You decided you need some visuals for your products for various reasons; to display on your website, Shopify or Amazon store, Instagram or Facebook ads. Great! Now it’s time to decide how to accomplish that. The market is saturated with bland-looking images, and besides the description text you’ll put, the visuals will be the only differentiator. They better be clean & striking because if the pictures don’t convince your potential clients, they won’t even check the text next to it. So how can you get those fantastic images?

Some clients come to our website for retouch work from time to time, but they don’t yet have photos at hand. They dream of something, though yet don’t know how to achieve it. In such cases, I inform them of two choices as it won’t be feasible for us to fly to Houston or Sydney to shoot many product images. However, it’s very critical to show these both as standalone as well as in lifestyle images.  In this case, I propose two options;

1. Organize a Photoshoot

2. Create 3D modeling of the product and render visuals

Let’s check the pros and cons of each option.

Photography

Pros

• Images look natural as the product is actually in the scene while shot

• Post-production costs will be lower (and you may not even work with me as the photographer will choose his retoucher, a big con for me but not for you)

• If image volume is high, per image cost will be low, that’s very beneficial for social media posts.

• Nothing beats a well-executed photography project; it’s as real.

Cons

• Depending on the production, photography production can be expensive. This depends on the product (e.g., a car commercial will be far more costly to produce than a reusable bottle), the production team (makeup artist, hairdresser, stylist, etc.). Also, a good photographer’s day rate understandably wouldn’t be very low).

• It’s location-specific; you’re limited with the talents close to you and locations close to you unless you’re ready to invest a much higher budget or already an established brand with large marketing budgets

• It can be time-consuming as photography requires good project management. Getting images in hand can take a while from the first day you start talking about it.

CGI Compositing

Pros

• You don’t even need the actual product. Technical drawings of the product or photos & measurements are just fine—location independent.

• You don’t need to be in the same city & country with the talents.

• You can use stock photos or photos taken by a photographer where the product’s location is left blank. You can get into sites and sets that would be impossible or require a fortune to organize production.

• For low volume or multiple location and model images, cost per image will be low (but same location same model high volume visuals photography will beat in terms of cost)

  Cons

• High post-production cost

• Per image, the cost can be high.

• Creating scenes takes time.

• Creating real-looking product renders is harder to achieve and requires experience.

• There is some artificial look for the trained eye (unless extra attention is given and post-production and render is done by an expert)

After reading this now, you might be able to decide how to proceed.

Are you more in favor of the photography option? If you are in Turkey, you can contact Diapolis Images, our sister company. If not, you'll need to find a good talented photographer close to you. Wonderful Machine can be a good source for that, you may not find the right person there but a good place to start. If you need an excellent composite or consider working with us for post-production, don't hesitate to contact us. Coordination with the photographer and post-production artist brings in high-end results with lower costs.

If you believe CGI is suitable for you, you're already in the right place, and let us know more about your project. The best would be to set up a video call and discuss the project face to face.