Lifestyle product photoshoots are all about the theme you surround the item with. This article
will discuss choosing your photoshoot theme and some things to consider before selecting a
theme and putting that theme into place.
Lifestyle Brand Awareness
How does the company want to present their brand? This is a crucial factor in how you select
a theme for your photos. To illustrate, a brand that sells luxury whiskey might want a vastly
different vibe to their photos than a company that sells skincare. You’ll want to compile other
adjectives from the company about what they want from their pictures.
To illustrate:
Luxury Whiskey:
-Rich flavour
-moody
-indulgent
-magnificent
Skincare:
-practical
-refreshing
-playful
-youthful
Props
Props can be a great way to enhance a product in lifestyle photos.
Props: ingredients
Perhaps your product’s unique selling point is an exciting ingredient, or its purpose surrounds
a flavor or scent. You can encourage an audience to think about this flavor or aroma by
showing it onscreen in the photos.
Props: color or theme
You can also showcase the color scheme through props of the same color or even the
theme itself. Perhaps the product contains sea salt, the USP; therefore, you could incorporate
a nautical theme with fishing nets or shells.
Again, if we take the examples from before and put props to these adjectives.
Luxury Whiskey:
Cut glass (luxury)
vanilla pods or chocolate (rich flavoring, highlights the flavors in the whiskey)
Gold/marble (indulgent)
Skincare:
-bathroom items like towels or makeup brushes (practical)
-fresh ingredients (healthy, fragrant)
-light color scheme (cleanliness, fresh)
Lighting and camera angles
Lighting and camera angles can affect the way an audience perceives a product. Dramatic
lighting with heavy shadows can give an expensive feel to a product and would be perfectly
paired with the luxury whiskey we mentioned earlier. At the same time, this technique would
probably not be suitable for the skincare shoot.
The skincare shoot would be well paired with bright and even lighting to give the idea of
transparent ingredients and cleanliness and even mock the idea of a bathroom being well lit
and clean.
Angles can give power to the subject or take it away. Positioning your camera below the
object and having it face up at the product gives the subject power and makes it appear
important. Again this technique is excellent for whiskey products and may also work with
skincare. However, keeping the skincare level with the audience eye line helps it be the main
focus and makes it appear transparent and honest.
Backdrop
The backdrop should never take away from the focus point/ the product. Its primary purpose
should be to enhance or tell a story. You have various options when it comes to selecting a
backdrop. Like the props, you can make up a natural environment for a product like a
bathroom for skincare, or perhaps, a living area or a bar for the whiskey. Or you can take it abstract and utilise a block colour or patterned backdrop.
Overall there is quite a bit to consider when putting together a lifestyle photo. This is a good
thing because it allows you a lot of creative freedom, and essentially there is no “wrong”;
approach to a certain degree. They are a great method of content creation and practice makes perfect. Lifestyle photos can be used for social media, blogs, newsletters and so much more!
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