What is Lifestyle Product Photography

Showcasing your products is one of the most important challenges of modern marketing. You need your customers to understand exactly what you’re offering, but plain product photos don’t always do the trick. Lifestyle product photography is all about showing your product in action. It’s a great way of capturing stylish, professional photos of your products that also tell customers about your brand and story. In this article we’re going to dive deeper into lifestyle product photography and how businesses use it to improve their advertising campaigns.

Lifestyle Product Photography Basics

Lifestyle product photography is all about showing off your products in a way that gives customers a glimpse of the lifestyle that comes along with them. It’s a style of photography that’s increasingly popular online, especially for platforms like Instagram that reward companies for stunning images. Lifestyle photography is especially useful for products like fashion, homewares, electronics and food and drink. With the right props, lifestyle photography can show off how the product works, describe its features and demonstrate how it fits into your customers’ lives, all without having to use words.

Product Photography vs Lifestyle Product Photography

Traditional product photography is all about making your product images as clear and concise as possible. That usually means bright lighting and white or plain backgrounds that provide no distraction from the products themselves. That’s great if you’re running an ecommerce store with lots of products and want to make sure customers know exactly what they’re buying.

Lifestyle product photography curates photos differently. Products are dressed up with carefully selected props, backgrounds, models and artful lighting to convey ideas about the lifestyles that are associated with them. Unlike normal product photography, lifestyle photography is designed to tell a story about the brand or product without the need for words. Done right, lifestyle photography can tell customers how the product fits into their lifestyle without the need for any words or product descriptions at all.

How Can Lifestyle Product Photography Help?

The marketing landscape has shifted in the past decade. Customers specifically look for brands and products they can connect with on a personal level. Lifestyle product photography is all about creating that connection. While standard product photography is often the better choice for ecommerce listings, lifestyle photography is ideal for most other types of advertising. Helping people connect with your brand and understand how you fit into their lives is one of the best ways to attract long-term customers that love what you do.

Lifestyle product photography is also the better choice for ads that rely on their images. At a glance, lifestyle photography highlights your products, tells a story and shows off exactly how the product works. It makes for eye-catching images that are more likely to attract the attention of potential customers.

Lifestyle Product Photography Tips

Lifestyle photography can take a bit of planning. Done right, you’ll be able to create striking photos that grab the attention of your target audience and encourage them to become dedicated customers. We’ve got some simple tips to help achieve the result you want:

1. Choose the right setting. The background or setting for lifestyle product photography can change the whole outcome of the shoot. Solid colours, wood grain and textured surfaces like brick walls are popular backgrounds, but you could also use more natural backgrounds for shoots where models will be interacting with the products.
2. Tell a story with your props. The essence of any good lifestyle photography is the story you create. You want your customers to see the photo and understand the lifestyle it portrays at a glance. Props are the best way to do this. Every model and prop in your shoot should serve the purpose of telling a story that your customers will be able to connect with.
3. Experiment with styling. Whether you’re shooting flatlays, action shots or carefully arranged settings, experiment with the way your products and props are styled. Lifestyle product photography often involves careful arrangement of products, and it’s the photographer’s job to make the products the hero without detracting from the finished product.

Looking to Capture Lifestyle Product Photography? Speak to Mel Noonan Creative Today!

Showcasing your products the right way can be make or break. Whether you want standard product photography or stunning lifestyle images, the team at Mel Noonan Creative can help! In a digital world, quality photography means your business and products stand out, giving customers better insight into who you are and what you can do for them. We have all the tools and equipment to handle product photography of every variety, including carefully curated lifestyle product photos. Speak to us today about our photography packages or to make an appointment!