Getting Started with Collaborations

Collaborations are a creative entrepreneur’s best friend. For small business owners with handcrafted items, it is invaluable to show catalogue caliber photos of your products. However, not just anyone with a DSLR and an editing app will have the know-how to photograph your products in a way that sells. In addition, you may be in over your head if you plan to purchase some starting photography equipment and attempt your own product photos. For this reason, small shop owners will often choose to invest in a product photoshoot or collaborate with a professional photographer who genuinely enjoys the products. 

Photographers benefit from collaboration if they enjoy supporting small businesses, if they could use the traded product in a styled shoot or for personal use, or if they are building a product photography portfolio to offer the service to others as a source of income in the future. 

Collaboration is not necessarily a good fit for every photographer and shop owner, but there certainly are a lot of advantages  if it’s something you’re considering. With that said, both shop owners and photographers can benefit from a contract, whether it’s legally drafted or casual in nature. I recommend The Lawtog as a resource for an air-tight contract to use again and again if you plan to collaborate often. 

My Personal Tips on Product Photography

I got started with collaborations by reaching out to a handful of shops that sell unisex children clothing, since I’m already an expert at photographing my son and he is always available. I recommend starting with something you know how to do. If you are an experienced wedding photographer, you already routinely photograph floral bouquets, jewelry, and dresses. Why not approach a vendor with shots from your portfolio showing similar items? You can offer to bring the products back or work out an agreement if they are still a little weary to collaborate with a newbie. Don’t take rejection personally, like I’ve said before–collaboration is not ideal for everyone’s business. 

When I plan for a collaboration, I explicitly state a range of time they can expect to receive photos, how many photos, the setting/location, and then I ask whether they have a particular purpose for the photos or a specific vision. Vendors like to have their work displayed with accurate coloring, so editing, white balance, and lighting are crucial no matter the product. But sometimes a vendor will actually prefer that you edit with a moody tone, deliver black and whites, etc. So always peek at their website for the look and feel of their brand, and always ask for their preferences. 

When it comes to shooting products, I always aim for showing variety. I give a minimum of 6 photos per product, but ultimately I give as many photos as it takes to show variety. I have found that simple is better for most setups, but that careful attention should be paid to what context you display it in. If it’s a cat astronaut design on a children’s romper, it’s totally acceptable to surround the clothing model with bubbles, and photoshop in a digital galaxy wallpaper in the background. But even with a bit of whimsy, the product should always be the first thing you notice. It’s tempting to use a shallow depth of field when shooting products, but beware that it’s not always appropriate. You should always be cognizant of the details of the product itself, and be sure that your aperture is high enough to retain all the fine print and craftsmanship. Adding some wide aperture shots can be both interesting and marketable, but always showing details. If you’re shooting a flatlay, there isn’t any reason to shoot wide open. You could easily end up shooting anywhere between f/5.6 and f/11, and that is t otally okay. If you need it (and I always do this), use a reflector and diffused off camera flash. Using artificial lighting is a great way to help eliminate shadows in your clean flaytlays, but it also allows you to shoot at narrower apertures and higher shutter speeds. Best of all, adding light will mean the colors  are more vibrant and accurate. It’s not always as easy as setting up beside a large window.

Go out and purchase an extra large white foam board to place products on for flatlays. You can use fabric, wood or laminate paneling, marble slabs, textured paper and so much more. But just trust me on this, buy a foam white board from Hobby Lobby and start there. Every shop can use a true white background on their products so they can appear as if they’re floating on a white website. It’s clean, its appealing, and it’s versatile. Shops will always be glad to have them. To achieve an all-white background, focus on blowing out the white areas of the foam background all the way to the edges of your image. What you don’t want to do, however, is blow out all of the whites on the product as well. So prepare to spend a bit of time post-processing your image to achieve this. 

 

So, Let’s Collab!

You have an arsenal of tips to get started as either a shop owner or a photographer, so get out there and collaborate! I created a community of creatives on facebook specifically for professional collaborations. You can click the link below, or you can search for it by name: “Let’s Collab – Professional Photos for Small Shops”. We support and encourage each other, and we ask specifically for collabs based on our own vision or unique brand. As a bonus, you can find most of the creatives mentioned in this article there. 

Request to join the group

Share this as a resource for your fellow creatives, or bookmark it for later! 

Love,