How to Select a Product Photography Service Provider: 11 Pro Tips

1. Check Out Previous Customer Experience

In the case of product photography service, you must check out the previous customer’s review. Places such as Google Business Review and social media pages are great options to find out customers’ reviews. Along with these mediums, sites like Trustpilot are a great source to measure the reliability of the business.

You may find some bad reviews, but it’s a green signal if most of the ratings are positive. Make sure you compare the ratings between different platforms. I will provide you with the best perspective to choose the best photography service, provider.

2. Verify Their Portfolio

When choosing a product photography service provider, you need to get into their portfolio. It would offer you a brief idea of which products they are best at. Checking into the portfolio gives a strong hint about the quality you will get in the upcoming photos.

If you are not finding the portfolio images you want, reach out to them. For example, you might need canned food photographs, but it’s not in their portfolio. Ask them if they have any or related product images. They would be more than happy to show you the samples. Here we have listed some creative product photography ideas for your images, by using these methods you can give an uncommon look to your products.

3. If They Have Hidden Charges

It’s most likely you would stumble upon product photography studios that have hidden charges, which is why, before getting into a contract, ask if they have any hidden charges. If the studio has any hidden charges, ask them to explain the cost in detail. It would help you to better negotiate the pricing.

As a name of hidden charges, studios might charge you for post-production, delivery, file hosting, and so on, so it would be wise to list all the hidden charges. Or you might want to go for a photography service provider which doesn’t have any kind of hidden charge at all.  you can check this article for a better understanding of Product Photography Cost

4. Ask On Their Refund Policy

What if the files the photography studio sends you are not up to the standard? For these sorts of situations, you need to negotiate beforehand. When you are verifying the services of the product photography studio, ask for their refund policy. It makes everything smoother.

Most of the time, the photography studio re-takes the photo you are not happy with. At the rest of the photography studio, they offer you a refund at a fixed price. It’s a must for you as product photographs don’t always come as expected. It’s better to talk about the refund policy to avoid any confusion.

5. As If They Offer On-Site Photography

When you have hundreds, not thousands of products, sending up these products is impossible. In such cases, you need on-site photography. But, not all photography service providers support on-site services. Perhaps you must check out if they have an on-site photography service or not.

When considering on-site photography, the photography service provider may take extra charges. Nonetheless, the following feature is not mandatory for small scale product photography. Like, you could have studio photography for shippable products. 

6. Pricing

Pricing of the product photography service is one of the crucial aspects. Yet, the pricing packages can be a lot different from each other. Many photography studios like to charge hourly or per image-based. When you have a bulk order, consider talking with them for discounts on the total order.

Photographers may charge around $40 per 50 – 100 images when deciding on the pricing. On the other hand, for bulk orders like 1,000 or more images, the per-image cost can come down to $25 or lower, so it’s recommended to compare several service providers before getting into a contract.

7. Project Access Via Online

When working on bulk product photography projects, online monitoring becomes essential. Many remote photography studios use PMS (Production Management Software) to provide real-time access. In these platforms, you get to monitor each of the recent photos of the pipeline.

sIt also makes it easier for you to check the progress of the project. Hence, you could monitor if the project is going according to your plan. The service provider must have a decent FTP service to let you access their file anytime. Thus, it makes life easier for you and the service provider.  

8. Digital Asset Management

The following services are a must for high quantity images. Without a proper Digital Asset Management solution, it may become hard to manage files. It’s not mandatory, but having these kinds of services improves the flow of the tasks a lot easier.

Studios with better digital asset management provide you with great ease of work. Also, it ensures your file is safe and easy to access even after completing the process. Thus, check if the service provider has any asset management platform. 

9. Look For Additional Services

As an additional service, these could be eCommerce photo retouching, Hard drive delivery, etc. When looking for similar services, visit their website. When you don’t find out the exact service, knock at them for the specific service.

Hence, it’s better to accept that all photography services are not available in one studio. Finding a full-fledged studio is a bit hard as well. You may need to hire multiple studies for these specific tasks in these cases. Meanwhile, it might increase your overall photography project cost as well. 

10. Schedule A Call

Product photography studios always have their phone number listed on the website. Hop into their website footer and list out their number. Take spare time and schedule a call with them. Talking with them would free up a lot of ideas. Further down the road, they might agree to have a zoom call.

Over the call session, you might want to ask about their service and how they approach it. The call shouldn’t have to be about the project. You might start the conversion by complimenting some of the portfolio work. As a result, it would make the call more engaging, and you get to extract further detail about the workflow.

11. Ask For Free Trial

When you are skeptical about hiring eCommerce product photography services, ask for free trials. Many large-scale photography studios would provide you with a free trial for initial testing. Hence it’s better to inform them about your future projects if they meet your expectations. 

One of the best ways to check for a free trial is to visit their website. Studies that don’t have free trial features might need a bit of discussion. Simply you could inform about your upcoming projects and ask for a free trial. They would most likely agree to offer you a free trial.