Whatever your goal is as a health and fitness brand, one vital component of successful photography is forming the right emotional connection.

When you see great health and fitness visuals, it’s usually a feeling of “I want to do that, and I can” that comes across. The key is finding the right person who can translate that feeling via visual marketing while also encompassing your brand identity, your values, and everything your brand is about.

One great example is Nike. In 1984, Nike signed a risky deal with young athlete Michael Jordan to produce his own line of shoes – unfortunately, or so it seemed, the shoes were banned by the NBA as they were not the compulsory white colour. Nike retaliated by rebelling; they decided to pay each served fine and turned the banning into a marketing opportunity, filming a last minute commercial which said:

“On September 15, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe. On October 18, the NBA threw them out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can’t stop you from wearing them. Air Jordans. From Nike.”

The first 50,000 Air Jordans sold out immediately.

“Michael Jordan was perhaps the first player in the NBA to be linked to a product from the moment he joined. His stellar on court performances, and ability to ‘fly’ increased the public’s desire to own a piece of action.” Nike Air Jordan – Behind The Brand; Brandastic

The deal between Nike and Michael Jordan and the subsequent successes is a legacy which continues on to this day, spanning almost 40 years, all thanks to Nike’s ability to “read the room”, tap into their fans’ emotions and produce content that speaks authentically to them.

This is where hiring a commercial health and fitness photographer comes in.

Before you begin to share your brand story with the world, whether it’s for the launch of a new site, product, service, or simply for promotion online, on social media or blogs, it’s crucial to get it right from the moment you share the first image.

A great image will be noticed, but a mediocre or bad one will also be noticed – especially on social media, and not in the way you want.

Do I really need to hire a commercial health & fitness photographer?

Not just any photographer will do. 

It’s not only about knowing the little tricks that come with photographing health and fitness campaigns, it’s also about having a deeper understanding of how our bodies work, understanding the ethics that surround the health and fitness industry, and having the right knowledge and experience to navigate it.

Ultimately, you want to choose the right photographer for your brand, a photographer who matches the style you want and who connects with your values.

Here’s 5 things to look out for when hiring a commercial health and fitness photographer

1. Do they have a deep understanding of health and fitness? Perhaps it’s a regular hobby or sport they enjoy themselves or they have an educational or professional background in a related field. When it comes to health and fitness, it can be hugely beneficial if the photographer has inside knowledge on the topic.

2. How good are they at creative direction and problem-solving? Health and fitness photography especially can be a challenge due to the nature of the work, whether it’s a fitness model being photographed in a studio, or a real-life adventurer being documented half-way up a mountain in a storm. There are many moving parts and the photographer needs to be able to come up with ideas there and then if something doesn’t work out, or know the appropriate equipment to solve the problem.

3. Do they have connections? Health and fitness photographers will have a contacts list full of brilliant people in the industry, often people they’ve worked with before, which can be very useful for you as a brand. That extends to things like knowing of interesting locations – gyms, studios, outdoor locations that may be perfect for what you have in mind. In short, consider a commercial photographer as a collaborator and fountain of knowledge (and contacts), not just someone to press a button.

4. What is their personal photography work like? You can tell a lot about a photographer through the work they do just because they’re passionate about it, and it’s a great sign if a photographer has self-funded stories or projects within their portfolio.
   
   
5. Do they have the technical skill and experience? In the health and fitness space especially, this can be vital. Not only does that include the actual making of the photograph, but that also covers: the specific equipment needed, health and safety training, niche fitness knowledge, first aid training, then knowledge of composition, lighting, post-processing, colour theory, and so much more.

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Need to hire a commercial health and fitness photographer? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find photographers to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched health and fitness photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial health and fitness photographers. Find a commercial health and fitness photographer now!

While there are several things that contribute to the kind of success that these brands have seen, striking and authentic imagery is a key part of their brand identity and part of the reason their products are so desired.

For them as well as several other indie beauty brands,  much of the support and enthusiasm is due to them leading the way as inclusive beauty brands. The concept and definition of “beauty” is changing and has been for some time, with consumers expecting a high standard for how genuinely representational a brand is – how diverse is their marketing? Are they showing different body-types, hair-types, faces, skin-types? 

It’s photography that gets this message across. Whatever your goal is as a brand, the key to successful and engaging marketing is beautiful visuals that create the right emotional connection; in a nutshell, a consumer needs to be able to relate to the visuals in your brand marketing.

That’s what brands like the above-mentioned have nailed, among other things. When you look at the imagery that Glossier uses, for example, they have built their brand around the idea of natural, clean beauty, and the people you see on their website match this narrative. They are the people you see everyday around you – and when you look in the mirror.

