Guides
How to photograph the things people make, trade by trade — and how to get more out of the tool.
Agencies and studios
Charging for creative production when the cost drops
If a set of product images now takes an afternoon instead of a studio day, the honest question is whether you bill for the afternoon or for the outcome.
August 25, 2026 · 3 minute read
Agencies and studios
A month of creative from one product sample
The client couriers over one unit and expects a content calendar. Booking a studio for that is neither proportionate nor, usually, in the budget.
August 24, 2026 · 3 minute read
Agencies and studios
Keeping client work separate
Three accounts, one team, one shared drive. The way a client finds out their competitor is also your client should not be an image in the wrong folder.
August 24, 2026 · 3 minute read
Packaging and label designers
Handing over images the client can actually use
You designed the packaging and photographed the sample. Six months later the client is selling it with photographs taken on a warehouse floor.
August 23, 2026 · 3 minute read
Packaging and label designers
Why renders undersell printed work
A 3D mockup shows your design. A photograph of the printed box shows that it exists, that it folds correctly, and that the foil catches light.
August 22, 2026 · 3 minute read
Packaging and label designers
Photographing foil, varnish and emboss
The client paid for the foil. In a flat, evenly lit photograph it is a slightly grey rectangle, and the invoice looks harder to justify.
August 21, 2026 · 4 minute read
Subscription box curators
Keeping twelve months of boxes consistent
A year of reveal photographs sits on your website as a grid. If each month was shot in a different room, that grid tells subscribers you improvise.
August 20, 2026 · 3 minute read
Subscription box curators
Photographing other people’s brands
Half of what is in your box was made by someone else, and their logo, their label and their packaging are in your photograph.
August 20, 2026 · 3 minute read
Subscription box curators
The reveal flat-lay, and why most of them fail
Everything laid out neatly around an open box is the defining image of the category. Done badly it looks like a car boot sale.
August 19, 2026 · 4 minute read
Florists
Building a portfolio from perishable work
Every wedding you do is proof you can do the next one, and every wedding is in a skip by Monday.
August 18, 2026 · 3 minute read
Florists
Getting flower colour right
A client books dusty pink and cream. The photographs come back peach and yellow, and now there is a conversation nobody wanted.
August 17, 2026 · 4 minute read
Florists
Photographing in a cold workroom before the van leaves
The arrangement is finished at half past six in the morning, in a windowless room with a cold floor, and it is in a van by seven.
August 16, 2026 · 4 minute read