How Much Product Should I Send for a Photoshoot?
Send four. Here is what each one is for.
By Andras Dietrich
How much product should I send for a photoshoot?
Send four sets, minimum. One for the packaging shot, one spare for the packaging shot, one to open, and one more to open again. Usually one of the four is not good enough to shoot, and you cannot tell which one until it is under the light.
Why do most people send me just one?
Which makes sense. It is your product, you know it is good, and one is what you would hand a customer.
On a set it is different. I am not shooting your product, I am shooting the best version of your product, and I only find out which one that is when they are all under the light.
So what are the four for?
One for the packaging shot. Closed, exactly how a customer gets it.
One spare for the packaging shot, because the first one picks up a fingerprint or a scuff the second anyone touches it.
One to open. Open is a different picture and you cannot un-open it.
One more to open again, because the first one you open rarely falls the way you want.
What if one of them is a dud?
Label on wonky, seal not right, fill a bit low. Happens all the time and it is nobody's fault.
But if you sent me one, that is the one I have got. Now everyone is waiting while somebody drives back for another.
What is this really about?
Not the product. The day. A shoot that stops and waits is a shoot that runs out of light, and everything after it gets rushed.
Sending product to a shoot?
Tell me what you make and where the pictures need to show up. I will tell you how many sets I need.