They retain the element of desire but make it achievable and representational.

How can a beauty photographer help your brand?

This is where hiring a commercial beauty photographer comes in. Your brand needs to translate that emotional connection through imagery – while also encompassing your brand identity, your values, and everything your brand is about.

So before you begin to share your brand story with the world, whether it’s for the launch of a new product, service, or simply for promotion online on blogs and social media, it’s crucial to get it right from the moment you share the first image.

Great photography will be noticed, but bad (and even mediocre) visuals will be too – especially on social media. If your consumers don’t feel that effort has been put in, they will be put off.

Why hire a commercial beauty photographer?

Not just any photographer will do. Beauty photography may seem easy from an outside perspective but there are many moving parts that need to be considered and monitored. 

Ultimately, you want to choose the right photographer for your brand, a photographer who matches the style you want and also connects with your brand values, while also having a unique and striking aesthetic.

Still not sure? Here’s 5 reasons to hire a commercial beauty photographer:

1. They’re good under pressure

In beauty photography, pressure is par for the course and a photographer needs to be able to multitask. They must focus on the product and the model – then, there’s also the rest of the team – make-up, hair, clothing, set, props, lighting, digital ops (for on-set retouching and post-production). 

The photographer keeps track of each member of the team, at the same time paying detailed attention to exactly what they’re photographing, while also knowing what’s coming next. And if there are any problems, they need to be able to come up with solutions on the fly.

2. They have a strong team of creatives

A commercial beauty photographer will often have a strong support network, a “dream team” of fellow creatives if you will: make-up artists, hair stylists, clothing/prop stylists, set builders, digital operators,etc. Depending on your brief, having a commercial beauty photographer with tried and trusted connections can do you, the client, a world of good. 

3. They don’t say “I’ll fix it later”

Commercial beauty photographers will make the effort to fix any problems in-camera, live on set, and not after it goes to post-production. Leaving issues to be fixed in post-production is not really a fix at all, and doing this only compromises the results, can make the work more challenging and time-intensive for everyone involved, and ultimately more expensive for you as the client.

4. They have the most relevant skill, knowledge and experience

The thing about photographing beauty is that you have two different (but equally important) focuses: the product and the model. It takes years of learning, a combination of developing technical and creative skill, organisation and management skills, and experience with people, and still-life/product photography to be a great beauty photographer.

5. They have a strong style

An experienced beauty photographer often has their own style, developed over years of practice and honing, something unique that sets them apart and makes their work stand out. When the style of a brand matches the style of a great beauty photographer, the results can be magical.

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Are you a brand looking to hire a commercial beauty photographer? Start looking through portfolios today on our recently-launched platform creatives.new where you can find photographers to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched beauty photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial beauty photographers. Find a commercial beauty photographer now!

We recently caught up with Felicity to find out more about her approach to commercial photography commissions, her intensive preparations for campaigns often based in the unpredictable outdoors, how personal work can keep you motivated, and also speaks on the pitching process for advertising agencies, how she structures her fees, budget breakdowns, and much more.

How do you prepare for and manage working on tightly-controlled advertising campaigns in the extremely uncontrolled outdoors environments?

I’ve always been really outdoorsy in everything that I do; I do a lot of water sports, hiking, wild camping and so actually I have all these skills relevant to working commercially outdoors through my own hobbies and interests.

I’ve also always been somebody who overprepares. Preparation is key. I invest heavily in researching everything – every aspect, every eventuality – and I’m not comfortable approaching any work, whether it’s personal or commercial, until I’ve done that.

That involves large amounts of time researching locations and then, most importantly, getting out to those locations. With commercial work I’ll often get a producer onboard and we’ll scout locations together.

So I’ve always approached everything like this, investing a huge amount of time in the preparation.

However, what I’ve also learned over the last few years is how to let go as well. There’s only so much you can prepare, and letting go – learning to roll with whatever is thrown at you – is an important part of the process. You can make sure you’ve got enough hands onboard, you can make sure you’ve got enough lighting equipment onboard to do what you want to do, but sometimes something can happen that’s completely out of your control and you just have to go with it. 

You have to approach it with a philosophical kind of mindset and think, actually I might get something that is even better than I expected. This might work out better. Think positively.

What does a typical commission process look like for you from start to end?

Once a commission is awarded it’s straight into preparation. I work very closely with a producer and since a lot of my work is location-based, a lot of the initial work is finding those locations. We’ll recce places where it’s about finding the perfect time of day,  finding the perfect light. The problem which often arises is the practical nature of those locations, because you can’t just pick wherever you want.

