Did you know that over 90% of the time when clients are not happy with produced photos, the reason is insufficient briefing detail?
Once you find a product photography company you want to work with and are ready to book a photo shoot, you may be tempted to send over your products and assume that the photographer will know exactly what you want. This is far from true.
After you choose a photography company, you have another very important job to do, provide a great brief. This is absolutely essential for you to get the best results for your photoshoot. It is also essential for photographers to have this brief in order to give you a correct product photography quotation.
Please read carefully this whole page before booking your, first photoshoot with us. Please make sure you understand everything and also understand our reshoot policy when you provide the brief. We want to provide the best possible photos to all our clients, and a great brief is crucial for achieving this.
In this section we cover:
Briefs for Photo Shoots with Model
Best Practices for Reference Photos
What is a photography brief?
A photography brief is a collection of all your requirements for the photo shoot about how you want the final images to look like. Ideally these are put in an xls or pdf document.
You can attach this document in the "Shotlist" field of our booking form.
There are generally 3 ways in which clients give briefs to photographers:
1. Detailed Briefs
Provide a detailed shotlist with specific directions for all details of the photo shoot, and let the photographer work as a technician.
*Best Practice*
Example: your company is launching a new electric kettle. You give the brief the photographer as:
5 product on white images:
- 1 full views of the kettle front straight on (followed by a photo of a kettle straight on)
- 1 full view of the kettle 45 degrees angle turned to the left (followed by a photo of a kettle 45 degrees to the left)
- 1 detail image of the material straight on (followed by a photo of kettle material)
- 1 detail image of the handle (followed by a photo of a kettle handle)
- 1 detail image of the kettle interior (followed by a photo of a kettle interior）
- Lighting for product on white images, soft lighting, natural soft shadows.
2 lifestyle images: The lighting should be crisp with soft shadows for the product on white images, and the lifestyle images should be minimalist style with grey/light color background and furniture.
- 1 of kettle in a kitchen environment. The kitchen photo should be white and beige, with prepared breakfast on a tray featuring a croissant, strawberries and 2 cups of tea shot at an angle where the tea in the cups is visible, and the logo of the kettle is visible. (followed by interior reference, and a mock-up of kettle and props arrangement)
- 1 of kettle in an office environment. The office photo needs to feature a modern steel office kitchenette with some fresh apples on the counter and box of tea without visible branding. (followed by interior reference, and a mock-up of kettle and props arrangement)
- Lighting for lifestyle images: moody, strong shadows and contrasts
You create a separate row with directions for each photo, including angles of the product to be shot, and ideally mock-ups of the photos you expect. You can take these with your photo with your product or similar object, to show the angles you expect. Be sure to indicate what the photos you are including are for. They are either reference photos for positioning, reference photos for lighting, or reference photos for styling.
What will happen?
We will create the photos exactly as in your brief. If we don't make the photos like in your instruction, we will reshoot for free! Read about our reshoot policy here.
Why this works?
If you have a specific idea and would like to photos to be as closely to your idea, giving a detailed brief is the only way to achieve this result.
Why this may not work?
Overall, this approach will lead to good results, it will also likely result in little more expensive production, because our team may not have all the props and settings you want, so everything will have to be purchased specifically for your photos.
Providing this type of brief is like going to a cake shop and ordering lava cake. You will get lava cake (if it is on the menu).
Overview: For detailed brief we need all the information about your requirements, including:
- what you are looking to show with each image (function, texture, overall shape etc)
- the lighting you need, including softness and direction
- positioning of the product
- angle from which it has to be shot
- a short introduction of your company. Yes, we would like to know about your company and what you are all about, this helps a lot when creating photos.
Sending a file that contains images only is not a detailed brief. Sending a list to your competitors' listings saying to do better is also not a detailed brief.
2. Semi-detailed Briefs
Provide a shotlist with vague directions for all details of the photoshoot, and let the photographer "do better than the photos in the brief"
Example: your company is launching a new electric kettle. You give the brief the photographer in an xls sheet as follows:
5 product on white images:
- 1 full product shot (followed by 5 different photos of different angles of a kettle)
- 1 full view of the kettle (followed by another 5 different photos in different angles of a kettle)
- 1 detail image of the material straight on (followed by different photos of materials, different angles)
- 1 detail image of the handle (followed by 3 photos of handles of different angles)
- 1 detail image of the kettle interior (followed by 3 photos of kettle interiors highlighting different thins)
2 lifestyle images: The lighting should be crisp with soft shadows for the product on white images, and the lifestyle images should be minimalist style with grey/light color background and furniture.
