Product Photography Toronto - investing in your business

Product Photography Toronto

I am a Toronto product photographer operating a commercial photography studio in Toronto. Here, there are many photographers, and competition is very high. To accommodate this situation, the good studios must communicate their competency to rise above the trash.
 
I regularly engage other Toronto product photographers. I am amazed how often little these individuals invest in their business.  Regrettably, there are a few barriers of entry to become a photographer. Essentially, all you need is a camera. However, if you have the ambitions to be a good photographer, you need more resources than that.

To create any successful and competitive commercial photography business, you must invest in it substantially. Photographer should regularly invest in:

•  Photo equipment (strobes, stands , diffusers, crossbars, backdrops, light meters)
• Marketing of your commercial photography business
•  Photo Editing Software
•  Computers
• The best camera and lenses you can afford
• Developing Photography efficiencies, techniques, differentiators, processes and
• Relevant photography skills

This blog outlines some of the big resources you need as a photographer to be successful (besides the camera).

A.  Good working knowledge of the camera

It surprises me how many commercial photographers do not know how to use their camera. They simply buy an awesome camera (if that) and think they are ready to shoot at the pro level.  Many photographers surprisingly shoot in the Auto or Aperture Priority mode. To me this is stupid.  If you plan to call yourself a professional photographer In Toronto, or anywhere for that matter, you should know how to use your camera. The basics of exposure are not complicated.  If you are a professional photographer, learn how to use a camera in manual mode!

B. Light meter

My light meter is my most important tools in my camera bag after my camera.

The light meter helps me measure the light intensity emitted from my strobes. It will helps me assess the balance of light intensity around the circumference of my subject. Better yet, it will tell me how to set my camera.

I have met Commercial Photographers in Toronto who believe they can estimate the intensity of the light from their strobes by experience and by eye. This is a physical impossibility. There is no way the human eye can measure light down to the fractions of an aperture F-stop by visual observation.

If you are serious about getting good exposure for your product photography, get a light meter.

 

Our approach at product photography Toronto is to play every image for keeps.  By the time my camera fires, the exposure is perfect or pretty darn close. On a typical shoot, my keep rate for product shots is about 80%.

Multiple strobes

Strobe lights are essential to good product photography. Fluorescent lights just do not cut it, and neither does available light. These forms of illumination are inconsistent and require long exposures. Moreover you run a greater risk for camera shake. Invest in light that will help you shoot at 125^th of a second or greater at F16 ISO 100 and your image quality will enhance dramatically.

Photoshop

Surprisingly, many product photographers do not use Photoshop to produce their product photography; instead, they use Adobe Lightroom. This is the wrong application for commercial product shots.    Lightroom lacks masking capabilities and healing tools.  If you are doing wedding photography, then go ahead and use LR, as this application is adequate for adjusting colours and exposure.  However, with Lightroom, God forbid your Client asks you to fix her crooked teeth or thin her wide bum.  Lightroom’s photo editing capabilities are very limited.

I use Photoshop everyday to edit my images.  Photoshop is a great program but it is over rated.  Many Photographers depend on Photoshop to fix their images; I use this program to enhance my images. There is a huge difference.

If I did my job well, my photos will be good for immediate use. A bad photographer will need to edit their images substantially; especially if they are unfamiliar with using a camera. Moreover, a severely Photoshoped image looks like shit.  Noting beats a native image with accurate exposure in the onset.  Editing a good image is a breeze; making it pop is a synch.

Photographers who give their Client’s unedited images are essentially giving them a half-baked solution. A good product shot should be traced out of its background and supplied to the customer with an alpha channel for comprehensive marketing communication use. An image with a transparency layer will allow the client to use the photo for overlay or   superimposing applications.

The Product Photography Toronto philosophy to Photoshop is to shoot images perfectly.  Only use Photoshop to make mild adjustments.  Minimize rebuilding images whenever possible.

Light diffusers

Different items have different demands for correct illumination. Photographing a bottle for example, is not the same as photographing a T-shirt. As some objects are more three-dimensional than others, lighting from multiple angles becomes a necessity. In addition, spreading the light evenly over some object is much more critical than others to represent the product well.

A good tripod

For catalog photography, consistency is key. Photographing the item from a consistent angle of view is critical to the client to maintain a uniform appearance.

A studio

A reputable  photographer does not work out of his living room or basement. I am anal about this aspect as a studio is a proper working environment to meet with clients and it is optimized to produce better images.

If you are looking for a great product photographer in Toronto who habitually invests in processes,  equipment and method to deliver outstanding quality, then kindly give me a call

W: www.julesdesign.ca

E:  jules@julesdesign.ca
 
http://www.product-photography-toronto.com/
http://www.product-photography-toronto.com/

Product Photography Toronto

Product Photography Toronto
Technique to produce your product shots

In Toronto, I run a product photography studio. As a photographer working hard to make a living, I service Ontario, Canada and the GTA. My primary trading zone for my commercial photography business is Mississauga, Scarborough, Oshawa, Brampton, Concord, Vaughn, Toronto and Milton.  I have also done product shot assignments in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge but due to proximity, it is much more efficient to work in the surrounding Toronto market.