I’m thinking about a job I did a couple years ago where we only had four days to shoot six locations and we’d lined up six perfect locations, but it just wasn’t possible. They needed a day each. So we had to compromise and work with the practicalities of time, and the budgets of course. 

It doesn’t always work out ideally but that’s part of the process, and that’s what I find interesting – the problem solving. It’s often about finding ways to work within budgets and time constraints and trying to find locations that work for everybody because you also can’t use locations, particularly with commercial work, which don’t have good access.

Next comes putting a team together, which is really important, and then there’s also a whole process of casting to find models. It’s finding somebody to work on styling hair and makeup, and having good assistants too.

What about post-production, how does that work on a big advertising campaign?

I’ll have an idea of how I want it to look while I’m photographing it, so I will usually produce rough composites myself first, outlining how I imagine it fitting together and in a way that is as clear as possible to anybody coming into it. The retouchers won’t have been on set, they won’t have been involved in the job until that point so the more illustrative I can be and the more I can give them at that stage, the better. 

I’ll pass that on and then they’ll work to replicate that, and at that point there’ll be agency comments and feedback, the client will want to be involved and it often progresses from that point, sometimes moving into another direction.

How does pitching to an advertising agency work?

I’m usually approached by an advertising agency and asked to pitch for a project, and those invitations usually come via word of mouth or I might have worked with somebody on the team before, for example. It’s about being visible to agencies.

Then it’s an intense process of creating a treatment. I’m not represented by an agent so I often do it myself, and I’ll get a producer involved right from the beginning to work on the estimates. I’ll be given a brief on what the client needs from the job, and it’s about unpicking why I’m right for that role, finding aspects of my portfolio that sit well in the style that they want to achieve, pulling out image references, illustrating in imagery and words why I’m the right choice for this job and what I can bring to it. 

I’ll outline how I’ll approach the commission, showing them that it’ll be safe in my hands and that I can deliver. I’ll also include practical information: how I might approach location scouting, casting, budget estimates. And at the end of the day, I need to show that I’m interested as well. It’s obvious to me, but they don’t know that.

Tell us about one of your best commissions.

From an advertising point of view, the commission I enjoyed working on the most was a job for The National Lottery. It was completely location-based, and a large number of locations. It was a really interesting brief because it involved people, it involved props; we had to photograph a really large cupcake and that had to be made, because of course you’re limited by how much you can enlarge a cupcake in post-production. There was also a huge bunch of flowers which had to be built. I loved working on something that had so many different locations and so much problem-solving involved.

The ‘Into The Mountain’ commision was another one I thoroughly enjoyed. It was four days of hiking through the spectacularly beautiful Cairngorms in Scotland, working with some hugely inspiring, creative women. 

It was a whole different set of problem-solving; we were working with difficult weather conditions and also working with somebody else’s artistic vision and practice, a lot of consideration went into how to represent that. I had full waterproofs for myself and my cameras and I spent a lot of time in puddles with little frogs jumping over me, observing as a fly on the wall before I was able to do a slightly more controlled shoot, but even then it was very important that I didn’t interfere with what they’d been working on for years.

How do you approach fees and budgeting?

It varies hugely. I do have templates that I work with but I very rarely stick to them since every job is completely different. Sometimes you get an idea of a budget, sometimes you don’t. 

If you have an idea of a budget, it’s then fitting everything in around it and some of those budget breakdowns are really complicated. There’s a lot of aspects to consider: pre-production fees, post-production fees, and shoot fees – fees for digital capture, for making sure that if you’re using your own equipment that you can maintain that – and then there are the expenses, and those need to be broken down as well.

I also work for a lot of very different clients and I quote very differently for each of them. I work a lot with arts-based clients and that’s a whole different structure. Often, they’ll just come to you and say “this is what we have”, and you have to see whether you can do it or not.

When it comes to licensing and usage fees, this is also extremely varied. It’s complicated to get your head around and I usually ask for help, especially when it’s for re-licensing work. I ask friends and contacts, people who I know can advise on that.

When it comes to deciding which brands or clients to work with, what’s the most important deciding factor for you?

The most important thing is that they share the same vision and values. If what they are wanting to do aligns with what I’ve been working on in my own personal projects, then that’s amazing. Particularly if they see something in my portfolio that they like stylistically and that’s what they want to work with me on. If it’s something that I’m going to enjoy and it will complement my portfolio in the long run, that’s the most important thing.

Are you working on any personal projects at the moment?

