How Do I Stage My Product?

Cabin Decor

You have a great product and you’ve got your product on white shots, but you need that one great shot-often referred to as a “hero” shot for your Amazon product page. Even with minimal equipment you can maximize your composition to stage your product.

This rustic cabin decor lamp with painted shade and metal art; and small wood carvings against a tongue and groove wood wall serves as the canvas to creating more dramatic photography.  This is your stage and these are the basic elements to arrange as you look for the shot you’re after.  This isn’t about being quick-it takes time and a lot of shots.  Beyond arranging what you see through the lens you’ll change up the shutter speed and focal length for a wide range of variables to find that end shot.

Cabin Decorating Theme
Turns out less is more.Rustic Cabin Hallway
Adding a floral stem to the very foreground adds shadow and depth. The focus is clearly on the cabin lamp with the floral having the bokeh. This is using a very slow shutter speed and wide open aperture (2.8).

Bokeh
Here the focus is reversed-bringing the floral into focus maintaining the same slow shutter speed and aperture. This might work for a backdrop image for marketing text while you still display your product.

Cabin Rustic Decor
The experimenting continues, same lens settings, but rearranging the floral, playing with the light.  This, too, can be a nice backdrop drawing the eye to the foreground where you might add your marketing message for a website slider.

Rustic Cabin Decor on Tongue and Groove paneling

Then often you come full circle to include parts of several variations of your composition. This used the same settings, pulled in the wood carvings and feathered the floral to a wider angle for a beautifully balanced and bokehed rustic cabin decor photograph.  This gives a lovely staging while highlighting the lamp and giving a vision of how it will look and feeling it creates once brought into the buyer’s home.

Canon Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Slow Exposure 0.3 seconds
Rotolight to spot

Product Photographer in Tucson Arizona

We shot a full line of industrial lighting products at the manufacturing plant.  From overhead lighting you see in commercial retail stores and manufacturing plants to stylized industrial quality hanging pendant lights and solid metal exterior parking lot lights this was an extensive catalog.  Some of the lighting products measured nearly 9 feet in length.

Shooting against a backdrop we used existing light which was a mix of tungsten and fluorescent light. We used a 5′ x 5′ scrim to soften the overhead skylight.  By trial and error we shot with automatic exposure, viewed each product for accuracy and adjusted as needed to match our eye. Once we began photo editing we had a great reference which gave us a perfect color match.  This was the most efficient way to shoot the products within an 8 hour day.  Crucial to time management in a product shoot like this is having an employee of the client on hand to move product.

Industrial Hanging Pendant Lights

Jewelry Lifestyle Photography

Lifestyle jewelry photos are a great asset to show off your jewelry collection and add “eye candy” to your website.  Showing your jewelry worn breathes warmth and personal connection to your gemstone jewelry – rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces.  This session was shot at the jeweler’s store within a two hour window.
Lifestyle Jewelry Photography
These lifestyle images were shot using a Paul C Buff Beauty Dish with a 20% grid using an Einstein studio flash, hand held reflector and a Canon 24-70 mm lens.
Gemstone Necklace
We also shot environmental jewelry product pieces in a couple of settings. Creating a stunning bokeh background to set off the sparkling gemstones.
Environmental Jewelry Product Photos
A tight crop (below) brings the ring forward.
Jewelry Product Photography
This diamond ring (below) was set into a succulent. We manipulated the image with photo editing to keep the focus on the ring. These product images were shot using a Rotolight and a 100mm 2.8 Canon lens.

Environmental Product Photography

Staff Portrait Photographer in Irvine

Receptionist Portrait
Receptionist Lifestyle Portrait
A lifestyle (aka environmental) portrait session for the company receptionist required lighting setup. Staging the background with existing furnishings we added a couple of lights to create drama and depth to the shot. We combined ambient light with flash focusing a beauty dish on the subject’s face.

Einstein Studio Flash
Paul Buff 22 inch Beauty Dish
10 Degree Grid
5′ Avenger C-Stand
Canon 6D
Canon 24-70 mm 2.8 lens

Attorney Portrait Photographer in Santa Ana

Attorney Portrait

The photo session for this Law Office offered a rich background of beautiful wood desks, book cases and wide windows-ideal for an environment portrait session. This was the first shot-perfect pose, perfect attitude, perfect lighting.

Lawyer Portrait Photographer

Photography Details:

  • 64 inch Paul Buff PLM with no diffusion
  • Einstein
  • 24-70mm lens

Legal Attorney Photographer

Environment Staff Portrait

Environment Staff Portrait

Staff portraits have many settings now. “Lifestyle” aka “environment” portraits are popular because they are rapidly replacing stock photos for companies-real people in real business settings. These are the people who handle your phone calls.  Website visitors can put a face to a voice!

This was shot to enhance the background ambiance creating a bright, fresh image by slowing the shutter speed, requiring the subject to hold still and “hold that smile”. She was delightful to work with and the session went smoothly and quickly.

  • Paul C Buff Einstein
  • Beauty Dish
  • 24-70mm lens

Staff Lifestyle Portrait in Rancho Cucamonga

Staff Lifestyle Portrait
What a fun shoot! The fall sun in Rancho Cucamonga was low and bright.  With our staff group’s back to the sun we used 3 flashes into a small umbrella and a 2 stop ND filter to knock down the sunlight brilliance.

You hear the terms “lifestyle” portrait and “environment” portrait when you’re looking for a staff photo with a setting in the workplace, but not using a backdrop. This pose brings energy and an inviting smile to reflect the company. Make your website photos original and fun!

  • (3) 580 Speedlites w/small umbrella
  • 2 stop ND filter with Genus Matte Box
  • 24-70mm lens

Solar Panel Photography

Solar Panel at School Photography

An interesting photo shoot of installed solar panels at a local school.  This was all about angles. There are 2 parts to this solar system, with the gigantic battery stored securely behind fencing.

When hired to take one photo the task is to capture every angle in a beautifully balanced image.  To get the one shot our client needed we shot for an hour and from every angle. That’s the goal – seek out every good shot, shoot it all and let the client choose “the one”. As with all architecture there is a beauty to the structure, lines converging, verticals and horizontal.  It’s a fun shoot using only the basics: the camera and your eye.

See more Industrial Photography.

Dental Staff Photography

Dental Staff Photography

Website photos can go beyond the somber to this fun shoot. It captures the fun spirit of this staff portrait.  (We took serious shots, too – but these won out!)

Using 64″ Paul C Buff PLM umbrellas, two Einsteins to get that beautiful deep separation of tones.

Group Staff Photography

Large Group Staff Photography

A large staff group shot needs a bit of pre-planning. This session greatly benefited from color coordinated clothing. Body language is a subtle way to bring the comfortable warmth of a large group and takes patience to arrange.

Lighting for a large group gives depth.  We used 64″ Paul C Buff PLM umbrellas – one on each side.