How to complete thematic commercial photography

Photography is a very complete and purposeful artistic actCommercial photographyFor example, it has a clearer purpose and business attitude. In this, it closely contains the information that the customer wants to convey and the idea that the photographer wants to convey, which can be used as the shooting theme of the photographer. For Taobao product photography, it is more important to endow the product with character, taste and personality, so that the product can resonate with consumers and have a sense of preference. These are also some thematic ideas that photographers need to have when shooting.

1. Understand customer needs

The author has worked in an advertising company for seven years in graphic design and planning, so he has a good understanding of the advertising company’s creative book and other planning plans, so he can also communicate with customers quickly and effectively, understand the customer’s shooting intention, and reach a consensus on opinions, so as to complete the follow-up shooting work well.

Generally speaking, customers often communicate with photographers about product characteristics, selling points and detailed customer group analysis content. If customers have a special advertising company to make a business plan, they will give photographers more detailed picture requirements and tonal references. At this time, as the final executor of this idea, we must do a good job of accurate and effective visual transformation.

It should be noted that while communicating with customers and understanding their needs, we must focus on the three core points mentioned above to spread and check whether our plans are consistent with the needs and creative purposes of the final customers.

（1）Choose the right model. Collect model cards, regardless of the internal model (Chinese model) and external model (foreign model), according to the crowd positioning of the clothing, use words to outline the image of the model, such as appearance, figure, age, temperament and personality characteristics, and send the copy to the broker, and then collect the model information through the broker, summarize and deliver it to the customer for screening, and give their own professional opinions or suggestions. Generally, the number of primary candidates is recommended to be 3-5, To prevent the occurrence of unexpected problems such as schedule connection; At the same time, collect relevant models’ makeup, hairstyle, accessories, actions, emotions and other reference works, and give them to stylists and models for reference and creative understanding, and deliver them to customers for full communication and review.

（2）Collect pictures of relevant scenes, props and accessories for reference according to the clothing style and brand tonality, and make PPT briefings for thematic discussion and communication with customers; After determining the theme direction, accurately screen the case of the scheme and prepare for shooting, including the scene design, quotation, procurement and specific construction plan. The scene design and construction should be reserved for about 3 to 5 days.

（3）According to the brand tonality, clothing fabric style, scene atmosphere and other comprehensive factors, we designed our lighting scheme. The lighting scheme starts with the scene atmosphere, pays attention to the characteristics of the clothing fabric in detail, and prepares a number of temporary fast lighting schemes to respond to different product shooting needs, so as to truly adapt to the commercial use of customers; At the same time, the scene design should take into account that both horizontal and vertical composition shooting can be carried out at the same time, especially the shooting of large horizontal composition scenesCommercial photographyIt is essential that many customers often use the horizontal graphic photography works to make the rotation picture of the network homepage, so the scene design should be large enough to avoid passing through.

Film repair is the final creative implementation link. The most effective way is to find the sample for the artist as a reference, or the photographer himself to repair the sample. This is the safest and most effective way. Then, the repaired PSD format of the multi-layer sample will be handed over to the artist for secondary processing. In addition, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the later film repair work, the raw format must be used for shooting.

2. How to stimulate creative inspiration according to product characteristics

Generally, the characteristics of the product determine our needs for model selection, environment creation and image tonality when shooting. Let’s take the following groups of works as examples to analyze.

This is the 2014 Spring and Summer clothing image film for a domestic clothing brand, including the shooting of underwear and home clothes and other products.

In the following groups of works, different products belong to different styles and consumer groups, so we have also made various adjustments in model selection, environment creation, scene selection and props use.

First, let’s start with the following two works. The products shown in these two pictures belong to mature women’s underwear and home clothes, which mainly emphasize the theme concepts of luxury, sexy and mature charm. So before shooting, we chose a private membership Western restaurant as the shooting venue. The model’s hair style is long hair with large waves and shawls. The light effect of natural light and flash light is used on the cloth light, and natural light is the main light. The tone is soft and comfortable, showing the feminine beauty, At the same time, the luxurious environment implies the class of the consumer group, improves the quality of the product from the atmosphere, gives consumers a sense of personal identity, and stimulates the desire to buy.

