Product Photography: Who, What, and Why

Jordan Buckner: [00:00:00] Food and beverage is both a taste based business, but also a visual business. A lot of times we identify new products first with our eyes. We see them on the store shelves, we see them on Amazon, we see them on a website, and before we even get a chance to taste it. So it's very important that when our products are showing up in the world, we're putting out our best foot forward.

Whether that's our website, photography, or in our ads. in doing that and coming up with photos, it's really important to first understand like why you're actually doing it in the first place. Otherwise, you can end up with a bunch of stuff and not really know if it's useful or helping or not.

So today, I really want to break down the CPG photography strategy in terms of the who, what, and why. And for this conversation, I've invited on Carrington Crothers with Prospect Street Studio to really talk through how to build effective and high converting photography. Carrington, welcome on. 

Carrington Crothers: Thanks, Jordan, for having me.

Jordan Buckner: So, I'd love for you to jump into Really, the who, what, why [00:01:00] photography and how a brand can start to think about that. 

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, it's one thing that I talk to brands about all the time, like, who are you targeting? What are you taking a photo of? And why are you even creating imagery in the first place? And a lot of the times brands are like, those are really obvious questions.

But then when you break it down, it gets really deep into so much more behind the visual aspect behind imagery. To really think about how is this going to be used as a sales tool? And when you figure out your who, your what, and your why, and you get that really rock solid, now your imagery is going to start converting and it's going to start to make a lot more sense.

Jordan Buckner: You know, I'll make a confession when I first started like doing photo shoots, I was kind of like, okay, photographer, here's my product. Like take some pictures of it and I had no idea to even like, you know, come up with a shot list or really understand like where the photographs were going. I just thought like, take some pretty pictures of my product and I'll just plug them in.

I don't know where they fit and where I might think I need them, but that misses out on really the [00:02:00] intentionality behind , the photograph. So maybe let's start by going through the who, who are you targeting and with your products with your brand and talk to me, kind of the questions that you think of and ask brands as they're figuring that out.

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, so any product is going to have a specific demographic that they ideally are targeting. So, when you're thinking about your visual imagery, how are you going to connect with those people? Maybe you're aiming at, like, a busy professional, or a health conscious mom, or some young, adventurous person who likes to go and hike in the woods.

Those are all really different types of demographics, and they're also going to come up with a very different stylistic approach to their photography. Great. So, once you understand who those people are, what lifestyle they live, and when are they actually going to be using the product, that's also really important.

It really can help figure out your style, your tone, different type of detail imagery that you really should be focusing on, and Catering that approach to being very specific, 

Jordan Buckner: you know, in my [00:03:00] experience and during marketing, one thing I learned is that people are attracted to brands because either they are aspiring to live a lifestyle that the brand is portraying, or they are looking for brand that's reflecting who they are right now.

Right. And so coming, understanding what your brand is to people, is it that aspirational brand that's like just within reach and how that comes across in your photography? Or is it the reflection of who they are today? Right? And you mentioned moms, right? Are you showing photos with? a food product in a perfectly clean kitchen with like no dust on there which might be more aspirational or are you showing like the messy kitchen with a couple fingerprints and some food like things like shoved off in a corner someone's like oh yeah that looks like my house that fits into my life as it is now right makes a huge impact on how people like see your products and that all plays into photography and styling right 

Carrington Crothers: Oh, [00:04:00] 100%.

Figuring out what's gonna make someone stop scrolling is really important, whether you're on social media, Amazon, a website, what's gonna stop that scroll? What's gonna set you apart from all the other food or beverage brands that have the same mission as you and are doing something similar? Why stop on yours?

And that's where your visuals are really gonna come into play to target those specific people. And people are going to see your imagery before they read your descriptions. So, if your imagery can help get them to be more educated on your product, if your imagery can help inspire them, then they're going to want to read that description.

They're going to want to add to cart. They're going to want to learn more about your company and go to your socials or your website or your Amazon page, whichever ones they haven't seen yet. But we got to get them there first. And we got to inspire them and educate them. And that all happens through your imagery on the first take.

Jordan Buckner: You know, I know some people are pretty good at like inherently knowing that information and maybe even portraying that when they're taking their own photography. But what are some of the things that , a [00:05:00] founder or someone of the brand needs to keep in mind? Write down if they're sharing that brand personality almost, or their target customer ideal to either their like own employees or to a photographer that they're working with.

