In this post, I hope to give some insight into the life of a freelance product photographer for all those considering it. Prior to spending the day with Marion, I hadn’t really considered adding product photography to my own portfolio as its own distinct strand, even though I had done a fair few shoots featuring products in the past. After making the above video and spending the day in Marion’s studio watching her work, I was so intrigued watching the technicalities behind it and I had to share the top 5 things I learned with you all. This is one of those projects that really taught me a lot in its creation!
1. Contracts – This may be an obvious one to some but it was something I hadn’t yet put into practice myself. Put a contract together before you start the work! Down the line, you’ll avoid image manipulation against your consent, define how the images can be used and will prevent you from working way overtime on projects as well as a bunch of other inconveniences. Signatures of understanding before you begin the work will save you a headache in the long run. It will also ensure you get paid!
2. Why the things you learned in art school are important – Think back to all those world-famous paintings you had to study in school, where you were constantly asking yourself what the meaning of it all was and why it was worth studying – composition is the answer! The devil is in the details, and applying the artistic rules of framing, layout and colour theme to your shoots will go a long way. Think about how your object interacts with the elements around it.
3. It’s just you and the product – The main thing I loved about shadowing Marion was the lack of people and distraction. Don’t get me wrong the majority of my content involves working with models or a small team of people (I focus a lot on portrait photography) however there was something so calming about fewer people to run artistic decisions through and just focusing on the product.
4. If you get paid for it you can teach it – If you’ve never thought of workshops maybe you should. Marion mentioned to me that this line was said to her, which is the reason she went on to do workshops. I for one love teaching and definitely want to branch out further into that field, for now, I’ve been sticking to my Adobe YouTube tutorials (shameless plug) but I would 100% consider passing your skillset on through workshops if you hadn’t considered it already.
5. Learn from the experts – If you’re like me and you’re in the early stages of your freelance career, I urge you to reach out to people already in your industry and enquire if you can shadow them or just talk to them about things you may have concerns about. There are always things you don’t know and it may just be one tip or trick that saves you a lot of time further down the line and helps you improve your practice. Just remember though, not everyone has time to give away so don’t be disheartened if you get rejected!
Finally, thank you so much Marion for letting me shadow you for the day! I learned a ton and I would absolutely recommend other freelancers starting out to go and talk to industry experts in their field!
Find Marion Here and @marionbotellaphoto
Featuring artwork by @nolaseanstudio
By Laurelle