In short
A product shoot with us follows the same shape every time. First email, brief, shipping, shoot day, retouching, proofs, final delivery, products back. Here is what each part actually looks like from the studio floor, so if you have never booked one before you know exactly what you are signing up for.
A lot of first-time enquiries start with the same line. "I have never done this before, I am not sure what to expect." That is completely fair. Product photography sits in a quiet corner of the business world where the process is rarely explained, which means most people are trying to guess the shape of it from the outside.
My name is Nic. I am the studio director at Photograph My Product, and I have walked hundreds of clients through their first booking. The process has stayed roughly the same for years, because it works. This article takes you through every step so you can see what is on the other side of the enquiry form before you fill it in.
A typical booking, in numbers
Same day
First reply
Most enquiries get a response before 5pm
1-5 days
Turnaround
From arrival to proofs, for most shoots
1 round
Proofs included
Enough for the vast majority of projects
York
Studio base
Clients ship from all over the UK
01. The first email or call
The process starts with a message. Usually that is the enquiry form on the site, sometimes an email, occasionally a phone call. What matters is that you tell us three things, roughly: what you sell, how many products you want to photograph, and where the images will end up (your own site, Amazon, a wholesaler, a press pack, all of the above).
You do not need a polished brief yet. A paragraph is plenty. Within the same working day you will get a reply from a real person in the studio, with a rough plan, a price range and a sensible next step. If we think a short call would save time, we will say so. If an email thread will do, we stick to email.
Step 01
Tell us what you sell and where the images will be used. We work out what is realistic from there.
02. The brief
Once we both agree it makes sense to move ahead, we nail down the brief. This is where we decide what the shoot is actually for, and it is where a lot of costly mistakes get avoided. For a simple packshot run on white, the brief might be half a page. For a lifestyle campaign it will be longer, with references, mood direction and shot notes.
We have a one-page template you can fill in if you want structure. If you would rather just send pictures of products you like, that works too. Our job is to translate whatever you send into a clear shot list, not to make you write like a copywriter. If you want more detail on what a good brief looks like, have a read of our guide on how to create an effective product photography brief.
Grab the one-page brief template
A simple printable that covers every question we need answered before a shoot. Fill it in, scan it, and send it back, or use it as a checklist during a call with us.
03. Booking the studio and sending products
When the brief is agreed, we book a studio day that works for both of us and send you a simple shipping label along with any prep notes. The notes are boring but useful. Wipe bottles before packing. Remove stickers where you can. Pack small accessories together. Include anything you want us to think about, such as preferred angles or colour references.
Most clients send products to us by tracked courier. Royal Mail, DPD, Evri and DHL all deliver to the studio without drama. We confirm arrival the same day your parcel lands, flag anything damaged in transit, and store everything in clearly labelled trays so nothing gets mixed up. If you want to read about why that works for brands anywhere in the UK, the York studio post goes into more detail. If you only have one product to send, that is equally fine, as covered in our no minimum spend article.
Step 03
One parcel, one form, one reply saying it arrived safely.
We unpack, inspect and log each product against your shot list. If anything is missing, damaged or needs a quick clean, we flag it before we touch the camera, not after.
You will get a short message with a photograph of the opened parcel. That is partly a sanity check for both of us, and partly a head start on the shoot.
From one product to a full catalogue, every parcel gets the same careful check-in before a shoot.
04. Shoot day
Shoot day is less dramatic than it sounds. It is a quiet studio, steady lighting, and a screen that shows every frame as it is captured. We tether the camera to the computer, which means the moment a picture is taken it appears at full size, colour accurate, ready to review.
Depending on the brief, shoot day splits into four rough modes: setup and prep, packshots on white, styled or lifestyle work, and close-up detail frames. Here is what each one looks like in the studio.
Setup and lighting
Every product gets its own lighting build. Nothing is left to a preset.
Packshots on white
The core ecommerce shot. Tethered capture, colour accurate, ready for listings.
Styled and lifestyle
Where products need context, we build a set and style it to fit the brand.
Close-up detail
Macro and close-up frames that show the material, finish and craftsmanship.