- 1 of kettle in a kitchen environment. (followed by many different lifestyle images, all in different angles)
- 1 of kettle in an office environment. (followed by many different lifestyle images, all in different angles)
What will happen?
The photographer will be confused and not know what to do. If you provide 5 different photos for a product on white photo, it looks like you haven't decided yet, which angle you want. For the photographer taking 5 angles instead of 1 means doing 5 times the amount of work. If you want 5 different version of a photo, we can do that. However, this is a custom service, and we will charge you accordingly. 1 product photo means 1 product angle.
Alternatively, if you don't specify what angle you want and you give 5 different references, the photographer will choose ONE SINGLE ANGLE to take a photo. This is fine, if you haven't decided what angle you want and wish to allow some creative freedom. However, if you are not happy with the chosen angle, a request for reshoot WILL NOT BE COVERED by our reshoot policy. We can reshoot, but this will cost extra.
Why this can work?
This kind of brief can work if you have a general idea of what you want, but don't care exactly about which angles and other details you want. This brief is much easier to prepare, just throw in some photos you like. You will get good quality photos, but there are no guarantees you will like the end results 100% because the brief isn't specific enough.
Why this may not work?
This may lead to photos you don't like, because there is no way to make sure the angles the photographer will choose are the angles you want.
Providing this type of brief is like going to a cake shop and ordering "some type of chocolate cake". You will get a chocolate cake, but whether it will be one you like is not guaranteed.
3. Vague Briefs
Provide links to your competitors, and tell the photographer to "do something similar".
Example: your company is launching a new electric kettle. You give the brief the photographer as 2 full views of the kettle, 3 details images, and 2 lifestyle images, 1 of kettle in a kitchen environment, 1 of kettle in an office environment. You don't provide any additional requirements, and tell the photographer "do your best, and do something better than those images". You provide 3 links to your competitors, that each have completely different photos.
What will happen?
The photographer and team will take the images with their own idea of what looks good, what props will be used, and what color the backgrounds will be (for lifestyle images).
Why this works?
If you don't have experience with booking photoshoots and really don't know what you want, this could work for getting some photos
What may not work?
There is a high chance that you will not like the photos, because what looks good to one person may not look good to another. Just look at 5 different major clothing brands, you will see their lifestyle images look different. They are all good photos, but different styles. If you don't give any specifics, you can't expect specific results either. This type of brief is not eligible for reshooting. If there are things you don't like and you start providing requirements about how things should be done AFTER the photos are ready the rework will cost extra. Please read about our reshoot policy here before you decide to provide a vague brief.
Providing this type of brief is like going to a cake shop and ordering "some cake". You will get a cake, but there is a very high chance that it will not be the cake you wanted.
Briefs for Infographics
For infographics, you also need to provide details information about the text, photos layout etc that you want, including font type, and font size. Create a mock-up and text to explain your mock-up. If you do not provide a mock-up with explanation, and you are not happy with how the infographic was done, we will not redo it free of charge.
Briefs for Photo Shoots with Model
For photo shoots with model you brief also needs to include the following:
1. Hairstyling required for model
2. Make-up required for model
3. Clothes required for model. Client has to provide photos of the clothing and accessories required for the model for your project. We will do our best to obtain similar items either from our props inventory or purchase extra.
.
Best Practices for Providing Reference Photos
We welcome reference photos to illustrate that angles you want for your products. However, if you provide campaign photos from some huge brand like Nike and ask us to do the same, this just isnt' workable. Campaign photos generally are super high resolution and cost a fortune to create. For product photos, please limit your expectations to what you see on most ecommerce websites and marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.
How about bulk photoshoots?
If your company has a steady stream of new products to launch every month, you will find yourself so busy preparing briefs that you will not have time for anything else.
Over the years, we find that what works best for large volume clients is to create a brand book, which is essentially an aesthetic guide to how images for your brand should be taken.
Video Briefs
Please read the information about providing video briefs here.