I’m working on a project at the moment looking at the women behind the wine industry in the UK. It’s an engaging project because I’m looking at wine-making in the UK and how that’s progressing, and I’m also looking to the women who are getting behind that, because traditionally it’s been a largely male-dominated business. 

The more I get involved in it, the more it offers so many other avenues to explore, like sustainability and environmental issues. It’s been a joy to work on so far, but I’ve got a lot more to do.

What value do you find in working on personal projects?

This last year and a half has been really beneficial for me in the sense of giving me time to start a lot of personal projects that have been bubbling away in sketchbooks for a long time. 

Personal work has always complimented my professional portfolio and it’s always helped to attract people to my portfolio, but I’ve only recently started to get involved in larger-scale personal projects. 

At the moment I’m working on the project I mentioned above and that has been taking all my time, but I love it. It’s a subject I’m really interested in personally, which I’m passionate about, so that combined with a passion for photography and wanting to create some beautiful work, it’s been a dream to work on.

I heard somebody describe photography as an exercise. I found the beginning of this year – January, February – was pretty tricky because I couldn’t get started, and I didn’t want to work on anything else. Because I wasn’t photographing anything, I was struggling to motivate myself. Just being able to start photographing was largely motivating. I find that when I’m busy and I’m really enjoying the work, I’m able to take on more and more.

Personal work is so important and I haven’t really appreciated that until very recently, but it’s essential for understanding yourself, what makes you tick and what you’re about, as well as for developing your portfolio. You want to appeal to businesses and organisations who have the same values and ideas – that’s really important.

It keeps you going and keeps the creative juices flowing, it gives you something to talk about. You’ve got to really enjoy what you’re doing to do it properly and you can find that through personal work. You can find something you love.

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Find Felicity’s portfolio on creatives.new – our recently-launched platform where brands who want to tell their stories can find and commission creative artists.

Through our smart search function, creatives.new matches artists with clients based on their content and style. Best of all, it’s completely free and there are no hidden costs. You can read more about creatives.new and how we help artists here.

IMAGE CREDITS:

‘Into The Mountain’. Project created by lead artist & choreographer Simone Kenyon. Produced & commissioned by. Scottish Sculpture Workshop. Performers: Claricia Parinussa, Caroline Reagh, Keren Smail, Petra Söör. Knitwear design: Jeni Allison.

‘The National Lottery’. Agency: adam&eveDDB. Art Director: Tim Brookes. Producer: Ben Hills. Stylist: Alice Timms. Hair & Makeup: Victoria Poland. Food stylist: Jack Sargeson. Assistants: Joseph Horton, Anna-Sophia John, Tristan Fennel.

‘Euromillions’. Agency: adam&eveDDB. Art Director: Tim Brookes. Producer: Ben Hills

‘Virgin Media’. Agency: adam&eveDDB. Art Director: Tim Brookes. Producer: Ben Hills. Assistants: Tim Wheeler, Tom Farmer

An image will likely be the first time a potential customer sees your offering and that first impression is critical no matter where the image is placed, or what your brand/business is. Rental or for-sale listing? E-commerce website selling home goods? Hotel, guest house or holiday let? Interior designer? It’s the same across all these businesses.

That’s where hiring a commercial interior photographer comes in. Interior photography is all about solving problems and though it may seem easy to work with – it’s not like photographing people after all, interiors don’t move, have opinions or get tired – brands and businesses of all sizes will pay through the nose to hire a great commercial interior photographer who they can work with time and time again.

Why? Because anyone can press a shutter button and take a photo, but not just anyone has the expertise, experience and equipment to create professional interior photography that genuinely sells.

Not convinced? Here’s 5 ways a professional interior photographer can work magic for you:

1. Post-production is a big job in interior photography

Post-production makes up an enormous part of a commercial interior photographer’s workflow, which many may not realise. The trick is to make everything look almost perfect – “almost”, because potential buyers are savvy and can spot contrived imagery a mile away – and this isn’t easy.

It can be intense and take a lot of time due to the necessity for minute attention-to-detail, for example cleaning up dirt, straightening lines, reworking shapes of walls/doors/floors to create balance, recolouring objects, creating shadows, adjusting lighting – practised experts can even create or remove daylight with the right knowledge and tools.

The process can be so deep that some commercial interior photographers will also have additional training in computer-generated (CG) stills and animation.

2. Niche industry training and contacts

Commercial interior photographers often have experience and training in interior styling or home staging to supplement their photography. Having niche knowledge in the product and still-life industry also extends to having a contact list full of trusted creatives in the industry – interior stylists, designers, prop houses – which can be incredibly useful for you.

