When trying to scale their product photography business and take it to the next level, many photographers often set a single focus on the wrong priorities such as only creating a pretty picture or putting more work into marketing than any other aspect of their business. However, a pretty picture will only get you so far, and a balance in other areas, such as an efficient workflow and a competitive edge, is necessary to elevate a stagnant product photography business. With its variety of benefits, tethered photography can help accomplish this and more, making it the key to scaling your product photography business and creating growth opportunities.
How Tethered Shooting Can Scale Your Product Photography Business
While there are many benefits to a tethered workflow, here are five ways tethered photography can help scale and grow your product photography business.
1. More higher-quality images in fewer frames
When you implement a tethered photography workflow, you are able to view your images on a much larger screen while shooting than if you were reviewing the images on a small camera screen. This allows you to check with more accuracy for things such as focus, color, exposure, composition, and the minute details of your subject and make any necessary adjustments in the moment if needed. As a result, fewer image captures may be necessary which can save you a substantial amount of time during a photo shoot.
One of the useful features of Smart Shooter tether capture software for product photography is the multi-loupe view, which allows you to check multiple points of focus all at once.
2. Faster workflow
Tethering not only saves you time by eliminating image transfers from memory card to computer, but it also prevents the disaster of having to reshoot altogether due to potential image loss from a corrupt memory card. In a tethered workflow, you also have the ability to concurrently back up your images to an external hard drive as well as a remote location if you’re using a watched folder setup.
If you have many similar products that you need to photograph on the same background and you demand a consistent appearance of placement, you can achieve this by utilizing the overlay mode in Smart Shooter. This handy feature allows you to photograph your initial product, enable Live View mode, reduce the opacity of the image, swap in a different product on the same background in the same place, revert opacity back to the image, disable Live View mode, and take your next shot. Overlay mode is a time saver for a product photographer, especially when shooting high-volume e-commerce photos.
To accommodate large volume production, you’ll need to adopt systems and processes that create a seamless experience for customers and ultimate efficiency for your business. Automation is key in a high-volume product studio. Considerations include how products are received and handled internally between staff, how quickly you can capture the requested images, and how to further streamline the process to finalize the images and deliver them in the shortest amount of time to your clients for their e-commerce and marketing needs. Tethered shooting allows for a more robust setup, where you can utilize Smart Shooter to fire multiple cameras simultaneously in order to get all of the angles of a product you need at once.
Additionally, e-commerce customers increasingly look for 360 visuals when evaluating products. Companies like Snap36 are distributors of product photography kits and rigs that enable photographers to capture 360 degree product imagery with ease and efficiency, regardless of the size and scope of their studio.
3. Less time in post-production
Let’s face it: Post-production can occupy a great deal of time if you find problems with your images after your photo shoot. When you implement a tethered workflow, review details on a larger screen for accuracy, identify image problems, and make the necessary adjustments, you are more likely getting more images right during capture. Achieving these more high-quality images during your photo shoot can cut your post-production time down.
4. Enhanced client experience
When a client cannot attend the shoot in person, tethering allows you to not only share your images with those on set but also with a client who attends remotely by shooting directly into a watched folder. This provides an opportunity for you to gather input from the client as to whether you are capturing their vision of their product and brand so you can make any necessary adjustments during the photo shoot. It also gives clients a preview of what the resulting images will look like so that there are no big surprises when they are delivered.
5. Improved professional image
As a product photographer, your product image results are not the only image to think about when working to scale and grow your product photography business. You need an edge. When you have an efficient tethered workflow in place with the right gear and you provide a great experience, this can help improve your professional image with your client which, in turn, can lead to more work and even referrals.
How You Can Take Your Product Photography Business to the Next Level
There are many benefits to tethered photography and several ways it can help scale and grow your product photography business. Tethering can provide higher-quality images with less time in post-production, a faster workflow, a more enhanced client experience, and an improved professional image. All you need to do is get started. Learn more about how tethered photography can benefit you by downloading our guide, The Product Photographer’s Guide to Tethering.