The following two groups of works are the shooting of girls’ series products. The style of the pictures is obviously tough, and the sense of the pictures is more youthful and fashionable, showing the vitality and playfulness of girls. The environment color is strong, the model’s mood is high and excited, and the body language is exaggerated. In the scene, we chose a personalized hotel, and used a distinctive red lip phone and color balloons and other props to reflect the publicity and emotional release of young people.

In addition, we also use the sofa round bed on the props to make the user’s consumption environment closely fit with the product itself. In fact, the customer said that he wanted to shoot the picture of the model walking in the forest wearing underwear or home clothes, which was denied by us. The main reason was that the brand positioning and height were not enough, and the integration of the environment and the product was also not good.

Of course, there are also many international famous underwear products, including some scenes like forest, but those are international brands. These products have a high brand tone and consumer price in the eyes of the audience, so we cannot blindly copy fashion without considering the actual height of the brand and the psychological acceptance of the consumer, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the experience of actual consumers.

The main purpose of creating a scene atmosphere is to set off the attributes and uses of the product, and to show the use environment of the product at the same time. Therefore, the selection of the scene should have a certain style and tonality, which can well set off the use atmosphere of the product, and avoid objectivism.

To create a scene, we should first understand the characteristics of the clothing we are shooting and the commercial purpose of the film, and understand whether the purpose of the film is a display film or an image film. The display film is mainly about clothing, while the image film is mainly about brand culture and product connotation. The film positioning is different, and the scene creation is also different.

The following picture is a shot of brand down women’s clothing. The purpose of the shot is to show the clothing style. The picture is mainly about clothing. Therefore, a simple snow scene is built, which belongs to low-cost production, but also clearly expresses the product function and consumption season. The shooting method of this case will be explained in detail later.

This is an image film of e-commerce clothing. The image is positioned at luxury, so the scene selected a model room of a high-end building with gorgeous decoration and transparent lighting. On the props, we purchased many luxury brands’ handbags, leather shoes, necklaces and other luxury goods, and then scattered them all over the floor to create an environment full of all kinds of famous brand products. The model sat on the sofa with no expression, mature curly hair, gorgeous red lips, and every detail revealed an image of a rich woman who loved money, beauty, luxury brands and even some money, The customer wants to convey the luxury of the product through this kind of picture and cater to the current consumer psychology of the public.

Take another look at this work. The shooting of this work chooses a more personalized scene. The gray cement wall and the black iron high chair and leather sofa express the personality, fashion and concise brand attitude and clothing connotation.

The creation of shooting scenes actually involves many aspects, such as color, material, composition and spatial relations. It is technically called “setting the scene”. To implement it, it requires the photographer to have strong practical ability and visual aesthetics.

Therefore, at ordinary times, we should pay attention to collecting scene material pictures and props, and do more scene speculation. At the beginning of the practice, you can imitate some good scene construction, strengthen your hands-on ability, and then try to innovate, and make more changes according to the product itself and customer needs, then you will be handy.

The following series of works show the shooting scenes built by the author according to the material drawings provided by the customer. The customer is making girls’ clothing. Referring to the original picture, a series of Japanese girls’ clothing was shot. During the specific construction, the author mainly used the combination of paper-cut stickers and other elements. In the specific shooting, the combination of multiple elements in a scene is also considered as a group of Taobao clothing works imitated and shot.

The theme of this scene shooting is “the change of the weather”, and the clothing in the whole shooting shows a weather change process from cloudy to rainy and then to rainbow after rain. The elements including clouds, raindrops, trees, grass, kittens, ripples and rainbows are also handmade by the author and other colleagues in the team. In the specific shooting, the makeup and hairstyle will also change with the changes of the scene, especially the model headwear and the stickers on the face.

In cloudy weather, the mood is always happy, so we also pasted cloud stickers on the model’s face during the shooting.

