Product Photos Behind the Scenes

Here’s where I take all of my product photos. It’s a corner of my bedroom where the window meets the closet door. I pull up my son’s table, tape up a big sheet of paper as background and voila! I tried all sorts of things when I first started taking product photos. I bought a light tent which turned out to be ridiculously big and required so much extra lighting I could never get it to work right. I also tried taking photos outside but the slightest bit of wind sends my cards flying. It’s nice now to have a routine for taking product shots. The only drawback is that I have a short period time when the light is just right in the early afternoon. Too early and there are shadows and too late and the photos turn out a bit dark.
Today I was taking product shots of a new printable baby shower design. Styling is so much harder than it looks and I’m still very much in the early part of the learning curve. As a minimalist at heart I also don’t have a lot of stuff around to use as props! The other day I decluttered some vintage fabric I had bought at the thrift store because I realized I was never going to do the project that I had bought it for. Usually I don’t regret things I declutter, but I could have used it for these product shots! Oh well. Time to to get resourceful with tissue paper, cupcake liners and flowers!
I went on a mission with my son out today to find some jellybeans and gum drops in single colors. I wanted to take a picture showing how the thank you note could be trimmed to double as decoration for a favor bag of goodies. Our visit to a new candy shop in our neighbourhood was disappointing. It is a bit off the beaten track on a one-way street but I had visions of something like this. No such luck, which surprised me for a niche store. Everything was pre-packaged. However, we came home with a couple packs of assorted jellybeans and my son was happy to accept the ones that didn’t match my color scheme!
I’m off now to browse my collection of entertaining books and torn pages from Martha Stewart Weddings for inspiration for taking more photos tomorrow. Stay tuned for an announcement when the new print-at-home baby shower templates will be available in my Etsy shop!
Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, product shots, styling
I'm Lisa and I live near Toronto with my husband and our two sons. Join me as I share Sweetbeets updates
and discover handmade and eco-friendly gifts for babies and children.







nice post, it’s cool to see where others take their product shots. as an aside, i think your styling is lovely, i’ve always liked the cupcake liner touch, and the spools of coloured yarn you’ve used with some tags. can’t wait to see those invites!
This is nice!!! Yes, I always am curious about all behind the scene photos!!
i went through the same process with photography…and i finally found a great window at a certain time of the day too. Great advice for all those out there working on photography!
I enjoyed reading this too.
I am a minimalist by way of my kid not being able to keep his hands off any of my stuff! I have things for the photo shoots but still there’s such a knack to it … WIP!