-fledged production. But businesses like yours have a big problem. They do not understand 360 images or the 360-degree product photography process. This article addresses the questions you may have about 360 product photography ..read more

Job Title: Product Photographer – Freelance / Contractor Location: Taylor, Michigan Description: Are you a freelance photographer with extensive experience with tabletop product photography? Are you looking to add another quality client to your business? If so, this opportunity is for you. We are a product photography business with a studio in Taylor, Michigan. We have many large customers in various industries including the auto parts sector. Our customers regularly send us products for photography and they contract to us for large projects. We photography the products according to our cus ..read more

How Resource/Ammirati Uses Visual SKUs DAM Software to Manage and Send Product Images to Retailers for Fortune 500 Global Manufacturer This blog post summarizes my interview with Kate Ersly from Resource/Ammirati. Kate is Senior Manager, Omni-Channel at Resource/Ammirati. Her focus is on helping clients drive sales through ecommerce channels. Kate has been using Visual SKUs Digital Asset Management software for a year and a half to manage and send thousands of product images, on behalf of their fortune 500 global manufacturer client, to 25 of the world’s largest retailers including Walmart, Am ..read more

News flash – the majority of product photography is 80% science, 20% art – and that’s on a good day. Sure, if your business is taking ‘marketing’ images of $20,000 watches that will appear in fashion magazines and on billboards, that single, amazing image that took 2 days to capture with 2 assistants, is all art. But for in-house photography studios that take hundreds of images daily the focus is mostly science. The science of product photography focuses on studio setup, production, workflows, automation, equipment, resources, and software. Simply put, the mantra for in-house product photograp ..read more

Making the decision to outsource your product photography is not a small one. You should consider: The pros and cons of do-it-yourself vs. outsourcing. The costs of in-house product photography vs. the prices for outsourced services. How to choose the right studio. This article touches briefly on these topics but the main focus is on the product photography services studios offer. I will review standard services provided by all studios, additional services offered by larger studios, and speciality services offered by specific studios. Let’s get into it. DIY vs. Outsourcing Both DIY and outso ..read more

In this article I take an in-depth look at two types of product photography: Catalog Photography – producing product images for use in print catalogs, and Online Product Photography – producing product images for eCommerce and electronic catalogs. I share some data with you illustrating that catalogs are still a popular medium, they help drive consumers to eCommerce sites, and readers of catalogs actually buy more online than do non-readers. In addition, I detail the differences between these two types of photography and build the case that, despite the differences, when you combine catalog ..read more

Does this describe your business? You sell through e-commerce channels. You want to sell more product. You need high-quality images of all your products. You don’t know much about product photography. If you answered yes to these questions then outsourcing your product photography is the right move. But how much will this cost? There is no simple answer. Your business, your products, and your image requirements all factor into how much you will be charged for product photography. In this post I will answer 4 questions about product photography rates: How do product photography service provi ..read more

Would you like to know how to increase the efficiency of your photography studio? Would you like to know how to setup a photography studio designed for high production and image quality? If so, read on and you will learn about the 5 key components to setting up an efficiently operating studio: The equipment you use. The people you hire. The workflows you deploy. The software you use. How you put it all together. Before we delve into the details of each of these areas, let’s get 2 facts out of the way. 1.    Your business is unique Your business has unique needs and constraints ..read more

Are you finding DIY product photography challenging? Are the pressures of satisfying marketing, operations and finance weighing you down? Are you not sure where to start? If this sounds like you then read on. In this post I review 7 best practices that will help you setup and operate your product photography studio efficiently.  Planning Projects Maintaining Equipment Organizing Logistics Optimizing Production Creating Images for All user groups Monitoring Expenses Managing People 5 Questions to Ask Before Committing to DIY Product Photography Before we get into the best practices (and ..read more

Photographing products is a balancing act between maximizing daily image production and maintaining image quality. If you push production too hard image quality drops hurting online sales and damaging your brand. If you push image quality too hard your production drops and your budget will be used up before you know it. In this post I break down this balancing act and introduce a 4-step process that will empower you to maximize production without sacrificing image quality. Approaches to the Production / Image Quality Balance Before I get into the 4-step process let’s look at two common approac ..read more