Mastering Lifestyle Product Photography: Tips, Ideas, and FAQs

Lifestyle Product photography is a type that captures products in naturalistic settings. This style of product photography can have a significant effect in advertising and marketing, as it helps potential customers visualize how the product might fit into their own lives. In other words, it is all about creating those real-life-focused product photos with the help of various tools that will help you stand out in your products on a store shelf.

5 Types of Lifestyle Photography

1. Everyday Lifestyle Photography

Lifestyle photography captures people in their everyday lives unlike typical photography where you catch too many objects. It can be UNIQUE and effective. Many times I get pictures that are more than what I expect. This could be families spending time together, couples out on a date, or anything in between. The key is to capture the perfect position of genuine emotions and interactions during these moments.

2. Urban Lifestyle Photography

Urban lifestyle photography can be used to capture the beauty of city life and everything associated with the urban area. Urban lifestyle photography often captures the energy and excitement of city life. It also showcases the unique style and culture found in cities.

3. Outdoor Lifestyle Photography

Outdoor lifestyle photography is about capturing people in natural settings and environments. It is a genre that combines portraiture, fashion, and landscape photography elements. In addition, outdoor lifestyle photography often features models or subjects engaged in activity or sport. Outdoor lifestyle photography is appealing because it can show freedom and adventure. People who look at the pictures can feel like they are there. This happens when you take pictures of people doing things outside, which seems fun.

4. Still Life Product Photography

Still lifestyle product photography is somewhat special. There is a genre known as “life” or still life pictures in photography. This type of product lifestyle photography features an object without any people in them – they’re just about things like flowers and fruit. It’s important to make your photography look interesting and creative. You also need to think about how you want it lit so that viewers can enjoy watching the content without any problems.

5. Portrait Photography

Portrait photography is a lifestyle product image that captures a person or group’s likeness, personality, and mood. Usually, portrait photos are taken with permission from the people being photographed. However, they are often requested by the people in the photos. Portrait images can be done in different settings, like studios, homes, workplaces, and outdoors. Sometimes people have portrait images taken at special events like weddings or graduations. For example, you can use a simple point-and-shoot camera or a more expensive digital SLR camera with studio lighting gear.

Pros and Cons of Lifestyle Product Photography

Pros:

Lifestyle product photography is fun and a creative thing. Lifestyle product photography is a compelling way to show your products interestingly and excitingly. It can promote your products or simply capture your brand’s feelings. Lifestyle product images are great because they do not have to be perfect. I believe imperfection is perfection in some angles and contexts. For example, imperfections such as not using the right props or tools for capturing the images can make for more exciting and compelling photos. Lifestyle product photography gives life to your products. Lifestyle product photography can make products look like they are part of someone’s life. Consequently, people can see how the product might fit into their lives. It changes their context as the product tells them the brand story. So, the creatively captured image can help you promote your brand name to potential customers. Lifestyle product photography gives you more control. When you take pictures of products, you are in control. You can style the products however you like and shoot them in any setting. This makes lifestyle product photography a great way to show off your creative side and produce some truly beautiful photos and images.

Cons:

Lifestyle product photography is time-consuming. One downside of product photography is that it can take time. First, you have to set up the product for each shot and ensure good lighting. This is because a good light source is much needed on top of good backgrounds, such as a white background. Then you have to take a photo. If you have a lot of products to photograph, it can be a lot of work. So, despite the positive overall vibe here, you should also note the downsides. It is quite challenging. This sort of photography helps you capture lifestyle product photos of various products like skincare products, beauty products, technological products, etc., in their natural environment. This can be difficult because the photographer has to control the shot’s light, composition, and angle while taking the picture on the given shoot day. So, capturing the best frame for a product photo can be challenging.

7 Ideas for Lifestyle Product Photography

1. Consider Hiring a Model

It is important to hire a model that suits your brand’s aesthetic. Hiring professional models is one renowned way to enhance your brand’s image. This way you will be able to do the right branding of your products and target the right audience and customers. When you upload your brand’s story through some creative images (featuring a model) on your business website, you will get that push in brand awareness and sales.

2. Snap from Unusual Angles

Your lifestyle product photography can stand out by taking photos from unusual angles. I have always tried random pictures. These give a realistic image with many EFFECTS. This will give your photos a unique edge and help you capture the essence of your products in new and exciting ways. You should have a good idea of various camera settings as a photographer to be able to capture a well-lit image. This way your customers would get that true inspiration. Snapping from different angles is about changing the context and telling a story differently.

3: Product Focus Is Important

When photographing products for lifestyle photography, it is important to focus on the product itself. This means that the main subject of your photography is your product. By keeping your photos simple and clean, you will be able to showcase the product photo in the best possible way.