3. Understanding light for interiors

When it comes to interiors, lighting is vital. Knowing how to create certain types of light with confidence takes years of studying, training and scientific know-how. It’s things like knowing which light appears more blue, more yellow, how to correct that on-location (and not in post-production), how to balance both natural light and artificial studio lighting, how to create certain trending looks, and so much more.

4. Understanding colour for interiors

A commercial interior photographer knows all about colour; colour theory, colour trends, colour grading and more. When you hire a commercial interior photographer, you want their style to match yours, and colour is an enormous part of that. 

You can take full advantage of the commercial photographer’s knowledge and consult them on ideal colour schemes and how to implement that within a job. For example, muted, neutral tones are extremely popular on Instagram home interiors accounts, whereas warm, homely and inviting colouring is preferred for many rental or for-sale listings. Commercial interior photographers will be up-to-date on the latest interior trends, and will be able to advise you on this.

5. The ultimate goal: Making a sale

Commercial photographers understand that while some artistic flair and unique style is good, the key aim is to help you sell, whether that’s home interiors, interiors for businesses, individual products, still-life or anything else. They understand that it’s imperative to create a lasting first impression, and how to create visuals that genuinely sell.

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Need to hire a commercial interiors photographer? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find professional photographers near you to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched interior photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial interiors photographers.

Portrait photography is not really about taking a photograph of a person and making them look good. It’s about drawing out a person’s character, their emotions, the story they want to get across, and the story that actually comes across. Not everyone has the tools or ability, natural or learned, to do that.

So what makes a great commercial portrait photographer? Here are a few reasons:

They connect with the people they photograph

They work with their sitter, bringing out their personality and characteristics through engaging and conversing with them, forging a connection with them that is translated visually to us, the viewers.

That includes the ability to connect with people who they may strongly disagree with and still achieve a portrait that tells you something about that person.

They have the skill, knowledge and experience

The thing about photographing people is that we’re unpredictable. It takes years of learning, a combination of developing technical and creative skills, knowledge, and experience with people to be a great portrait photographer.

They have a strong style

A great commercial portrait photographer often has their own style, developed over years of practice and honing, something unique that sets them apart and makes their work stand out. When the style of a job matches the style of a great portrait photographer, the results can be magic.

They’re fully committed

A great portrait photographer commits their full attention and energy to each job, doing more than just the bare minimum – detailed research into the person they’re photographing, development of ideas and concepts, location-scouting, weather-watching, emergency-backup-planning, and so much more.

They’re good under pressure

When it comes to commercial portraits, pressure is par for the course. It could be having only three minutes to photograph a grumpy politician or a famous actor, or the weather suddenly turning into a storm on an outdoor job… a great commercial portrait photographer will be ready, able to creatively direct and come up with solutions on the fly.

They have an understanding of ethics

Portrait photography has historically been used to exploit. A great portrait photographer knows this history and understands the relationship between photographer and sitter, the power dynamics at play, and how this can be influenced by their own biases, decisions, and choices.

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Need to hire a commercial portrait photographer? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find photographers to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched portrait photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial portrait photographers. Find commercial portrait photographers now!

Creatives.new is our recently-launched platform where brands who want to tell their stories can find and hire commercial product photographers around the world, instantly. 

Whether it’s e-commerce product photography for Amazon, Etsy, eBay and other online shop platforms or luxury commercial product photography, you can upload a reference image to find style-matched photographers in seconds or search through our roster of global commercial product photographers.

This week, we’ve put together this list showing some of our favourite commercial product photographers who are now available for hire on creatives.new. Take a look below!

Elio Ruscetta

London, United Kingdom

See Elio’s portfolio on creatives.new

Wilfried Haubenberger

London, United Kingdom

See Wilfried’s portfolio on creatives.new

Mika Michopoulou

Greece

See Mika’s portfolio on creatives.new

Jens Kristian Balle

Vancouver, Canada

See Jens’ portfolio on creatives.new

Cormac Banks

London, United Kingdom

See Cormac’s portfolio on creatives.new

Stuey B

Yorkshire, United Kingdom

See Stuey’s portfolio on creatives.new

Max Catterall

London, United Kingdom

See Max’s portfolio on creatives.new

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Are you a brand or business looking to hire commercial product photographers? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find professional photographers near you to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial product photographers.

Let’s take social media as an example. You might think that Facebook isn’t as image-focused as other social platforms, but actually the opposite is true. Facebook’s algorithm prioritises visual-led ads – and the better the visual, the better the performance.

To put that in data terms, Consumer Acquisition reported that images are responsible for 75% – 90% of a Facebook ad’s performance. That’s huge.

