Product Photography

Product photography is everywhere and is often perceived as a area of still life photography. Magazines, billboards and website's feature product shots whether they may be beauty, fashion, drinks and even food. Product photography can often be confused with being either commercial or editorial. Depending on if it is the company where the product comes from pays for the image then it would be commercial, or if a magazine commissions the image then it would be editorial, so technically it can be both. The aim of the photographer is always to present the product so that it describe's it in a way that is easy to understand, resulting in sales of the product.

Product photography often includes semiotics that communicates different messages through the images. The image may include other products or objects that are connected to what the product in the advert is focusing on, so that it show's the ingredients or symbols to make it appear more appealing to the viewer. For example the image below, of a vitamin C range from The Body Shop includes the product, oranges, leaves and water droplet/splashes. The other objects other than the product, indicates the freshness of what the product can do and what it is made out of. Semiotics are important in advertising images as it can be more tempting to the viewer to go out and buy whatever the product is.

Lighting is also a huge part in product photography and is very much all of the time shot in a studio. Being shot in a studio means the products can look the best they can be, resulting in more consumption and being bought in shops. In the studio lots of different lighting techniques can be created so that it the product can look how the client or company would like it, so it would look great in an advertisement. Many product shots appear to have a glow and are lighter than any other objects in the image, this is so the viewer's eye will go straight to the product. 

Product photography is a large area of modern still life photography and a career in this field can result in working with major beauty, fashion and food brands. It is a huge area of photography that is needed for a lot of commerce companies as well as small ones. I hope to develop my skills in this area, and working in the studio more to achieve this.