4. You May Use Props

There are many tutorials on taking good lifestyle product photos, but one thing that is often overlooked is using props. Some props may require some space, so ensure that your lifestyle product photography setup has enough space and natural lighting. The use of props will also give some space to your professional models for posing the best possible shot. If you are selling lifestyle products, using props can help your lifestyle photos look more interesting and relatable. In addition, this will help people understand what your product is and how it can be used.

5. Use Natural Lighting the Right Way

When taking product photos, you should think about lighting. You want to make sure your products look their best, and the best way to do that is by using natural light. In this regard, I find a place with a lot of natural light. Natural light is THE BEST OPTION. This could be near a window or outside in an open area with plenty of direct sunlight; once you have found your spot, set up your products to face the light source. This will ensure that they are evenly lit and looking their best. Note that direct sunlight may not suit your type of desired lifestyle images. So, you have to be careful.

6. Right Use of Color Psychology Can Make the Difference

The colors you choose for your lifestyle product photography can influence how people perceive your products. For example, if I intend to feel relaxed, I should use blue tones. Other colors work for other purposes. Moreover, if you’re going to create a feeling of excitement, you might use reds and oranges. So, your final image should reflect the right color psychology.

7. Do not forget the Basics

You should not forget the photography basics, no matter which product you want to shoot for. For instance, framing the subject and the proper use of lighting should not be an issue for you.

6 Tips on Product Photography for Shopify Stores

1. Know Your Target Audience

It is important to know your target audience. This will help you figure out what kind of products to photograph, style them, and market your photography. With this approach, you can set the context of your product photography shots.

2. Product Knowledge Is Must

For the best lifestyle product photoshoot, it is important to understand your photographing products. This will assist you in capturing the best images of the products and help your clients sell them effectively.

3. Importance of Framing

There are a few things I want you to keep in mind. For instance, framing. It is imperative. There are a few things to keep in mind when taking pictures of products. Framing or choosing the right frame is one of the most important aspects because it can make or break the photo. It also helps you stay focused throughout the shoot. No matter how much-styled scene you want to capture, the framing element must be correct. Therefore, for a creative photo or an amazing product shoot, you have to adjust the aspects like frame, light, and background.

4. Play With Depth of Field

When taking photos of lifestyle products, do not be afraid to experiment with your depth of field. This will help you to create different effects in your photos. Depth of field is how blurry or clear the background is in the final image. The best way to get a great, clear photo is by using the right settings on your camera. Shallow DOF will make everything in front of you stand out while keeping things backlit or side-lit more blurry; deep shots show all details clearly no matter how far away they are from our subject’s perspective because there isn’t any distortion caused by focusing constraints like hyper-focused (which can cause subjects foregrounds to become distorted).

5. Take Multiple Shots

Lifestyle product photography is all about capturing the feeling and emotion of a product. It’s about making the viewer feel like they could use the product in their everyday lives. Take photos from a plethora of angles. I do the same. Take multiple shots. Filter out the best ones. This will help you capture the true feeling of the product.

6. Time to Polish the Captured Shots

The editing process or the post-production is as essential in lifestyle product photography as the shooting process. To edit lifestyle product photos, you can use any post-production software. You may take photographs from good to fantastic by carefully editing your images. You can improvise the aesthetics of product photos by adjusting the white balance or saturation and changing the focus or simply adjusting the focus. So, there are many options here. First, you have to choose the right approach to edit lifestyle product photos for your brand name.

FAQs about lifestyle product photography

Which is the best choice for lifestyle and product photography?

Lifestyle and product photography give you enough room to bring some innovative ideas to reality. On the other hand, product photography uses photography hacks to shoot product images. The choice is yours.

How to take lifestyle product photos?

• Find a location for your photo that looks natural.
• Use props in your photo that make your product look stylish.
• Make sure the lighting is consistent throughout the photo.
• Capture the photo from various angles to give the viewer a complete picture.

Why is lifestyle imagery important?

It is important because it helps you relate your product to a real-life scenario. So, in simple words, it lets you uniquely showcase your products.

How much is a lifestyle product photoshoot?

It depends on many factors, such as your marketing strategy and your product lineup. However, if you hire someone such as a model, they may charge anywhere from $150 per hour to $300 per hour to shoot lifestyle product photography.

What’s Next

So, now you know pretty much all about lifestyle product photography. There is no doubt about the room product lifestyle photography gives you to get creative with your product shots. These valuable tips help you start lifestyle product photography with all the tools you need. So, go ahead and try your luck in photography. With experimentation and little practice, you will be able to ace what you desire in the field of photography. If you want to take your lifestyle product photography to the next level, contact us. We have got the right solutions to help you.