Carrington Crothers: There's a few different ways that you can go about that. One is making sure your photographer knows who your demographic is. That part is huge, but also what I was saying before is the education side and the inspiring side. If your photographer knows, alright, we need to get these specific points across in the imagery to help educate a viewer on what this product is, you're gonna get a much more specific image than say, alright, we're gonna push this out on this generic type of a backdrop, or in a backyard, or let's just make it look pretty.

But it's not teaching you anything. It's not helping connect with the person. So, really slow down and think about, alright, this is who I'm targeting, this is what I want to educate them on, and this is how I can inspire them. And one way I like to look at the inspire portion, because that always stresses people out is, when you walk through a store, are you the person who likes to [00:06:00] touch everything?

Do you have to touch the really soft blanket, or feel this different product, or pick it up and look at the whole packaging? Because I know I have to touch everything in the store. But that's like the inspired portion. Like what makes people be like, Oh, I want to touch that. Or, Oh, like I want to learn more about that.

So break it down in those different segments and that can really help your photographer understand. How the imagery they're creating is going to connect with your home. 

Jordan Buckner: One thing that I've learned over time as well, and, you know, this maybe starts to get into the what, but the idea that every photograph should have a purpose behind taking it, in terms of the information that it wants to convey, whether, as you just said, it's educational or inspirational.

When a company is thinking about kind of creating educational photographs, maybe let's say it's going on their e commerce site landing page, is it best for them to come with saying like, this is like the text that's going next to the image or like, this is the information we need to convey in the image to really get that point across so you [00:07:00] can do your best work.

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, so you can do photography either organically within the photo, or you can do it from a more like A plus style content where you're adding in text and graphics. So those are two very different styles of content, and you should definitely let your photographer know which one you are going after. If you were just adding the text and the callouts, that is going to be an image that's differently constructed than if we're going to try and target them in a kitchen with ingredients on the counter and putting a mom.

Right? Very different type of style of photo. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah. I know one thing that I really appreciated in talking with you before is that you have a, an eye for the e commerce elements of photography to say, you know, is this photo explaining about the product? So for instance, like with, we've talked about with JoyfulCo, we have curated gift boxes that have, you know, five to eight items inside.

You know, is the photography calling out like he here's are the items within the box to show a little [00:08:00] bit more like an in place how they might be used or how they might be unpacked or unboxed, right? And then understanding where that might live on the landing page to be able to best kind of craft the image around it versus a photo of like a closed box with someone receiving it has a completely different use and message and part of the e commerce flow.

Yeah. 

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, no, especially like when we were doing the imagery for Joyful Culp. When you're thinking about maybe your landing page, you're gonna have to be really more specific about, alright, this is going for the hero, and we need this specific aspect ratio to fit. And we want to be able to add copy to it.

So I would be creating the box. So maybe it's more off to the right because you want your texts on the left. But then as we're scrolling down, all right, now we're getting into an aspect ratio, that's a square and we want to add in a human element. So we're going to construct that very differently to make sure one, it's flowing properly for your landing page, but you have space for your messaging.

And now we can also add that human element in when you add that human element in. It goes back to that who. You want to make sure that person, whether it's a hand or a [00:09:00] full body, that is a person that you are looking to target. If you're looking to go after a mom and kids, We don't need a football player in your photo.

Jordan Buckner: I mean, talk to me a little bit, too, about I mean, for our listeners, this is something I had to learn, which are the behind the scenes of what goes into a photoshoot. A little bit, why is there, like, framing and styling an image? Because I think I kind of have this sense that before, like, oh, you're doing a photograph.

There's a large scene that's stylized and you're taking like a detailed shot within there, but you can take like 30 different shots from different angles because the entire room is set stylized. But I've actually loved seeing some behind the scenes shots of photo shoots when there's like, An office, there's like a ladder over here, a light over there, like a whole table full of props.

And then you have this like one stylized special moment where it's set up for a specific aspect ratio and photo like angle and it's, you can't just like move the camera over and take it from the left because you know, the rest of the scene is not set up that way. As [00:10:00] kind of brands are thinking about their composition and what kind of shots they're looking for.

Carrington Crothers: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so much that goes into it, especially when you, are in the industry and you don't know what it behind the scenes looks like, it can be very hectic. And you create this gorgeous looking photo, but everything outside of that crop is just, can be, like, so hectic. And no one sees that part.

