Meehan Formulations, a supplement brand, came to me with a simple brief: a fresh set of high resolution product images their team could use across the website, digital campaigns, marketplace listings and print, without licensing headaches or stock-library sameness. They needed it fast, so we built the shoot around a two week turnaround from first call to delivered files.
The brief
Two things had to be true of every frame. It had to be clean enough to drop into any layout, and it had to be theirs. That meant shooting the entire product lineup, not a hero SKU, and delivering files at a size that would hold up in print as well as on screen.
Supplement brands have a particular version of this problem. The category is crowded, the packaging often looks alike, and most of the imagery on Amazon and in ad libraries is the same bottle on the same white. Original photography is one of the few ways to look like a brand rather than a listing.
In the studio
We set up two scenes. The first is the evergreen set: every bottle and box on pure white, consistent angles, consistent light, label facing camera and legible, built for e-commerce grids, Amazon and marketplace listings, spec sheets and anything that needs a cutout. The second is a textured look, one considered surface and palette that gives the brand a signature feel for landing pages, social and print without losing the clean read of the label. Both scenes covered the full lineup so nothing would need a reshoot when a new campaign or a new SKU came up.
On the beach
Product on white tells you what it is. Product in a hand on the sand tells you what it is for. We booked a local Palm Coast model for a 40 minute session on the beach and worked fast through hands and product with the water behind: holding, opening, resting on a towel, catching the light. We also shot one slow video pan of the top product for the site and social. Short session, tight shot list, and the ocean did the rest.
Gear and finish
Shot on the Nikon Z8 with Aperture continuous lighting in the studio and natural light on the beach. Every image was colour corrected so label and packaging colours match across the white set, the textured set and the beach, which matters when the same bottle appears in three places on one page and in a compliance-sensitive category where the label has to read accurately.
Worth knowing for supplement brands
- Shoot the whole lineup once. Adding a SKU later means matching light and angles, which costs more than the extra hour on the day.
- One evergreen set plus one styled set covers most supplement brands for a year of listings, ads and email.
- Keep the label legible in every frame. It is the product and, for supplements, it is also the claim.
- A short lifestyle session with a local model is the cheapest way to make product imagery feel like a brand instead of a catalogue.
- Ask for files sized for print even if the first use is web.
I shoot supplement, wellness and consumer product photography on location and in the studio. Get in touch to talk about a lineup.
Photography by Blake Wisz, August 2024, for Meehan Formulations. See more brand photography.