Testing, pt. II
Testing isn’t limited to website design — I try to do at least one day of test shooting each week. Sometimes it results in a portfolio piece, but I’m usually playing around in my home studio, trying new ideas with lighting or post-processing without an expectation that it’ll be viewed by anyone other than myself, or maybe my close circle of fellow photographers and artists for some feedback.
It’s a great opportunity to work on motion, which is becoming increasingly important to my small business clients. With Instagram prioritizing reels and the eye-catching nature of video clips, it’s a necessary part of my work. I’m even making headway with Premiere Pro, and hardly ever want to throw things anymore while I’m using it!
Since this hobby of mine became my career, it’s too easy to get lost in the business end and forget what drove me to pursue it in the first place. Testing reignites my sense of fun and passion for photography and helps me to level-up — benefiting me and future clients.
I went into this round of test shooting with a specific goal in mind: to visually duplicate the experience of drinking Flora Hemp. It’s THC- and CBD-infused, and really packs a punch, so I knew my still image was going to be a little hazy, and more emotionally-driven than the straightforward product photography my clients usually want — definitely more of a lifestyle image than a selling one. Playing off the branding, I created a set of flowers for the background, and made a fun video as well before I sampled the merchandise.
And then there’s Mugler’s Alien perfume, a favorite test subject of mine when I’m noodling around with new lighting setups. The bottle’s facets and shiny curved surfaces do wonderful things to the light and allow for a level of expression a more basic shape wouldn’t. I wanted to play with hard light, longer exposures and light trails here just to see how they’d work in the context of a product shoot. While none of these images is even close to portfolio-worthy, the shoot gave me a lot of good ideas to build on in the future.
Do you own a small business whose product and lifestyle photos could use a refresh? I’d love to chat with you about it! Just click the button below to get in touch.
