Ensure your products are photo ready!

Ensuring that your products are ‘photo ready’ is a critical step in preparing for a product photography session. When purchasing online, consumers rely solely on product images and product descriptions to make a purchasing decision. The images you present on your website, Kickstarter campaign or Amazon listing are often the first and only experience a consumer will have with your product before making a purchase. It’s critical that your product photography looks attractive, vibrant and without flaws.

Photoshop is a wonderful and invaluable tool that can fix a whole host of issues, but repairing the appearance of damaged or defective products can be time consuming for the photographer and costly for my clients. Unless otherwise indicated, products shipped to my studio are photographed in ‘as is’ condition.

We have a wonderful product stylist that dusts, steams and preps each product to ensure they look their best on camera, however we rely on each client to ensure the products they ship us accurately portray the quality of their company and brand.

 
 
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Unbox and visually inspect your products

Nothing fills a product photographer with more dread that to receive a box or bag of sealed retail packages, as it’s usually a sign that the products have not been inspected for flaws. Product photography may be the only experience a consumer has with your company prior to purchasing. Rather than grab random pieces of merchandise off the shelf, or ‘blind ship’ your products from a fulfillment center, it’s worth taking the additional time to locate pieces that you feel are the best representation of your brand. Most flaws and defects can be avoided with a quick examination.

A single defective product can be enough to seriously delay a project while your product photographers wait for a replacement. Or, we may not even realize that your product is defective until the shoot is complete and they receive feedback from clients. 

All product photography projects

  • Remove your products from the packaging and visually inspect each item in good light and watch for scratches, scuffs and dents.
  • If possible, we recommend sending two of each item in the event that a flaw was overlooked and if a packaging shot is needed, it allows us to photograph the packaging in pristine condition, without having to remove the product.
  • You may arrange to drop off your products at my Milford, MA studio or may ship them to: Jennifer Christie Photography, 5 Rebecca Way, Milford, MA 01757
  • If packaging shots are required, we recommend at least two inches of well padded space between the packaging and the outer box to ensure that your packaging arrives at our studio in photo ready condition.
  • Due to limited storage capabilities, all products must be picked up or shipped back within seven days of project completion.
  • If return shipping is required, please include a prepaid shipping label along with your products.

Clothing and fabric product photography

By taking a few moments to inspect clothing items prior to shipping, the majority of these can be avoided, ensuring your clothing or fabric-based product photography looks crisp and flawless.

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  • Check each clothing item for tears, holes, popped stitches, color bleed, dirt, stains or poor cuts. Products shipped to us should accurately portray the quality of their company and brand.  
  • Take each product from the packaging and remove any tags, labels or anything else that you don’t want in the photo and have each pressed or ironed in advance.
  • Products with internal or external pockets that will be photographed open, should be stuffed with tissue paper and/or cardboard to retain shape during shipping.
  • We have a wonderful product stylist that dusts and preps each product to ensure they look their best on camera; however, while we may steam certain garments before shooting to help them lay flat and shake loose any wrinkles that may have formed during shipping, ironing out sharp creases is charged as a separate fee.
  • Make sure every item is new and unworn! Wearing an item even once stretches and changes the shape of the material.
  • We recommend using a hanging wardrobe box for all shirts and dresses and a garment box for slacks and socks to ensure they arrive in photo ready condition.

Jewelry photography

Jewelry flaws are often so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, however high resolution photography magnifies each piece much larger than they appear in real life, making even the smallest of scratches or flaws much more apparent. For example, a dozen scratches of just a quarter of a millimeter are too small to be seen without a loupe, but are very visible when professionally lit and viewed on a computer monitor.

Retouching jewelry can quickly become very difficult and expensive, so we ask that clients take the time to have their pieces professionally cleaned, polished and inspected. In the end, it saves both time and retouching expense!

  • Fine jewelry should be cleaned and polished to ensure that scuffs and scratches are at a minimum
  • Costume jewelry should be examined with a loupe to ensure that there are no glue marks, heavy scuffing or tarnish.
  • Delicate pieces should be individually wrapped and we recommend using jewelry boxes or cases.
  • We strongly recommend purchasing shipping insurance.
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