You can increase your photo studio productivity and photo shoot effectiveness to make the most of your project, and benefit your business.
Decrease your cost per image
Increase your sales
Product returns or subject editing reduces
Here are our Silo Studios top tips to help improve your photo studio production.
1. Maximise your photo studio work space
It is difficult to be productive working in a tight or cramped studio space. When you are planning your photo shoot project make sure you have more than enough space.
We recommend sketching out your ideal studio space beforehand. Calculate the square footage needed, and more often than not, double it! More space equals more effective production.
There are multiple factors that will impact your space:
Photography equipment - consider photography table, lighting, backdrops, props and specialist equipment if needed.
Preparation - products and subjects require prep, consider the size of the product/subject, packaging, assembly, cleaning and makeup etc.
Staging - An effective workflow, pre planning your day or time if essential to make use of all your time.
2. Hire photography studio helpers
Photographer helpers and runners have a great impact on productivity and efficiency of your project. The most expensive resource if often the photographer, the more time they spend taking photos, the better. If the photographer is left waiting, production time is lost.
Bring in photographer helpers that know about the project and have prior product or subject knowledge, this can be invaluable. Bring helpers that are organised and self sufficient, ensure they know what they are responsible for. The must be a fast worker, and work unsupervised, moving on multiple tasks throughout a shoot. They also need to be a good communicator, and be in good communication with the photographer.
3. Develop efficient workflows
Efficiently is critical to a photo shoot. Ensure everyone is aware of the objective and the process. Schedule any products or props to arrive early, and group things into categories to help the photographer setup with the constant need to adjust cameras or lights.
Ensure there is a constant communication flow between the helper(s) and photographer. While the photographer is shooting, what shot is up next? The helper should be helping to prepare the next shot.
Ensure you have an effective method to record products/subjects numbers and images, as they are photographed. Anyone who has been involved in production product photography knows that manually recording product numbers and image views into a spreadsheet is time consuming and error-prone. Using photography workflow software to determine image views, associating images to products/subjects, recording, saving, backing up and uploading for editing can all be extremely helpful.
4. Use effective lighting techniques
Experienced photographers know how to adjust their lights quickly from product to product and image to image. Less lighting adjustments means more photography production.
Photographers that are good at lighting also know how to light subjects from all angles – top, sides, and bottom. Images that are captured using good lighting have minimal shadows and are much faster to edit in post production.
