Commercial and Product Photography
Product photography for advertising, packaging and e-commerce: briefs and shot lists, the product studio, lighting maths, glass, metal and liquids, food and beverage, marketplace workflows, focus stacking, lifestyle shoots and releases, retouching, CGI and AI under the Competition Act, estimates, usage licensing, GST/HST and delivery.
PHOT-310 Year 3 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 42 min
Offered by HSM University · Photography
This is the Canadian version of this course. See the American version.
What you'll learn
- Describe the commercial photography market, its buyers, kinds of product work and production roles
- Interpret and confirm a brief, prepare treatments and mood boards, and build shot lists and realistic schedules
- Equip and organize a product studio and choose lenses and working distances with u = f(1 + 1/m)
- Light products using source size, the inverse square law, flash power arithmetic, gradients and the family of angles
- Photograph reflective, transparent, liquid, black and white products with bright-field, dark-field and environment control
- Plan and light food and beverage shoots with stylists, freeze pours and splashes, and represent food truthfully
- Build high-volume e-commerce workflows that meet marketplace specifications, consistency, accessibility and cost targets
- Calculate depth of field, effective aperture and diffraction at macro scale and plan and execute focus stacks
- Plan and direct lifestyle shoots with talent and secure model releases, property permissions and permits
- Apply retouching levels, multi-exposure compositing, CGI and generative AI without misleading consumers
- Prepare commercial estimates with creative fees, usage licences, expenses, markup, taxes and copyright terms
- Deliver, archive and invoice commercial work professionally and complete a full product campaign
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 42 min total · final exam
- 1 The commercial photography industry 29 min · quiz
- 2 Briefs, creative direction and shot lists 28 min · quiz
- 3 The product studio and equipment 29 min · quiz
- 4 Lighting products: quality, falloff and gradients 29 min · quiz
- 5 Reflective, transparent and dark products 29 min · quiz
- 6 Food and beverage photography 29 min · quiz
- 7 E-commerce photography workflows 30 min · quiz
- 8 Macro product work and focus stacking 29 min · quiz
- 9 Lifestyle and in-context shoots with talent 27 min · quiz
- 10 Retouching, compositing, CGI and AI imagery 27 min · quiz
- 11 Estimates, usage licensing and production 28 min · quiz
- 12 Delivery, client relations and capstone campaign 28 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Product photography for advertising, packaging and e-commerce: briefs and shot lists, the product studio, lighting maths, glass, metal and liquids, food and beverage, marketplace workflows, focus stacking, lifestyle shoots and releases, retouching, CGI and AI under the Competition Act, estimates, usage licensing, GST/HST and delivery.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 3.