Photography Tips · Brussels
What Is a Packshot, and When Does Your Business Need One?
A packshot is a clean, precise photo of a product on its own, usually on a white or neutral background, with the colour matching the real thing. It's the picture a customer uses to check exactly what they're buying. That's why webshops and catalogues are built on them.
Where the word comes from
It started with packaging: a photo of the box or the bottle as it stands on the shop shelf. Today people use it for any product photographed alone in a calm, controlled way. A jar of face cream counts. So does a pair of trainers, a bag of coffee beans, or a machine part with an oily thread.
To me, the background colour isn't what makes it a packshot. It's the intention. Nothing in the frame competes with the product, and the product looks the way it will look in the customer's hands.
What usually goes into one
For a single product I'd plan a front view and two or three angles, then the back or the label if it carries information, a close-up of the texture or the clasp, and sometimes the box next to the product. For a whole range, the same views repeat for every item so the catalogue reads as one.
Good packshots have a couple of things in common. The colour matches the real product, which matters a lot for cosmetics and textiles. And the crop is identical from one item to the next, so a grid of forty products looks calm rather than jumpy.
When you actually need them
As soon as someone buys your product without picking it up first. A webshop, a marketplace listing, a B2B catalogue for distributors, a press kit. In each case the photo replaces the moment of turning the product over in your hand in a shop.
You need them less for telling the story of a brand, where the product is shown in use, on a kitchen table or in someone's bag. That's lifestyle photography, and I'd put it after the packshots, not instead of them.
How a packshot session runs
Products are sent to me or dropped off, photographed with one crop template for the whole batch, and kept for two weeks after the shoot in case a view needs redoing. Shipping both ways is at your expense. Every delivered image gets basic retouching of colour and light, and detailed or high-end retouching is optional.
Glass and jewellery are a different job, and so is anything with a mirror finish. One image can take from half an hour to two hours, so those are quoted separately. A bit of preparation on your side helps a lot, and I've put it into the pre-shoot checklist.
How the price works
Packshots are priced per image, with the rate dropping as the number grows, and there's a minimum order. You pay for the images your catalogue really needs, and each extra one adds to the total in a predictable way. Rights for marketplaces and your website are included, along with social media, with no time limit.
The current steps are on the price list, and the commercial photography page describes the session in more detail.
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