This article is a beginners guide to post-production for product photography. So you’ve completed your production (you can find my beginners guide to production article here) and now you’re ready to edit, finalise and deliver your gallery.  Post production for product photography is just as important as pre-production and production itself.

So you’ve completed the photo shoot…..now what?  We’re basically at the business end of the product photography project.  This is where you finalise your deliverables and send them off to your client.

In this article I’ll give you my tips on post production for product photography.

POST-PRODUCTION

• Final edits

This is where you’ll want to go over all of the images you plan to deliver to your client with a fine tooth comb.  Get your zoom on in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and get picky.  Is there some dust? Or if you used food in your shoot is there liquid or remnants of food where there shouldn’t be which could detract from the image?  Are there reflections on packaging that need to be removed?  Get picky and get your editing prowess on – it can transform an image from good to magnificent and is worth the time taken to go through it all.

• Upload images to the clients gallery with watermarks on them

I use Pixieset as my chosen gallery delivery software.  Within that gallery, you can add a watermark to your images.  Make sure you have watermarks on your images – it reduces the chances that a client will download the images and not pay you for your images and time.  I’d love to believe that all business owners are honest and have integrity and wouldn’t cheat you out of what you deserve to be paid, but unfortunately there are some people out there who just aren’t very nice, so it’s good to cover yourself as much as possible.

• Final image check in the client gallery & email the gallery to the client

Grab that creative brief with the shot list and go through it again to make sure that every image required has been shot, edited and is in the gallery. Once you’ve checked and triple checked, now is the fun part – sending the gallery off to the client!

• Client approval, final payment and removing the watermarks

The client has approved your gallery and are pumped with your work.  Just a few more things to get through before you celebrate.  Once the client has approved the gallery, confirm via email that once the final payment is received in your account that you’ll then remove the watermarks and they can download the images.  Once final payment is received, remove those pesky watermarks and let the client know that you’ve received the final payment and that watermarks have been removed.

• Get a testimonial from your client

In the wrap up email about giving thanks for receiving the final payment, and that the watermarks have been removed, I would also add something in the email about requesting a testimonial.  Now this is completely up to the client – I do not endorse being pushy or making the client feel like they have to do that – so if they don’t want to send you a testimonial then that’s okay, and if they do want to send you a testimonial then that’s fantastic.  It’s always good to have social proof that you are actually great at your job and what your deliver.  When you’ve received said testimonial add to your social channels and your website.

So there you have it.  You’ve finalised post-production and it’s time to celebrate your beautiful product photography gallery.

Want to know more photography behind the scenes, or do you just want to come along for the ride?  Then head on over to the About page to learn more about the origins of my love for photography, or follow me  on Pinterest,  Instagram or Facebook for more behind the scenes.  You can find examples of my product photography work here, or, if you’re a product based business and would like to enquire about how we could work together, you can contact me via the services page.

Until next time,

Deb

Founder, Lens & Muse