Being a product photographer is fun but it is hard work.  The hours are long and I spend a substantial amount of time marketing my advertising photography service.  To win business, I try to different services such as

·        Photography Lessons

·        Conventional Product Shots

·        Amazon product photography

·        360 Spin (Rotating Product Shots) Photography

·        Drink Photography  and Food Photography

·        Graphic Design and Photoshop services

My approach is to offer photography solutions that my customers cannot find elsewhere and that my competitors are unwilling to learn. As a rule, I try to avoid services that other photographers offer in mass.  I do not shoot weddings, I do not do baby photography…. There just is not any money in it. Business will always pay more for photography services than consumers do.  Moreover, it is appropriate to cold call a business, doing this with Consumers is less proper.

Toronto product photography technique  

My Clients use my commercial photography for advertising applications. Over the years, I have refined my product photography technique to produce better photographs. Some of the methods I use to produce my photos for my product shots include:

·        Using a gray card to make sure that the white balance in my product shots is correct

·        Use a light meter to make sure that the exposure in my photographs is accurate

·        When I shoot product shots, I always shoot tethered to a computer to review my images for composition and artifacts like blur.

·        I always use a variety light diffusers for product photography because different object need different illumination when being photographed

Photoshop to Edit your Commercial Photography

·        My Toronto studio also includes a copy of Photoshop on hand (of course!) to do quick mock edits.  I do this to look at the Photo in RAW format.

·        Photoshop is great when producing any kind of Product Photography. 


Under used Features when Editing Product Shots with Photoshop

One of the most under used features in Photoshop is the Adjustment Levels feature.  This feature heightens the white, mid-tones and blacks.  It just makes the colors punchier.  I recommend that any photographer get to know this feature regardless if you are a Toronto headshot photographer, a wedding photographer or a commercial photographer who shoots products  

Learn also to use the pen tool.  I cannot fathom presenting product shots to my Clients without this apparatus.  The Photoshop Pen Tool allows you to mask images; in other words, trace out the background.  This is critical to overlay the images on pure white or with a transparency layer for catalogue photography use.  All of my Clients in Toronto expect this- so I do not understand why many Photographers do not offer this value add service when editing product shots.  My best guess is that they do not know how to use Photoshop.

Anybody can be a photographer, not many are good

Anybody can buy a camera, so the barriers of entry are negligible.  Often the Client has no way to qualify if a Product Photographer is good or not.  Here is a list of qualifiers to determine if you are a good photographer.  If you do not have this infrastructure is not in place, I have to question your legitimacy as commercial photographer:

Are you a good pro photographer?

·        Do you shoot in Auto Mode.  If you are a pro photographer using your camera in auto mode, you suck.  You do not know how to use your camera and you are shamefully selling your Clients garbage images. I don’t care if you own the best camera in the world, using a camera in Auto Mode is pathetic if you are a professional photographer of any sorts.

·        Do you use Photoshop.  If you do not know how to use Photoshop, stop being a Photographer until you learn how to use this photography software; you are likely providing your Clients an unfinished product.

·        Do you use a light meter?  If you are using strobes to produce your images you need a light meter; period.  There is no way to visually estimate the amount of light your strobes put out.  You need a measurement tool measure the light intensity of your strobes.  Anybody who does photography with strobes without a light meter does not know what they are doing.

·        If you need to spend more that 1 hour to edit your image, you are not a very good photographer.  Photoshop is a useful tool to edit images but it is not a crutch.  Most images should be very usable in a few minutes even if you input a clipping path.

Other qualifiers to determine if you are a good professional photographer

·        Do you have a full-frame camera?  Full-frame cameras are typically the dividing point between a pro camera and a good camera. Full frame cameras typically have better image quality and less noise.  As a caveat, there are some decent pro crop sensor cameras out there.  

·        Do you own a backup camera?  You should.  Cameras sometimes crap out during studio product shoots in the gentles of conditions.   A pro photographer should always own a spare camera

·        Do you have more than one camera lens? I could never run a photography business on a single lens.  Theoretically, if I had to, I could but it would really hinder my creative flexibility.

·        Do you use strobes? Strobes for in-studio product photography are critical to produce product shots.  Fluorescent bulbs suck (different blog).

You do not need a Mac to be a professional photographer
·        On a semi related note, you do not need a Mac to be a professional photographer. Macs offer no functionality over PCs to provide or edit better images.  Mac computers are more expensive, they do not operate faster, and getting plugins, hardware and software is harder for this platform.  Do not expect a better ROI for a Mac then a PC if you are running a photography business.

 


A good product photographer should have the tools for the trade.  At my commercial photography studio inToronto, I continually invest in new tools and methods to improve the quality ofmy product shots.

If you are looking for a great product photographer in Toronto who habitually invests in processes,  equipment and method to deliver outstanding quality, then kindly give me a call

W: www.julesdesign.ca

E:  jules@julesdesign.ca