For project two, I decided to put what I had learned from Joe McNally to the test by creating a marketing campaign to sell a product. I had previously been asked to shoot the product photos for a game my colleagues created here in college called Drunk Stoned or Stupid, but declined the job because I did not feel as though I had nearly enough experience in product photography to make good work. Once I began viewing these tutorials, I felt like I could at least take a jab at it but since it was for a class I told them I would do it pro bono.
I started off by meeting with the creators of the game to figure out what exactly they were looking to do. What they wanted was simple; capture product shots of the game that could be used online and in stores to the sell the product. The video I had watched on F-stoppers was a perfect segue into this as it told me exactly what tools I needed in order to create these shots.
I went to the local Home Depot and bought some reflective foam board to take place of the bounce board McNally used simply because of the cheaper price. Once the word photography is thrown into the mix, the price of items seems to skyrocket and I feel you could get the same quality materials and build them yourself to save money. As for the key light, I already had one in my own possession so I didn't need to worry about that. I got a table from my home and covered it with some of the seamless backdrop paper I already owned and placed the products on top of it.
The initial shots of the game seemed to be exactly what I thought the creators wanted, being clean and straightforward but when I showed them, the reactions weren't so great. They wanted to see more of the product in detail such as an unopened game that still had shrink-wrap as well as an opened game where you could see the layout of the cards in more detail. So, I went back and reshot with these notes and these are what I came up with:
I was really pleased with the way the final products turned out and how excited the creators were to be able to finally have product images of their work. The coolest thing about this product and its outcome was how fast the images were integrated into the selling process. The creators had the images uploaded to site of the popular gag store, Spencer's Gifts, within two days of the finished images. They later told me that their sales increased over 70% once they had quality photos of their game on the site and I was proud to see my hard work actually making a difference. Seeing my work in a real life situation like this really intrigued me and made me excited to see what other types of product work I could see myself doing in the future.
