Elevate your Brand and Increase Conversions with Product Photography

Prue Aja is an Australia's leading branding photographer, working with product and service-based businesses to establish a powerful online presence through high impact imagery.

In this interview we discuss:

- What branded product photography is.

- How it helps your brand to stand out online and convert more traffic into sales.

- Using influencers images vs your own.

- How to prepare for a branded photoshoot and the mistakes you must avoid. And more…

Click below to watch or listen to the interview. Or read the transcript below if you prefer.

Fernanda: Hello. Today I'm here with Prue Aja, one of Australia's leading branding photographer working with product and service based businesses to establish a powerful online presence through high impact imagery.

Hi Prue and thank you so much for joining me today. I have a few questions for you today and I think this is going to be really informative for business owners, especially product-based business owners.

What is branded product photography just to start off and what is lifestyle product photography? How does that help or transform a business?

Prue Aja: So branded photography is creating imagery of someone's product or the service they do that is really consistently in line with their existing branding.

So say their logo, their colours, their website, and also the pillars that they talk about on their social media as well.

So it creates consistency and tells the whole story of the actual brand.

When it comes to lifestyle photography, it's thinking about who the audience is that your product is for and the lifestyle or the way your product is used in a lifestyle.

So say it's like a greens healthy powder that you put into your smoothie.

So it'll be, you have lifestyle images of probably people in active wear being outside exercising, nature, bright light imagery with fruit and showing different products that they can be used with and that's creating more of the lifestyle imagery for it.

Fernanda: Yeah, which would give us a bit of more, a feeling of how you are going to use the product, I guess. Is that what you're saying, right?

Prue Aja: Yeah. So it evokes a feeling. So when you look at it, when you see someone making that green smoothie and they look healthy and vibrant you go, "Oh, cool. I want to be healthy and vibrant too and I'm going to buy that green powder."

What do you recommend? the product only on a white background or a coloured background as well, or in context (lifestyle)?

Prue Aja: I think it's important to have both. So when someone comes onto your website, so firstly, they've probably seen the lifestyle photos on your Instagram or your Facebook or your Facebook ads, and then that's grabbed their attention and they've gone, " Okay, I want to learn more about this product."

So then they go through to the website, there'll be a bit more lifestyle imagery like on the banner and maybe with the type of product it is, and then when you go to the specific product page, you want to show details like of the packaging or what the product looks like inside, or the stitches and seams on the clothes or how it sits on a model.

So I think it's really important to have both and these days you want to have as much content as possible.

So getting your eCommerce shots on the white or a coloured background with the main focus being the detail, and then having the lifestyle images which you can feed through your Instagram and marketing.

Does lifestyle photography work for any product?

Prue Aja: Well, I haven't come across any that it hasn't worked for. Yeah. So I would say so.

That's when all the planning comes in for the photo shoot working out, what we want the vision for the brand to be and the outcome and then aligning all the elements with that for the photo shoot.

How can businesses align the lifestyle product photography with their branding?

Prue Aja: When you do your branding, you obviously have your values, your vision and your mission for the brand. You know who your ideal audience or client is.

So you've already kind of encompassed that and from there, you can use those elements for your photography.

So with the photography, the first thing you would do is create a vision board.

So what you want the images to look like, and then you would want like, so if your logo is quite elegant, then you want your photography to be really elegant and that to align that way.

So firstly like the style and the vibe of the actual brand and then thinking about the colour. So definitely having consistent colours going through and the style. So either it's going to be like really bright poppy colours, or it's going to be more a designer watch or something, you're going to have more probably minimalist looking photos and really classic styling with it.

Some businesses, especially in the fashion industry, become the model. They wear their own clothes and others hire a model. What do you perceive to be more advantageous?

Prue Aja: Well, I think it's always important to know who the person is behind the brand and know their story and their why.

I know people are becoming more conscious buyers, so they want to understand why have they created this product and they want to see the passion from the person that's made it.

That doesn't mean that person needs to always be the model. If you're really comfortable in front of the camera and confident and want to show off your brand and want to be kind of more of an influencer in your brand, then that's great. You could definitely model it yourself.

A lot of people have built up their Instagram as being influences and from having such a big following, go on, "Okay, well I'm going to create a product because I might as well sell to the audience that I already have." In that case, that makes total sense.