Now think about how that translates to other platforms like Instagram and Pinterest who place much more importance on visuals, and even Twitter who recently removed the contentious “twitter crop”, allowing portrait-orientation images to be viewed in full in the feed.

And that’s just social media.

An image is often the first time a potential customer sees your product, so that first impression is critical no matter where the image is placed whether it’s an e-commerce website, a billboard, or a blog.

Products may seem easy to work with. They’re not people after all – they don’t move, get tired or have opinions. Yet brands of all sizes will pay through the nose to find a great commercial product photographer who they can work with time and time again.

Why? Because they know anyone can press a shutter button and take a photo of a product, but not just anyone has the expertise, experience and equipment to create professional product photography that genuinely sells.

So how can a commercial product photographer help my brand?

The problem we sometimes don’t realise is that having bad or mediocre photography, or photography not aligned to the brand, can do more damage than having no visuals at all. That’s where hiring a commercial product photographer comes in.

Establish a professional and unique brand identity

Photography tells the story of your brand identity. As well as answering a potential customer’s most obvious question – what does your product look like? – it also answers questions about you: What are your values? What is the level of quality you offer? What is your brand about?

Set the expectations of your customers by demonstrating that they can expect professional and high-quality products. Stand out from the crowd and convey the message you want by experimenting with your style.

Online shopping is the future

And the future arrived a while ago. Online shopping was always on a fast, rising trajectory but in the past year that has sky-rocketed, becoming a necessity for many people.

Images play a crucial role here. Since people can’t see or feel the product, they rely on professional imagery to demonstrate every single aspect of a product.

Shorter and shorter attention spans

The downside is that the internet also comes with incredibly short attention spans, which also bleeds out to other areas of marketing. The exact number is regularly debated, ranging from 3 seconds to 8 seconds – but what’s certain is that it’s seconds you have to catch the wandering attention of a potential customer.

So while it’s important to have professional, high-quality imagery, it’s also important to create unique and eye-catching product photography.

Showcase your products in the best light (pun intended)

A commercial product photographer will have spent their own time and money training for this. You want their expertise. That doesn’t just include the actual making of the photograph but also covers: having the right technical equipment, knowledge of composition, lighting, post-processing for products, creative direction, colour theory, styling experience and training, set-building, prop-styling and so much more.

Post-processing

For commercial product photography, post-processing is essential to get right, more so than other areas of photography.

If the reality of the product doesn’t meet the expectation set in the imagery and marketing, customers will send that product back. It’s important to get the right balance between beauty and honesty, and commercial product photographers will understand that from the get-go.

Product photography is a long-term investment

Finding and hiring the right commercial photographer for your brand may take some time, but it’s worth it. By finding the perfect creative collaborator, you can ensure consistency and regularity across your products over time, helping to cement your brand identity and brand story in the ever-changing world of product marketing.

Need to find a commercial product photographer? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find photographers to work with, instantly. 

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched product photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial product photographers.

He speaks to us about finding success in commercial product photography, the importance of creating personal work, and why he still assists other photographers even as an established photographer.

What does a typical commercial product commission look like?

A client will send me their brief, their mood board, colour palettes, some words about the designer and collection – where they got their inspiration from, for example.

The budget always varies and I always try to give at least three options, and each option given has set factors – time, materials and post-production etc.

I do also use assistants; if it’s a big commission, then I have to rent a studio, I’ll probably need to rent more gear, and I’ll then likely need an assistant and a digi op. My focus is mainly doing the sets, styling and then working with my lighting assistant to style and set up my lighting – and I’ve worked with the same assistants for a long time. The same way I work with Julia [Fullerton-Batten] and I know what she needs, they know what I’m looking for.

90% of the time I also do the post-production because it’s a part of the whole process. Because my commission work mainly comes from direct contact with brands, I tend to do the post-production; however if it’s an agency commission, sometimes the work is sent to a professional retoucher because there’s a bigger budget or that’s what the agency wants.

What methods do you use to find new commercial clients?

I’m often contacting marketing agencies, advertising agencies, creative agencies, but most of the time it’s direct contact with the brand. So I’ll try to look for the marketing department emails, and sometimes I’ll ask if they mind sending a product or two and offer a couple of photographs for free.

I do send emails sometimes but now I try to contact people through Instagram because I get more responses there, and with email it’s always difficult to find the right marketing contact and their contact details.

How do you stand out from the crowd?

The reason my clients call me, why they commission me is because I work around the concept and I build props and I build sets. I find it more interesting as opposed to going to a job where the art director has already done everything and set everything up, where your job is maybe to adjust the lighting, the subject and then take photographs.

