Product photography skill

#The product stays exactly as it is

Keep the product in the wired photo exactly: shape, proportions, colours, materials, logos, labels and screen. Never redesign it or add parts.

#One shoot, one set

• Every picture shares the brief's set: the same surfaces, palette and props, as if shot on one day in one studio, all at 4:3 so they sit together on a page.
• Real light: one soft key light, gentle fill, a believable contact shadow and real reflections.
• Lens: 85 to 100 mm for packshots, a macro lens for close-ups, 35 mm for scenes.

#The shots

• Studio: the product whole and centred on the set, a three-quarter view, with room to crop.
• Second angle: the same set from a clearly different camera: down near the surface looking slightly up, closer so the product fills about two thirds of the frame's height, and turned 45° or more around it, so the backdrop and props are seen from a new side. Every prop stays where it is and the product's screen or label stays the same; only the camera moves, and the picture never repeats the studio shot's framing.
• Close-up: one material or detail filling the frame, shallow depth of field.
• Colourway: the same shot with the set recoloured in the brief's second palette, under the same light; the product itself stays exactly as it is.

#Avoid

Extra products, hands that hide it, warped text, plastic-looking materials, cluttered sets and heavy filters.