Photography
How to brief a photographer so the shoot actually works
The single biggest reason product shoots go over budget and still miss the mark isn't the photographer — it's the brief. Here's how we structure ours.
Most reshoots don't happen because a photographer got it wrong on the day — they happen because nobody agreed on what "right" looked like before the day started. A good brief removes that ambiguity before a single light gets set up.
Start with the use case, not the aesthetic. Where will this image live — a product page, a billboard, an Instagram grid? Cropping, orientation, and even lighting decisions change depending on the answer, and "we'll figure it out in post" is how budgets quietly double.
Bring reference images, but be specific about what you're referencing. "We like the mood of this" is vague; "we want this exact lighting ratio, but with our product's material instead of theirs" gives a crew something to actually execute against.
Agree on the shot list and the deliverable count before the shoot, not after. It's the single biggest source of scope creep we see, and it's completely avoidable with fifteen minutes of planning.
Finally, build in a review checkpoint mid-shoot, not just at the end. Looking at three test frames on a monitor after the first setup catches problems while they're still cheap to fix.
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