For the clients I’m working with now, I’m working as an art director as well as a set designer, a set builder. So I’m doing three or four jobs all together which are each hugely exciting; yes, of course, it’s time consuming – I have to work on the concept, on the set design, sourcing building materials, and the time to build the sets… however, it’s exciting because I work on on the whole project process. From the very beginning until the very end.

How important are personal photography projects?

The thing I enjoy most about photography is creating projects. I work a lot on personal projects – I release one every month or two, or I work on older projects. If I had to photograph just what clients wanted me to photograph, it would be incredibly unsatisfying.

I’m first assistant to the fine-art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten; I love her work and I love the way she works. She doesn’t do a lot of commissions – she’s a fine art photographer, so she works on her personal projects and she develops each project. That’s what excites me.

However, I’m still working on commissions because that’s part of my job. The difference is that sometimes everything is already in place, the layout and the ideas. Maybe the client calls you because they saw your work which might match their style, or they think you can add something extra, which is great.

What’s the value of assisting other photographers?

I’m a professional photographer but I’m also still working as an assistant. 

Every photographer should work as an assistant, even if they are professional photographers, because you can see how other people work, how other photographers work with clients, how they handle difficult situations… You can always learn more.

I’ve been working with Julia Fullerton-Batten for about six years and we’ve got a very good working relationship. She tells me all the time, “put your work out there, enter more competitions, find an agent… knock on more doors.”

She’s like my mentor. Every time I change my portfolio, I send her an email and say, what do you think about these changes? Or if I’m working on projects then we exchange ideas… It’s nice to have that mentor figure.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would probably say to myself, don’t do culinary school – go straight to photography and arts.

I jumped into photography quite late; I worked for 4-5 years in restaurants, hospitality, retail, and only started to work full-time in photography around 28, 29 years old. Before that I was freelancing as a photographer 2 days a week, and working in retail… sometimes I worked 7 days a week and that was for more than a year – it was intense. However, I don’t regret it – I had a beautiful experience.

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Find Elio’s portfolio on creatives.new – our recently-launched platform where brands who want to tell their stories can find and commission creatives based on the visual style they want.

This week we caught up with Dino – who is also a member of our creatives.new community –and talked about photographing for big clients and big personalities, how important Instagram is for his marketing, the value of nurturing existing relationships, and the power of personal work. Read on below:

What do you consider to be your greatest commission?

Definitely photographing portraits for Tyler the Creator, it was probably one of the best projects I ever had with anyone. That was two years ago for the IGOR album; they were supposed to make a book with the album but then they got so busy with the tour that they completely lost that project, and I basically got permission now to use those photographs in a zine.

Everything went so smoothly. He had such energy and however he would position himself he would look good. I didn’t have to do anything, so I was just observing and waiting for him to do something. It completely evolved into something else. It’s amazing to work with people like that.

There weren’t a lot of people involved and it was basically just me and him, the driver and his security guard. He was his own stylist. I’d done a recce of the location the day before, so it wasn’t stressful or pressured at all.

I love working like that because you can create a good connection. If there’s somebody else who is telling you what to do and you never communicate with the person you’re photographing, a lot can be lost. Conversation and connection can give you more insight, and with this combined energy you can create something really beautiful.

I would say I can hold a good conversation, but there are some people who are amazing at that, who can bring out so much more from a person. It’s psychological. It’s how you can make them feel – some people will just stand there and you have to get them to that moment, but some people just have this connection and can bring out another person entirely.

It’s still nice to have, for example, someone to style and watch the clothes at least, or make up and hair. Sometimes I can miss a crease here, a crease there. Then again, perfection isn’t something I’m striving for!

What’s it like to work with such big names?

The people I’ve worked with? They’re always amazing. Super humble.

People often think there’s probably going to be a lot of ego but it’s not like that. When somebody hires you for a specific thing, you’re what they want.

I’m always myself. I never really thought about it before, but I’ve never had that fear or nervousness. Maybe that’s just me, but I just treat them like any regular person – we usually talk about the specifics of the photography and what they want. I focus solely on the work.

I always have a clear idea in my mind of what I’m going to do, and when I have that I feel confident. I get more anxious about not knowing what to do rather than working these kinds of jobs.

What are your marketing tactics?

I mostly market my work through Instagram – it’s basically free marketing – and I get a lot of interest through there.

I also maintain certain relationships from previous jobs – for example, in the beginning of last year I got some assignment work for the New Yorker and Adobe – and I’m now maintaining the relationships with those editors and people I’ve worked with.

