The Power of Product Photography: Choosing the Right Style for Your Brand

Product photography is a crucial sales tool for ecommerce brands and retailers. But there's no one-size-fits-all approach. The style of product images should align with your brand identity and evoke the right emotions in shoppers to compel them to click and buy.

Lifestyle Shots Tell a Story

Lifestyle product images embed your product within a lifestyle context. This helps customers visually connect with using your product in real life. For example, Allbirds shows people wearing their sneakers in everyday settings. This styling helps buyers imagine themselves wearing Allbirds for casual wear. Lifestyle shots work well for fashion, home goods, and lifestyle brands.

For example, activewear brands like Lululemon style their leggings and sports bras being worn in fitness classes, during runs, or in other athletic settings. This shows their target audience how the products might fit into their active lifestyles. Seeing the context and practical use case makes the products feel more relatable.

Similarly, lifestyle shots of someone cooking in a stylish apron or using a new knife set in a kitchen help connect the products to their intended use. The visual storytelling helps the customer understand the real life application.

Lifestyle imagery works well for experiential products like travel gear, recreational products, apparel, and home items. Showcasing products being used or worn aids the customer in picturing themselves enjoying the product.

Selecting aspirational yet relatable lifestyle contexts is key. The model, setting and styling should feel aspirational and appealing, while still being realistic and accessible to make the connection for your target consumer. Vivid lifestyle images allow customers to imagine the experience of using your product. This storytelling helps them feel more connected to your product and brand on an emotional level.

Hero Shots Showcase Standout Features

Hero shots zoom in on specific details or features of a product. These images highlight the star qualities of your product. For example, Apple often utilizes hero shots to draw attention to the sleek design of their devices. Hero shots are ideal for showcasing technical or innovative product features and design qualities.

These tightly cropped visuals showcase the star qualities and details that make your product unique.

For example, watch brands often utilize hero shots to highlight the intricate details on a watch face to showcase the quality of craftsmanship. Jewelry brands may use crisp hero shots to make the cut of a stone or uniqueness of a setting pop.

Tech products benefit from hero shots that call attention to specific features and innovations in their design. A phone brand can use a hero shot emphasizing the camera lens to highlight improved photography capabilities. Or, they may show an up-close of water resistance seals to call out that feature.

Hero shots are ideal for drawing the viewer's eye to the premium details, special materials, and technical qualities that make your product more desirable. These types of images help communicate value. The tighter framing and sharp focus isolates the standout attribute you want to emphasize.

When featuring products with multiple hero-worthy features, you can consider producing a series of hero shots. For example, a bag brand could showcase details like leather stitching, custom engraved hardware, and interior organizational compartments in a set of hero images. This shows the buyer all of the noteworthy features.

Packaging Shots Establish Branding

Packaging shots present a product within its packaging. This displays your branded packaging design. For digitally native brands like Glossier, packaging is an extension of their brand identity. Displaying their recognizable pink pouches helps reinforce their branding. Packaging shots are useful for developing brand recognition.

For ecommerce brands especially, product packaging is an important touchpoint for connecting with customers and establishing brand recognition. Packaging conveys branding, messaging, and the unboxing experience.

Packaging shots visually showcase what the customer will receive when their order arrives. Photos of the branded external shipping box and internal product packaging help communicate the look, feel, and quality of materials.

Seeing these packaging details helps reinforce brand identity. For example, Apple's minimalist white boxes are iconic. Displaying these packaged products helps cement Apple's clean, sophisticated aesthetic.

Similarly, makeup and skincare brands like Glossier and Ouai use recognizable branded pouches, bags, and boxes. Showcasing products posed within their signature packaging establishes instant brand recognition.

Packaging also provides space for additional storytelling through designs, typography, textures, and patterns that reflect the brand. For new brands, this is important real estate for familiarizing customers with visual branding.

While packaging may seem secondary, photos of products in their branded packaging provide value. The unboxing experience is an important moment between customers and products, so highlighting packaging in product listings helps set expectations and brand familiarity.

Still Life Photos Elevate Aesthetics

Still life product photos arrange products in an artistic, aesthetic composition. This style elevates the look and feel of your product. For example, the minimalist brand Muji uses crisp, stark still life product shots to communicate their pared-down aesthetic. Still life styling helps set a mood and vibe that reflects your branding.

Still life product photography involves artfully arranging products and photographing them in an aesthetic composition. This style elevates the look and feel of products through thoughtful styling choices.

Still life product shots focus on evoking a mood, feeling, or design aesthetic. Clean, minimalist still life images communicate simplicity and modernity. Dramatic lighting and moody backgrounds create an air of luxury. Textural elements and earthy props establish a natural, organic vibe.

For example, the brand Muji is known for its minimalist Japanese aesthetic. Muji’s product photos feature plain white backdrops and thoughtful, spare styling that perfectly reflects the streamlined sensibility of their products and brand.

Food brands can embrace still life styling to make their products look extra fresh and appetizing. Bold lighting, drizzles and food styling elevate the visual appeal. Luxury beauty and fragrance brands also utilize lavish still life photography to transport the viewer and convey indulgence.

Still life product photography is highly compositional. Each element is carefully considered to support the intended aesthetic. When done effectively, these product photos can powerfully communicate a brand's style, ethos and identity on a visual level. This iconic imagery helps attract the ideal customer who identifies with that sensibility.

By tailoring your product photography style to your products and brand identity, you can make a stronger visual impression on site visitors to grab their attention and inspire them to purchase. The photography style you choose is crucial for conveying what your brand stands for.

If you are interested inlearning more about how to elevate your image, contact Jack Simpson Photography for a free quote and creative consultation