There are many industries which are working with photographs in high margins. In the world of digitalization, people are more habituated seeing photographs. Photographs say many things which even words cannot. People these days have become very busy and do not get much time to go to shopping malls and buy products for them physically. They rather prefer sitting home relaxing and shopping online. Lots of e-commerce industries are growing to make the work easy for people who do not have the time to go shopping. They choose shopping from e-commerce websites to get their desired products.
As the e-commerce companies are all about products, product photography plays a very important role in the world of e-commerce. But not always e-commerce companies get lucky about having a perfect product photographer. Perfect photography also makes an impact on boosting the conversion rate of the photos. You need to enquire some basic things about the product photographer. There are some questions you should ask to hire a product photographer to get the best one.
Here is the list of some questions you should ask while hiring a product photographer.
Do You Have a Portfolio?
As a client, when you are hiring a product photographer to take product photos for your e-commerce company or any other, you need to make a list of questions. The first question to ask to hire a product photographer is, is the product photographer has a portfolio or not. Asking about the portfolio is important because you can actually make a judgment about the particular photographer by seeing his photos on the portfolios. You may also ask if they have an official photography page on facebook or instagram or any other social media platform or not. You can decide to an extent if he/she is eligible to work for you as a product photographer or not. Well, the answer of the photographer should likely be a yes as unprofessional cannot be a product photographer. Hence, he/she should must a portfolio.
What Gadgets do you use?
A professional product photographer is supposed to use the best gadgets for clicking a product photographer. This is a very common question to ask a product photographer before hiring which is, ‘What Gadgets does the product photographer use?’ You have to know what camera, lenses, tripods and other important equipment for product photography the photographer uses. You should research about the best gadgets for product photography before asking the question to the photographer you are about to hire. As product photography will happen for commercial use, you cannot risk your business shooting with any outdated gadgets. So it is better to ask this question before hiring the photographer. Just pray that you get a positive reply to your question.
What is the Past Experience of your Product Photography?
A professional photographer is always an experienced one. As you are looking to hire a photographer for a commercial purpose, you definitely cannot choose a photographer who is inexperienced. So the next question to ask while hiring a product photographer should be, ‘What is the experience of his/her photography?’ There are a set of questions you should ask regarding the experience. Which are-
How did you start product photography?
Since how long you have been doing product photography?
Who you worked for in the past/who were your clients?
How many projects you have done (approx.)?
Have you done any course?
Do you have a certificate in photography?
What are some credentials you have?
Do you enjoy working as a product photographer?
So these are some important questions based on a product photographer’s past experience in photography you should ask. Getting answers to these questions, you will get a clear picture of the photographer which will help you to decide whether you should hire the photographer or not.
How much do you Charge?
No photographer works without charge. Isn’t it quite obvious? A professional product photographer usually takes a high price of commercial photo shoots. You should ask the product photographer, ‘How much do they charge for the product photo shoot?’ Different photographers charge differently. Mostly, the renowned photographers charge high due to their perfect work and popularity. There are some photographers who set the package of their charge. As the example, the package may look like this
100 photos cost $100, one photographer
150 photos cost $180 two photographers
200 Photos costs $300 two photographers + turnover in 5 days
The packages may look like this. But different photographers set their packages and prices in different ways. You should compare the prices with other photographers and choose the best one.
Do you have any studio?
Some photographers have their own studios and some not. A client may also not have a studio and a studio is quite an important thing to do product photography. Some photographers start product photography by establishing a photography studio by him/her. So you should ask the photographer if he/she has a studio of her own or not. If the photographer has his/her own studio, it will be a plus point for you. You can just ask him if you can shoot in his/her studio or not. Having a studio also indicates that the photographer is very professional which is very much needed for product photography. But you also need to know ‘what the studio has inside?’
Here are some questions regarding the studio you may ask the photographer.
How big your studio is?
Do you own the studio or it is rental?
What equipment do you have for the photo shoot?
Do you have a proper set of lighting?
Do you have an external background or any lightbox for product photography?
These questions will be better to ask the photographer about the studio. You will get the idea if you should choose the photographer’s studio for your product photography photo shoot or not.
Do you keep Back-up?
While shooting product photography, the photographer may run out of battery. If that happens, both your time and energy get waste. To be on the safer side, the question before hiring a product photographer you should ask is ‘Does the Photographer keep backup plan?’ The answers should likely to be yes from a professional product photographer. You will face a huge mess if the photographer does not have the backup when the battery charge gets down or the shortage of memory of the camera. Having the backup is actually a product photography hack every product photographer should know. As a backup you should have an extra camera, a charger, external memory card etc. to use as backups to save the session of product photography.
What is the Expected Turnaround Time?
If you are running a company where you need product photography, you definitely want your photos from the product photographer as early as the photographer can give. Before hiring the product photographer, you should ask, ‘When can the photographer deliver the photos?’ Or ‘What is the Expected Turnaround Time?’ It is pretty normal that a client will get anxious after the product photography shoot to get the product photos. It is important for the clients to know the exact turnaround time from the photographers. You can also build a trust factor if you get the photos on time.
Do you keep any Copyrights?
Any of the business lacks authenticity without license or agreement. Before going to hire a product photographer you should ask a question which is ‘If the photographer has a license of photography or not?’ If the photographer has the license then it is safer to go to an agreement with him and going for the product photography shooting. Ask the photographer, if he/she keeps the copyrights of the photos or not? To keep your photos safe, ask him to keep the copyrights of the photos so that no one can use your photos without your consent. Make an agreement or contract including the issues you want before the product photography shooting.
How many Photos do you click in a session?
While choosing a product photographer for your commercial product photography, you would definitely want a photographer who will deliver maximum photos to you. You have to ask the question that ‘how many photos does the photographer deliver in a session?’ The money you will spend should worth it right? Ask the question and see how many photos you will get. As per my experience, you will get more photos which you do not include a human model. If you click photos without taking human models, you will get more photos. Because models cost a lot and take more time as well.
Do you Edit Photos?
Photo editing has become a part and parcel of photography. No photos are published without being edited in this digital world. Many people make money with product photo editing only. If you do photography from a photographer and go to photo editing companies for product photo editing, it will cost you high. So the last question to ask before hiring a product photographer should be, ‘if the photographer can edit the photos or not?’ If the answer is yes, then it is a plus point for you. You do not need to go outside and seek help from expensive photo editing companies or individuals.
Conclusion
When you will ask the set of required questions to the prominent candidate of your product photography, if all the answers you get in a positive way, then you will think that you got what you were searching for. Most of the well-known people will suggest you ask these questions to the photographer. This is a process of how to hire a product photographer.