If you want to join, you can watch remotely over a shared screen or pop into the studio in person. Most clients prefer to get on with their day and trust us with it. Either is fine.
05. Retouching
Retouching is the part of the job clients see least and benefit from most. Our retouchers clean up dust, fingerprints, stray threads, uneven edges and anything else a camera picks up that would distract a buyer. Colour is corrected against reference, backgrounds are tidied, shadows are balanced, and packaging text is kept sharp and legible.
Retouching is finishing, not fabricating. We do not make a product look like something it is not. If the brief calls for composite or CGI-style work, we treat that as a separate piece of craft and flag it clearly. You can see examples of that on the composite photography service page.
Step 05
A properly retouched image looks effortless. That is the point.
Good retouching is invisible. If you notice it, something has gone wrong. The aim is a picture where the product looks like itself on a good day, nothing more.
Everything ships as sRGB by default, matched against your product references and calibrated to our studio monitors.
Clean-ups, colour correction, background work and composite builds. Quiet hours of attention so the final image feels inevitable.
06. Proofs and revisions
Once retouching is done you get a proofs link. It is a gallery of low-resolution images you can view in the browser, marked up with notes if you want to request a change. Every package includes one round of revisions, and the vast majority of projects do not need more than that.
What a proofs round typically covers
- Colour adjustments against your reference
- Small tweaks to cropping or composition
- Removing a stray reflection or mark we missed
- Selecting between two valid versions of the same shot
- Swapping a background shade or softness level
If something sits outside the scope of the original brief, we will tell you before we touch it, and quote properly for it.
07. Final delivery
When proofs are signed off, the final files land in your inbox through a shared download link. You will find them named consistently, organised by product, and sized for the platforms you told us about. If you mentioned Amazon during the brief, the hero images are prepared to match Amazon's specifications straight out of the folder.
Every client receives high-resolution sRGB JPGs as standard. Depending on your brief you might also get transparent PNGs, layered PSDs, black-and-white conversions or print-ready files. Here is the quick version of what lands where.
| File type | Best for | Included? |
|---|---|---|
| High-res JPG (sRGB) | Your website, Shopify, wholesale decks | Always |
| Amazon-spec JPG | Amazon hero and listing images | When the brief includes Amazon |
| Transparent PNG | Marketplace listings and composites | On request |
| Layered PSD or TIFF | Agencies and further retouching | On request |
| Print-ready CMYK | Brochures, packaging and press | On request |
Step 07
Final files land in your inbox as a single organised folder, named consistently and ready for upload.
08. Your products coming back safely
Once the files are out and the project is signed off, we repack your products the way they arrived and send them back by tracked courier. Fragile or valuable items get extra protection and insurance. You get the tracking number the same hour the parcel leaves the studio.
If you want us to hold stock for a future shoot, we can do that too. Plenty of repeat clients keep a small box of core products on the shelf so we can drop in a new image at short notice without the shipping delay. If you are thinking ahead to repeat or ongoing work, our pricing page covers the standard rates and what is included at each level.
Step 08
Packed the way it arrived, returned tracked. Stock we hold for repeat clients stays on the shelf, ready for the next shoot.
The process stays the same whether you are sending one product or a hundred. That is how we keep it predictable for you and for us.
Nic Barella, Studio Director
What you actually need before you book
Almost nothing. That is the honest answer. The amount of prep first-time clients think they need is usually double what we actually ask for. A short list of what is genuinely useful before your first enquiry:
- The products themselves, or at least photographs of what they will look like
- A rough idea of where the images will be used
- A sense of how many angles or shot types you need per product
- A deadline, even a loose one, so we can plan around it
- A budget range, if you have one, so we can shape the quote around it
That is plenty. Anything we still need, we will ask for in the first reply.
Ready to plan a shoot?
Send a few lines about what you sell, how many products you want to photograph and where the images will be used. You will get a reply from the studio the same working day, with a plan, a price range and a clear next step. You can get in touch here or browse our product photography services if you want to see the work first.
Rather we called you?
Leave a number and a good time and we will ring you back to talk it through. No pressure, no obligation.