But that also comes down to the second portion of what we were going to talk about in a little bit, which is like, what are you taking a photo of? Yeah. And, alright, if we're doing an overhead or we have this massive scene that we've created and we can take 30 different angles of it, That's great, but what are we taking a picture of?

And everyone always looks at me and they're like, Well, Carrington, obviously I'm taking a picture of my product. And I'm like, but are you taking a picture of your product? Like, let's really think about this. Because if you remove the product from your picture, does that photo still market your brand? Is it still aligned?

Can you still use it even if your product is not in it? If the answer is yes, you're on the right track. If the answer is no, we really need to hone in on what are we taking a photo of, and [00:11:00] why are we doing it. Because we're really not hitting all the marks we need to within the brand. So, just because you understand who you're taking the picture for, now you understand what we're taking a picture of.

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, dive into that a little bit more, because I think a lot of People , might miss that, nuance of all the other stuff that's in the scene along with the product. 

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, so storytelling is huge when it comes to your visuals, and that goes from product and video.

Combining those together can be huge, but usually whenever you have a listing, the photos are going to come before the videos, and it's going to come before you read your descriptions. So you need to be able to tell that story, With or without your product being in it. And understanding the psychology behind how somebody looks through a photo is also really important.

So that they can be navigated to where you want them to go next. 

Jordan Buckner: Can you share some of those things that you've learned about like how people do look through photos? 

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, so, a few different things. One is, the brightest part of the photo is where the human eye will go first. Even if it's for a millisecond.

If you have a [00:12:00] bright white sun in your photo, you will see that bright white sun before you see the product. And if that is not helping guide you through the photo to where the product is, we need to work on your composition. Because you're gonna get distracted and you might not even get to where you need to be.

So, that's one thing. Mm hmm. The other part of just, how your eye looks through it. Often times I tell people with Amazon, your descriptions, your buy now button, everything is on the right side of the screen. Your products are on the left. So many brands structure their photos so the product is also facing left.

I tell people to have it face right. Make the product look into the text. If you have a model, you want the eyes to look to the right, so you're reading the text. Because you're always going to look at what the person is looking at in the photo. So if the person is looking right at the text, That's the direction your eye is going to go.

If it's looking down at the product, that's the direction your eye is going to go. So using different types of psychology behind how somebody looks at a photo can be a really powerful tool to getting the viewer where you want them to go. 

Jordan Buckner: That's really [00:13:00] interesting, right, because I also imagine some companies have, like, the Amazon listing and they might use a photo and the image is on the left, and maybe on their e commerce site, depending on the layout, their image is on the right.

And you're thinking like, Oh, it's doing a similar thing, but maybe that angle of the product, right? Like, it makes some difference. It might not be like the world of difference, but there's definitely some difference that it makes in terms of them like following not just in the image, but where they go after the image.

So that makes a lot of sense. 

Carrington Crothers: And when you have such a short time frame to really get somebody's attention, every millisecond counts. So if you can just flip your image, why not do it? If it saves a little bit of time, it can't. And especially with, like, your website. All of your imagery is going to affect the hierarchy.

So use it to your advantage to get people to want to continue scrolling beyond just the hero section. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah. And I think a lot of people, especially on the front of brand site, like meticulously craft the customer experience from their own perspective. Like, Oh, if I'm going to read all the [00:14:00] texts, this is how everyone has shared my story and visuals.

But I think one thing that's important to understand is that one, most people won't read everything on your site. And two, some people will only read the text. Other people will only read the image or like majority. And so how can. You tell your brand story by just images, right? Like if you had no text, can the image tell the majority of the story that you want to tell?

Carrington Crothers: Exactly. And there are brands out there who do a really great job with it. And I will be the sucker who buys them. Cause I'm like, Oh my God, this is so cool. Now I want, I need to know more about it. Right. And that's the cool part about imagery is just, you can figure out how to. Share a story where it makes a really big impact and you can capture emotion, or a lifestyle, or a solution to a problem, and you can capture that in the visuals, there's nothing better.

That's really gonna help navigate people where you want them to go. 

Jordan Buckner: So let's jump into the, the why behind this, I know we've talked about it a little bit, but how do you describe the why [00:15:00] when you're talking with, with brands? 

Carrington Crothers: Yeah, so, right now, content is king. We've all heard that saying. You gotta crank out photo.

You gotta crank out video. You gotta be on Instagram and TikTok and this and that. But why are you doing it? Are you just doing it because you're told that's where you need to be? Or, are you doing it for a specific reason? So, a lot of brands are in a conflict with what they're doing with all of their content.

