Shooting Catalog Images, Texas Style...

Product photography is fun! Really?!? Really!

There are a ton of catalogs, both in print and online that are shot in Dallas. If you think about it, the North Texas area is headquarters to two major department stores several national retailer chains, and countless small/niche companies. There is a LOT of product to shoot here!

I recently worked on one giant retailer's catalog. I won't name the company on my blog, but hopefully you spend a few dollars there to keep them (and me) in business! I took a few pics during the shoot days with my iphone to give you a basic idea of what a catalog shoot involves. While looking at the pics, be sure to drool over the pretty Profoto packs and lights that are helping to make the magic happen!

This is a rack of outfits waiting to be steamed and pressed by the stylist, so it can be worn by a model and shot by me.

You can see a model on set, getting her hair fixed up, as another model waits off set near the stylist and stylist's assistant. There are a lot of people on the set, including me, a photo assistant, an art director and a make-up artist.

Another shot of hair being done... hair is a major issue and requires a specialist on set.

This image shows a set of pics waiting to be looked at on the computer in Capture One. The art director will comb through roughly 30-50 images of each outfit and pick his/her favorite to be sent off to the post-processing department. Then, a whole new team of professionals will take over. It's quite a process!

Here are a couple screen shots of some new maternity outfits that were produced. This will give you an example of how the final product is displayed for the customer. You may wonder why such a big production goes into taking one photo, but it's actually pretty important. The image needs to accurately represent the product, since the customer can't hold it in their hand, try it on and make an in-person decision. Those photos give the customer details to make a good, informed decision.

One reason why I've been asked to shoot product photography is my ability to capture motion, emotion, energy and excitement in my images. It's not all that often that an editorial shooter crosses over to shooting product photography, but the need for that style of imagery is becoming more in demand every day by all sorts of clients that used to prefer much more conservative styles of photography.

If you like these pictures, you should also check out my main website at www.janikphoto.com