For my photo essay, I decided to search up how people do photo essays in product photography. I found that a common method is to tell a story or explain the process of using a product through a series of pictures. This is a technique commonly found on pages like Amazon, where products can have a showcase. I will link a product that uses this technique.
I will be attempting to replicate this technique in a similar way by using some shots of a phone. I will be using my phone for it and will be learning how to create the various shots used in commercials for use in photography and various photoshop techniques that do not alter the appearance a lot but are still able to make the product look nice.
I will be using my phone for the shots because I have easy access to it. Although it is not brand new, because this is just a test shoot I an fine with using it to create a concept for what the full shoot could be like.
Creating a Shot List
The amount of pictures that are required is 8 for this photo essay. Because of this, I will be coming up with a simple shot list of ideas for the shoot. These ideas will be listed with a reference image that I will be using.
- The phone floating while spinning on its corner similar to the shot found in Kyle Nutt’s CASETiFY ad.
- The front of the phone and back of the phone overlapping like the first shot in this product showcase
- A side on view shot with just the front of the phone similar to the first shot in this article
- The back of the phone, replicating this product shot
- A front, back and side view, replicating the iPhone 6 picture from this article
- A shot from behind a model of them using their phone, similar to the opening image of this article but from further back
- A simple front on view shot of someone holding the phone like the shot at the start of the advertisement on the Apple Website
- Showing someone paying with Apple Pay like the image from this article
I will be using these images to create a full show of the iPhone. Because of the style of video essays, I will be doing minimal editing.
Contacts
Finals
These are my finished shots. They leave a lot to be desired, but the only editing I did on them was changing some of the positions to create the shots. If I were to do a proper shoot, there would be much more thought, preparation and editing put in to make sure the outcome was good. However, I think that this is still able to show off the phone and explain some of the main features in the style of a story as a photo essay requires.
Conclusion
Due to the length of the project, a photo essay could be a good way to go about doing an advertisement. This could show off a product in a lot of different ways. However, I feel like this is more suited for things that have multiple purposes. With my plan to either focus on food, aqueous or drink photography, I do not know if this will be the best way to go about it. However, I will keep the idea in mind for the future.