And they're just saying, we're going to start posting some pretty photos. But they don't always have a purpose. They're just trying to make content so it's existing online. And if we can really think about the why. Why are we putting it out there? And we slow down. You're gonna begin increasing those conversions.

And I always tell people, like, think about famous painters back in the day, right? Like, think about Van Gogh, or I don't know, but why do those artists stand the test of time? Why do those pieces still get taught in schools and talked about today? One really big difference is the amount of time they're [00:16:00] putting into creating that piece of art.

You're not going through and creating this massive canvas. You have to think about the composition, how you're layering the paint, where everything is going to go on that canvas because you're not taking it off after. But today, you can take a photo and be done, posted in 30 seconds. So, the time frame between creating art has changed dramatically.

So, people aren't always thinking about like, why am I doing this? Why am I putting the product in this scene? Why am I adding these props? Why am I posting on TikTok versus Instagram? Am I just posting it because I can? So I tell people, like, slow down. Think like an artist. Think like a painter. And create your content that way.

If you spend a little bit more time and understand why you're doing it, you're gonna see a huge change. And the content that you start making 

Jordan Buckner: One of the problems that I experienced I alluded to earlier as well as like when I used to do photo shoots or try to either myself or with a photographer, a lot of times I was disappointed with what I got back.

Not because the photo wasn't high [00:17:00] quality photo, but because it didn't convey what I wanted it to. But I also didn't know how to share what I actually wanted it to do. And so one thing that exercise that I like trying to do myself you know, you're thinking about like. doing new photography for your site or Amazon is Putting almost like a placeholder photo or like a bad version of like a mock up of what you want it To be so that you can say like what's working and what's not you're like?

Oh, I actually want this to show like the product at home in the kitchen. So so on sees themselves using it and their kids around to really showcase that feeling, or I wanted to showcase, you know, each of the, our products so that people know what it looks like outside the packaging, because we get a lot of questions on like what the actual product is.

And that's what we really need to convey here in the way design brand. And I think that having that level of self kind of recognition going into a project probably helps both you, the brand get more out of it, but also the [00:18:00] photographer to actually know what they're doing. You want so that you don't have to read their minds.

I know you probably try to do a lot of mind reading. 

Carrington Crothers: I always, I tell every client, I was like, I am not a mind reader. I had brands tell me they want a, B and C and I understood that as X, Y, and Z. So I do all my photo shoots where I'm like, you can see the imagery, you can approve it. And if you tell me you want ABC and I create X, Y, and Z, you have the opportunity to stop me right away and say, Hey, this is not in line with what I have in my head.

And then we can talk further about it and be like, Alright, what am I not understanding, or maybe what's not being explained in the best way, so that we can get on the same page. And if you don't have that kind of communication with your photographer, you're probably gonna get a handful of images that are decent, and some that you're like, I might not ever use.

Because there are so many brands out there that have databases of Hundreds if not thousands of photos, but they reuse the same 10 to 15 photos over and over and over again because those are the ones converting. So slow down and think about why are those converting and [00:19:00] have that conversation with your photographer to be like, all right, what did you do with this?

That's different. And how do we start recreating that? How do we look at this in another perspective? 

Jordan Buckner: I love this. Carrington, and that's why I really want to have you on and talking through the who, what, And why photography because I love your perspective on the purpose behind the shot and not just taking a really nice shot and for all of our listeners, especially for I usually find like websites, e commerce websites, Amazon, and email marketing typically is where your products are going to last for months, if not years, and be visible and get the most attention.

Viewership. And so really spend time thinking about the purpose behind each image, how it can tell your story and convey the reasons for someone to buy your product really clearly so that you can see those higher conversions and get people to actually buy it. 

Carrington Crothers: Exactly. 

Jordan Buckner: If you need help with photography, I highly recommend working with Carrington as well.

She did a photo shoot with JoyfulCo for upcoming holiday campaign. That was really [00:20:00] awesome. And so I'm going to put her information in the show notes, but definitely reach out because, you know, having someone that understands the, how product photos are going to be used makes a huge difference in making sure that you come out happy after your first photo shoot and that you end up, you know, getting those five, 10 photos that you constantly go back to because they are the ones that convert.

Carrington, thanks for being on. 

Carrington Crothers: Thank you for having me. This was a pleasure.