What I often do is every time I have a new project, or I update my portfolio, or I have a new book out, I send out an email update to my mailing list. 

There’s always so much information happening around us that we miss things easily, right? So I send those in the hopes that someone will see I’m doing something new. I often get replies saying: “oh, you were just working on this, it’s good that you emailed, maybe you can help us out…”

Then, if there’s somebody I really want to work with I will get in touch with my portfolio. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s beneficial to do that because a lot of the time people don’t even know you’re working, and they’ll put you on their roster.

Do you have a specific strategy behind using Instagram to gain commissions?

They usually just contact me through DMs. Just three days ago, I got another message from someone who wants me to come do some photography in LA. It’s often somebody representing somebody. It’s nice to have that personal contact.

It’s hard to know when that started happening. I’ve had Instagram for a long time, since maybe around 2013, 2014, so it’s had a lot of time to grow.

When the mindset changed, when I started using it for my own marketing, that was only in the last four years or so. I don’t go about it in a very structured way though, and I tend to post when and what I feel like.

Maybe I should be more structured, but to be honest we spend so much time on social media that I don’t want to add to that and it works for me like this.

For you, what’s the value of working on personal projects?

It’s the best thing you can do as a photographer. Clients, brands, they all started coming to me because of my personal work.

Tyler came to me and said “I love this stuff that you do, the desolate places. Could you insert me into this?” And I said, perfect, let’s do it. 

Everything stems from it. All the commissions I’ve had, photobooks, exhibitions; everything is because of the personal work.

It’s extremely important, especially for my development and my career, and it pushes me too. You can do whatever you want with personal work. You don’t have any limitations, you can push yourself. You can go in a completely different direction, you can try everything. Nobody’s telling you what you should do. It’s liberating, and allows your creativity to flourish. 

Now when I go back to New York, I have more portraits lined up of random people I’ve met because I want to photograph them and have them in my portfolio. I’m trying to focus more on environmental portraits because I want to do more of that and move away from other sorts of commissions. That’s why I also take on personal projects that fall into that category – because I want to do more commercial work like that, and I can then use those personal projects in my portfolio.

What’s the most important thing for you when working with big name clients?

Whatever the project, for me the most valuable thing is just to be prepared.

As long as I know what I want to do, everything else is okay. I’m not anxious about “is it going to be good enough?”, and I’ve been photographing for so long that all the technical knowledge is essentially part of my subconscious now.

If I have a general idea of what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, and where I’m going to do it, then I’m good. I can build on that, and everything else will come later.

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Find Dino’s portfolio on creatives.new – our recently-launched platform where brands who want to tell their stories can find and commission creative artists.

Through our smart search function, creatives.new matches artists with clients based on their content and style. Best of all, it’s completely free and there are no hidden costs. You can read more about creatives.new and how we help artists here.

Look no further. Creatives.new is our recently-launched platform where brands who want to tell their stories can find and hire commercial fashion photographers around the world, instantly. 

Whether it’s street fashion, high fashion or editorial fashion photography, you can upload a reference image to find style-matched photographers in seconds or search through our roster of global commercial fashion photographers.

This week, we’ve collated some of our favourite commercial fashion photographers who are available for hire on creatives.new. Take a look below and prepare to be inspired!

1. Ines Vansteenkiste-Muylle

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ines Vansteenkiste-Muylle is a Belgian freelance photographer based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and is represented by Landvogel.

2. Francisco Gomez de Villaboa

London, UK

Francisco Gomez de Villaboa is an Andalusian fashion photographer based in London, UK working with clients like Burberry, Givenchy and more.

3. Megan Dalton

Leeds, UK

Megan Dalton is a fashion photographer based in Leeds, UK with features in Vogue Italia, Courier Magazine, FT Weekend, Boys by Girls and others.

4. Alicia Stepp

Texas, USA

Alicia Stepp is a Texas-based fashion and beauty photographer, working with names like Nike, Tiffany & Co., Mary Kay and more.

5. Heather Glazzard

London, UK

Heather is a photographer working in fashion and editorial based in London, UK. They’ve been published in places like Vogue.com, Metal Magazine, The Face, Gay Times and more.

6. Francesca Battaglia

Milan, Italy

Based in Milan, Italy, Francesca Battaglia is a photographer and videomaker working across fashion, portraiture and lifestyle.

Are you looking to hire a commercial fashion photographer? We can help. Take a look at our new platform creatives.new where you can find photographers to work with, instantly.

Upload a reference image and we’ll find you style-matched photographers in seconds, or search through our roster of global commercial fashion photographers.

Find commercial fashion photographers now!