Product and pack shot photography remains a specialist area that I enjoy fulfilling as a photographer here in Durban.
Over the years I have refined my technique of doing pack shots and I have a pricing system I work off that I think is the fairest to both myself and my customers. Basically it works like this:
If your product is small enough to fit on my shooting table (less than 50cm cubed) and it is a single item, the price for a single shot is R65. I have a minimum order of 10 photos per shoot so that it is a worthwhile exercise for me. The processing on this type of shot is fairly straight forward. I burn the white of the background to pure white while leaving a natural shadow in place (if there is one). This makes the image blend nicely into a white background e commerce website. Usually it takes me a few minutes to process each image, provided there aren’t too many complex edges and the item isn’t translucent (or white itself). Deep etching, or in understandable language the cutting out of the item from it’s background so that it can be super-imposed on another background, is the other processing option I offer, but that is billed for separately as it’s quite labour intensive. The cost of that all depends on how long it takes to do each item. Some are quick and easy, but others are agonisingly slow.
If the product is made up of more than one part and requires some kind of assembly the price for the photo goes up to R110 each. The reason for this is because it takes more time to set up multiple items and also requires a modification to the standard lighting I use for single items. Processing has the same options.
When it comes to creative product photography I move out of this pricing model and each shoot needs to be properly specified and planned to meet the customer’s expectation. Usually pricing a creative product shoot is based on how much time it will take to do and if any other costs are involved, such as hiring equipment, models, make-up artists, stylists, etc. Time and materials. Obviously creative commercial shoots can get quite expensive depending on the level of production involved.
The pack shot work I do is mostly for businesses who sell online using either their own websites or established platforms like Amazon.com or bidorbuy. Here are a few examples of recent work I have done.