But otherwise hiring great talent is absolutely invaluable. You've gone through all the effort of thinking up this product, you've tested it, you've got it, you found a manufacturer, you're wanting to get it out there in front of people.

You don't want to let yourself down at the very last point with not having great talent showing off your product because that's how people are going to see it.

And if you don't really invest in that last little bit, it's really going to let all the hard work that you've done, let it all down.

Fernanda: Yeah. I love that. Absolutely. I can imagine exactly what you're saying. After all the trouble that you go through, have a professional photoshoot, a model or yourself as a model, if that's your brand or how you choose to go, makes perfect sense.

Prue Aja: Yeah. So if you decide to do photos of yourself, have a great photographer that you know will be able to direct you and get the best shots.

If you want to put more money into the talent, you don't have to spend as much on the photographer, I guess.

It depends because I know it can be very expensive doing a photoshoot and if you go all the way, it can cost upwards of $10,000, but just knowing where you want to put your money and what's the most important element.

So if you're not having talent, having a great stylist, you can really bring up together the right props and make your product come to life as well.

Some business owners collaborate with influencers and then use the images provided by the influencers. What are the pitfalls when doing this instead of hiring your own photographer and having your own photos?

Prue Aja: I know this is quite a new thing and I guess it's a great way to make social media content, but the pitfalls with that is you're not creating branded imagery that's going to be consistent with everything else that you've got.

And that can be fine for your social media, but putting that on your website or in your marketing material, it's just not going to look really good. It doesn't look like yours. It’s not going to represent your brand as it should.

Firstly, the influencer hasn't got the same vision as you. They're doing things to make them look good, not to make your brand look good.

Then you also risk the photos not being good, and not to mention, there're a lot of people out there with thousands of followers, but with not much engagement.

So if you were going to go down that road, I'd really recommend having a look at other brands that influencers worked with and get in contact with them. Ask those brands “how did it work for you?” Did you see a return on investment? Do the ground work before diving in.

Fernanda: Yeah. I guess your photos are a reflection of your brand and how you want your customers to feel about your product. So the influencer may not reflect your brand in the way you would like your brand to be reflected.

What are your tips for preparing for a photo shoot? What are important things that should be done before a photoshoot that people need to know?

Prue Aja: So having a great vision for your photo shoot. I love using Pinterest for this and collecting references from competitive brands, from other companies that might not have the same product as you, but they're doing their branding really well, or they've done a really cool photo shoot.

It could also be things like nice houses that your customers would like a house like that, or would go on a holiday to a certain destination. So you're creating a vision board altogether, which you can then pull together elements for a photoshoot and then knowing what that vision is.

Have a look for a photographer whose style can really encapsulate what you want to achieve, getting on the phone with them, making sure that you connect with them and they understand your brand. And then from there putting together a really detailed shot list.

Think about where you will use your photos. For example, I want to have a banner image on the home page. We need to have five lifestyle images of each product. We need to have three eCommerce shots in different angles.

So you've got it all laid out and then ready to go. I would put a lot of time into the planning because you don't want to just rock up on the day with your products and expect the photographer to make magic for you.

I actually do that process with my clients. I do a lot of the designing of a photo shoot because sometimes people can't. We have to wear all the hats as a small business, but sometimes you just need someone to help with that part.

So I really love being a part of people's businesses and creating that vision with them.

What are the mistakes people should avoid when planning a photoshoot? What do they struggle the most with?

Prue Aja: Make sure that you're working with a great team of people that are on the same page as you. So they understand the vision of the brand and what you want the outcome to be and not working with a photographer just because they're cheap. Because that's just going to ruin everything.

Probably not planning enough is the greatest mistake. I've actually had a couple of clients come to me and say “I've already done a photo shoot. I didn't get the shots that I want. I'm not happy with them. Now I've got to do it all over again.”

So all those planning steps that I've talked about are crucial to making your investment just perfect, like making your photoshoot come to life and be exactly what you want and need for your brand.

You can connect with Prue Aja on:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/prue_aja_photography/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prueaja/

Website: http://www.prueaja.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrueAjaphoto

If you need help with your strategy or e-commerce sales, get in touch for a complimentary chat with me to see if I’m the right person to help you make your goals a reality. Click here to schedule.

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