For decades, brands have stuck to conventional method solo product photography. Now, they are moving towards lifestyle photography as a way to gain traction among customers.
In 2018, Ralph Lauren, the luxury apparel brand, ran a unique social media ad campaign for its 50th anniversary. The campaign featured various lifestyle photos and videos to drive sales and brand awareness among the target audience.
As a result, the company saw a rise in online sales, increase in product use among the Gen Z audience, and high page traffic as well.
That’s because advertisements with photographs of a product being used have more of an impact than a solo picture of a product. In this blog, we’ll discuss lifestyle product photography in detail, along with tips to take better pictures.
What Is Lifestyle Product Photography?
Also referred to as in-context or context photography, this type of photography is the practice of using different techniques to photograph your product within an environment that is set up in a way to support a specific theme.
The purpose of doing so is to create an image of the lifestyle that accompanies the product. This tactic creates a vivid image in customers’ minds, encouraging them to purchase a product.
In this regard, context photography is considered similar to functional product photography.
However, many people consider lifestyle photography to be the superior and more interesting variant. This is due to the themes involved, as well as the props used to create an atmosphere that is relevant to the product.
Lifestyle photography is the perfect medium used to breathe life and emotion into a product and show to the customer that by purchasing a certain product, they’re taking a step towards a more desirable lifestyle.
A noticeable sign of great context photography is link to the brand image.
This is because lifestyle photography creates aspiration and emotions in the mind of the viewers.
The purpose of these photographs is to convey the brand’s vision and mission to develop a strong brand character in the viewer’s mind.
The Benefits
There are many benefits associated with context photography that make your product unique and accentuate its features to provide an air of exclusivity.
What this type of photography excels in is providing a curated and stylized scene, which is great to convey the kind of lifestyle and it gives the viewer the inspiration they need on how to use this product.
Of course, there are other benefits associated with it as well.
Connect with your audience
Due to the curated atmosphere factor, context photography is naturally more interesting than product-only photography, and this added allure is a very important benefit.
Product and lifestyle photography is often very conceptual. Hence, it requires creatives to come up with thought-provoking imagery and prop placement that prepares the ideal environment for a product.
In addition to that, due to the customizability of the environment, there is room for a lot of creativity as well.
Lifestyle in product photography is designed to work alongside the overall aesthetic and design of your logo and webpage as well. All of these features contribute to conveying the right sort of emotion toward your fanbase, and it also expresses and strengthens the brand’s character as well.
Demonstration of real-life use
Lifestyle photography is a great element to add to your social media page or website. This sort of photography gives insight into the functionality of the product, letting the customer understand the product’s uses.
Such engagement is a core aspect of building trust with a customer, which encourages them to make a purchase.
Informs the Viewers of the Product Dimensions
In addition to that, this sort of photography is accompanied by many different props and elements, which can be used to get an idea of the size and dimensions of the object. This is a great help, especially when you are looking for products in a specific size.
You are selling a lifestyle- not just the product.
As the name suggests, lifestyle product photography not only consists of the product, but the surroundings of the image as well.
Marketing agencies and organizations not only want to advertise the product in a compelling manner but are also looking to show them the kind of lifestyle that accompanies the product.
It taps into the customer’s psyche and imagination to entice them into thinking about how the product can change their life. This helps build a desire to achieve that lifestyle through a specific product or service.
Design language plays an important great role in this as well. It determines what kind of image your brand is looking to portray through your products. It can be vintage, minimal, or trendy as well, and it all depends on the creativity and direction the organization wants to take.
Tips for Better Lifestyle Product Photography Shoots
This type of photography does a great job of grabbing the viewer’s attention and building an image that customers will only associate with the brand.
To create an environment showing a lifestyle that complements your product, it is important to conduct proper market research. This helps in understanding the latest trends in the market.
01. Use a Prop
Adding a prop to the photograph is a great way to communicate the product’s theme. Props are a great way to inform potential customers the value of the product.
Furthermore, the use and placement of props and accessories allow you to create an entire story that accompanies the product, making it seem more desirable.
02. Use a Model
In addition to props, another tip to increase creativity and the likelihood of grabbing the customer’s attention is the use of a model.
Although this is more of a situational tip and most useful when you are promoting something wearable or different sorts of fashion accessories, using a model helps the customer relate to the product in question, invoking emotion and an increased desire to invest in that product.
In addition to that, a professional model has knowledge of posing from several different angles, which can emphasize different features of the product so that they grab the viewers’ attention.
Using a model is highly beneficial because it is the most effective way to convey the core message of your business. This is great for customer engagement.
03. Balance to your Business Image
Images taken using product through lifestyle photography are effective to bring balance to various communication materials, the business website, and product adverts as well.
This is because they add real-life imagery to counter the stiff, lifeless product photos on a business website.
These lifestyle photos add a touch of emotion and relate to the customer as well, which offsets the more corporate imagery of on the website.
04. Increases Engagement
We live in a digital age where social media is king, and more than half of a brand’s target population uses social media.
Due to this, it has become an increasingly important part of e-commerce platform. It’s also home of many successful advertisement campaigns featuring lifestyle photographs.
Due to the nature and the emotional message conveyed through lifestyle photography, it can easily gain likes and comments in a very short period of time.
Not only is this good for customer engagement, this also increases the likelihood of these viewers to browse through your business website and invest in your product.
Wrap-up
This guide covered the benefits of lifestyle product photography and tips to take engaging pictures.
Setting up a proper environment can prove to be rather difficult because you have to balance the props and atmosphere so that the product exudes a specific aura and lifestyle. Yet, it shouldn’t distract the viewer from the product itself.
Nevertheless, if you make sure to follow these tips, it will most definitely assist you in formulating a perfectly balanced environment that makes for great product photographs. With the right images for your campaign, your business can ensure a higher revenue and stronger brand identity as well.