How Our Remote Product Photo Shoots Work
After years of working with product brands across the country, I’ve heard just about every version of the same story.
A founder needs photos for the product launch. They find someone offering a quick turnaround at a low price, ship their products off, cross their fingers… and then comes the panicked email. The gallery lands the week before launch and it’s not even close to what they needed. The lighting is flat, the angles are wrong, nothing matches the brand and the quality of the product they’ve worked so hard to build.
What those shoots had in common? No real process or strategy. The products were shipped and hope was the strategy.
Remote product photography works best when it’s treated with exact same planning process as an in-person shoot. The only real difference is that you don’t have to sit in a studio watching us photograph every SKU from every angle all day. You can pop in on Zoom for an efficient review, share your feedback, and get back to running your business.
Everything else? Same process, same creative direction, same results… whether you’re down the street, or across the country.
Here’s exactly how our remote product shoots work
Step 1: Deep-Dive Strategy Before Anyone Picks Up a Camera
We start with a detailed onboarding questionnaire that gets into the specifics of your brand, your products and your priorities for how you’ll use the photos. From there, we connect on a creative strategy call to align on direction and build out your shot list together.
That shot list isn’t just a list of angles. It comes with a full mood board and covers every single setup we’ll capture, from the overall look and feel down to the practical usage logistics. That includes the right blend of dimensions so you’re covered everywhere: wide web banners, narrow social posts, square product tiles, retail-ready white backgrounds. We think through how you’ll actually use these images before we pick up a camera.
We also handle all pre-production that’s needed during this stage…. prop sourcing, talent casting, surface and background selection. Before anything is ordered or booked, you’ll receive everything for review and have the chance to give feedback. By the time shoot day arrives, you’ll know exactly what to expect, and you can trust that every photo is built for your brand. No surprises, no more “fingers crossed” moments.
This is the same process we follow for every client, whether they’re walking through our studio door in Boulder, or shipping products from across the country.
Step 2: Ship Your Products (or Drop Them Off if You’re Local)
Once your creative plan is approved, we’ll send you a list of exactly what we need: which products, how many units and how to get them to us in shoot-ready condition. Based in Boulder or Denver? You’re welcome to drop off in person at our Boulder studio. Shipping from elsewhere? We make it simple, and can return them as soon as we’re wrapped, too.
From the moment your products land with us, we take it from there.
Step 3: Shoot Day to Bring the Plan to Life with Live Zoom Check-In
By shoot day, the major creative decisions have already been made together and approved by you. We’re not winging it or making things up as we go, we’re working from the plan you’ve already given the green light.
If you’d like to be looped in during the shoot, we’ll often hop on a Zoom early in the day to review the first few setups together. Because we get it, sometimes you need to actually see the visuals and how your products are showing up on camera to give useful feedback, and we’d rather build that in up front. Share your thoughts, flag any adjustments and then get back to your day.
Our clients are typically busy founders and marketers. They don’t want to watch us replicate every shot across every SKU in real time, they want to check in efficiently and trust the rest to us.
Need more check-in time throughout the day, or would rather just have us run with it? We can arrange that too. The level of involvement is entirely up to you.
Step 4: Review, Edit and Deliver
After the shoot, we send over a preview gallery with numerous options for you to choose from. This is the final layer of creative direction, where you can decide which images are just right and note any edits you’d like added to the pots-production mix, too.
Once selects are made, we retouch and deliver your final images through an easy-to-download gallery, properly sized and ready to go across each marketing channel: web, ads, retail, press, social and beyond.
Red Flags to Watch For When Hiring a Remote Product Photographer
Not all remote product photo shoots are created equal. Before you ship your products anywhere, here’s what to watch out for…
You can’t get in front of the actual photographer or shoot day team
If you’re only ever communicating with a generic inbox or salesperson… and have no idea who will actually be behind the camera, that’s a problem. You should be able to speak directly with the creative team shooting your products, ask questions and feel confident they understand your brand before shoot day.
The extra low price makes you do a double-take
Everybody loves a good deal, especially founders who have poured a big budget into bringing their products to life. But finding a price that makes you think “there’s no way this is real” usually means something is missing, and what’s missing is almost always the process.
Strategy, pre-production, creative direction, real communication are the pieces that make or break your photos. Extremely low prices mean corners are cut somewhere. Don’t find out where on the week of your launch.
There’s no clear timeline or process outlined from the start
Deadlines are everything when you’re launching a product. If a photographer can’t tell you exactly what happens when (kickoff, shot list approval, shoot date, delivery) that’s a sign the backend is disorganized. Every step and every date should be confirmed at kickoff… you don’t want to push back your launch due the delay of your essential photos. Because you can’t sell if you don’t have PDP photos.
Their portfolio looks a little… generic
If you scroll through their work and every brand looks the same (same angles, same lighting, same generic style regardless of what the product actually is), there’s no real creative direction happening. Great product photography should feel distinct to each brand, even your most simple e-commerce shots. Nailing the right lighting and angles in e-comm photos emphasizes quality, for a more confident add-to-cart. Your photos should represent your brand, not what every other brand is doing.
Looking for Support with Photos for Your CPG Brand?
At Putnam Creative, we specialize in product photography for consumer brands, from your first launch shoot to building out a full visual library as you grow. Whether you need classic product shots, lifestyle imagery, founder portraits or all of the above, we'll help you show up with a cohesive, brand-right look from day one.
Explore our services for product brands >
Photos captured for Wangi, a Colorado-based brand for wellness shower mists
