Caramel Product Photography
The fine folks at McCrea’s Candies stopped by for a caramel product photography session, with a shot list and a ton of their fantastic caramel candies.
Marketing photographs start with the end in mind!
The goal for their shot list was a series of photographs that would be used for a series of campaigns to reach B2B customers for corporate gifts and promotional flavors. Each image needed to be set up so that it could be cropped for postcards, email newsletters and for landing page banners and graphics.
With our goals firmly in mind, we set out on a little prop shopping, hitting the local office supply store and then over to Courtyard Florist, in Dedham for some colorful accents.
McCrea’s selected some of the best pieces of caramel to be our heros a head of time, so that our workflow on set was smooth and retouching could be kept to a minimum.
All in all, the images were a huge success and are now part of a growing library at McCrea’s for future postcards, ads and email campaigns.
Tips for Marketing Photography
- Start with the end in mind. When planning for photography, it is much easier to set up a picture if you know where it will go. For example, a photograph for a postcard or ad may need space for headlines and text.
- Know your audience. If you are planning to advertise in a country club golf course magazine, you will probably choose a different look than, say, photographing for an online catalog page.
- Make a shot list. Planning ahead allows you to make one shopping trip for props instead of 5. It also streamlines the photo shoot and gets you the best bang for your marketing dollars.
- Be prepared. On the day of photography, have all of your props and products tuned up and photo ready.
- Be ready to approve the photos. Knowing who needs to approve the photos, or suggest changes, helps to keep the day moving. That person should either be on set or be readily available via text or email. Otherwise, the shoot can get delayed or bogged down, which will wasted time and money.
- Expect retouching. All photographs can, and should, be touched up before they are delivered. After all, it is the little things that can make a huge difference to how people react to the final ad.
- Know what you need at the end. A print ad requires a high resolution file, while an email campaign needs a much lower resolution image. If you are uncomfortable making changes like that, let your photographer know ahead of time so that they can optimize the files for you.
- Be prepared to enjoy the process! A photoshoot is a creative collaboration between you and the photographer to get the results that you need. Proper planning prevents a poor experience and poor photography results!
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