How to Plan a Successful Product Shoot, with Danni Rossi

Danni is a professional photographer specialising in delivering creative content and fun stop motions for brands. Her background in advertising, combined with her unique styling experience, means she has a great insight into how to take photos that will make your products sell. Below, Danni has kindly shared some tips on preparing for a successful photoshoot. So whether you’re working with a professional like Danni, or going for the DIY approach, these steps will help you get the most out of your experience. 

You can find out more about Danni’s work by visiting dannirossistudio.com, or following her on Instagram @dannirossistudio — she’s London-based, but can shoot ‘remotely’, too. But for now, over to you, Danni!

Most product photography clients are unaware of how much groundwork goes into preparing for a photoshoot. 

From creative research to the final export, here are a few tips on how to plan and execute your photoshoot, and bring your products to life:

1. Understand your brand

First thing that you will need to do before planning your photoshoot is to be clear on your brand guidelines, and your target audience. Identifying these two topics is important, and will be the guiding light to your photoshoot.

Images: C/O Danni Rossi Studio

2. Find inspiration and build a moodboard

Get creative! Visuals are the best way to communicate ideas. Creating a moodboard will help you to decide which props and backgrounds will work best for your images.

If you’re working for a photographer, share your ideas with them, and work on a moodboard together — I use Pinterest and Canva for that! This will help you both stay aligned to your brand in terms of colour, mood, etc, and generally make sure you’re both on the same page.

3. Create a shot list

If you’re doing your own photoshoot, once you’ve gathered your ideas, it’s time to write out your shot list. This is a list of all the different images you need to capture during the photoshoot. 

As you go through this process, keep in mind where the photos are going to be used (social media, advertising, newsletter). This list should include your product details, background colours, camera angles (flatlay or front facing), space for copy if required and the type of props to be used for each product. If you’re working with a photographer, they’ll put this together for you based on your conversations with them. 

4. Gather props and backgrounds

Planning and gathering props for the photoshoot is a fun process, but it’s also a crucial one. Sometimes you need fresh ingredients and specific items that tell a story about the product. So get all your props and any special backgrounds prepared a day or two ahead of the shoot.

When choosing props, consider their colour, shape, and size. For backgrounds, try to stick to your brand colours and play around with it, but keep it consistent! Use coloured A1 paper and vinyls or experiment with textured surfaces and fabrics. Again, if you’re working with a professional, they’ll handle this stage — but you should feel free to share any specific ideas or inspiration with them. 

5. Practice composition and styling

When I first started my photography journey, styling was something I found really hard —  it takes patience and time to improve it. By composing a photograph in a certain way, you can draw the viewer’s eye to your subject and create an eye-catching image.

There are a few compositional tools that can take your styling to the next level. Rule of thirds, colour, reflection, shadows, negative space, repetition, rule of odds, etc.

By practicing different techniques, you can find and evolve your style. Remember that photography is subjective so there is no wrong or right. Try to show your passion and the idea behind a photo in a natural way. You will learn with each shot you take.

Thank you so much for sharing these tips with us, Danni! We’re already feeling inspired to dust off our cameras, and we hope you all are, too. If you have any specific questions around photography, please reach out in the comments below, we’ll do our best to cover them in a future post. 

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