When it rains, the feeling of being in the rain is often very depressing, just like the mood of the model. At the same time, there are ripples on the ground caused by too much water.

If you can take an umbrella, whether it rains or not, you will also be happy and happy. At the same time, the raindrop sticker on your face matches the changes of the scene and the weather, and echoes well with the picture.

After the rain, I finally saw the rainbow, and my happy mood returned, so I couldn’t help dancing.

The theme meaning and scene production of this group of works are actually relatively simple, that is to control the details in all aspects. There is no change in the lighting, but only the scene and shape, as well as the guidance of the characters’ emotions.

3. Prepare more accessories and props

With regard to the selection of accessories and props required for commercial clothing portrait shooting, here we take men’s clothing as an example. According to the style, wearing environment and wearing season of men’s clothing, we can divide men’s clothing into multiple series, such as business leisure series, business travel series and mature men’s series, and prepare various props for the consumer groups and consumption environment of each series to set off, such as travel satchels, business handbags, trolley cases, umbrellas, books, outerwear sweaters, sunglasses, glasses and square scarves, etc, In addition, the props should be further screened and matched according to the different choices of clothing, such as color, style and overall tonality, so that the images created by each series of product photography are more consistent with the product tonality, and ensure that the brand concept is rich and full.

We often say, “Selling products is also selling a way of life.” This sentence is especially applicable to the clothing industry. People of different occasions, regions and ages have different needs for clothing all year round.

The following group of pictures shows the shooting of the 2015 spring and summer men’s clothing series for the domestic famous brand Hengyuanxiang Hubei General Agent Tmall store.

Hengyuanxiang has always been a well-known brand in China, and is also an old brand. In Tmall, agents all over the country have their own stores, but they sell the same clothes. Before shooting, we had a very detailed communication and product analysis with customers, and finally determined the product positioning and shooting direction, in order to have a unique product positioning and visual separation in the huge “Hengyuanxiang family”.

I remember that at that time, our positioning language for customers was “classic renaissance”. Heng Yuanxiang has always been a consumer group aged between 35 and 60 years old. The group is positioned as a mature group, and the style and fabric of clothing are also relatively conservative and old-fashioned. In the face of such positioning, many commercial photographers are easy to take pictures of aging, but also lack the quality of products and the temperament of models, which is quite different from the brand concept.

In the face of these problems, we boldly put forward the idea of “rejuvenation” to customers. Even though the product has not changed greatly, we also try to improve the quality of the product visually and control the tone of the product. Nowadays, with the popularity of the topic of “reverse age”, many older people also want to look younger than their actual age. This is the change of the times. So we should also grasp these changes and try to give customers bolder suggestions and solutions visually.

It has to be said that the choice of models often determines the key to the success of the whole shooting. Therefore, for all such important shooting projects, the author will interview models with clients. In terms of model selection for this group of Hengyuanxiang clothing products, whether it is facial features, age, figure, or temperament, it is very close to the actual situation and brand concept of the brand.

In the use of props during the shooting of this group of works, the author does not want to emphasize the particularity of these props too much, but wants to emphasize the preliminary preparation of some props, that is, whether there is a list of these props in your photography plan, which is not detailed and comprehensive enough. Before shooting, the performance of these details should be planned together to avoid temporary matching at the shooting site, otherwise it is easy to cause chaos in time and progress when shooting at the scene. As for the men’s bag used in the shooting of this group of cases, at that time, we prepared a total of more than ten items, ranging from handbags, handbags, leisure satchels, business handbags, backpacks, and even trolley cases.

TIPS：

On the day of thematic shooting, the photography plan can be printed in two copies, one for the photographer and one for the customer, and then the whole shooting can be carried out directly according to the plan, and all reference pictures can be printed and cut out before shooting, and put on the shooting site for all the main creators to use and reference at any time.

The photographer should decide whether to adopt the customer’s temporary requirements according to the on-site progress. If the customer’s temporary requirements are too many, it may seriously affect the overall quality and progress of the shooting, so he should have the courage to refuse to ensure that the shooting can proceed smoothly and effectively, and finally complete the shooting.