Where Do You Get Product Photography Training. Is it YouTube?
If you’re teaching yourself product photography, I am genuinely very happy for you. Photographing objects, working in still life sets and crafting product imagery has been my chosen career. So well done to you, I am all for it. However, therein lies a question…where do you get product photography training? Is it YouTube?
I would like to check in about why you are learning to shoot products and what you want to get from it.
The Different Routes to Learning
I am a professional product photographer. My career has spanned 30 years, still climbing 😂. I want to let you know how I learned my photography to give you some perspective on the choices you can make.
• Route #1. College. I spent three years discovering what I was good at and what I was bad at.
• Route #2. Assisting Photographers. I could study what they did, take the bits I liked and forgot the rest that wasn’t for me.
• Route #3. I grafted! I tried and tested my own ideas out. I produced some really rubbish shots and also had great moments of glorious creation! It took a long time for me to learn what I take for granted now.
Ultimately, I want you to think about what you want to gain from getting better at shooting product photography. More specifically, to what level do you want to play at?
Business or Pleasure?
The obvious division for me lies between shooting products for fun or shooting products for business.
With the former, just for fun, we can be super relaxed about where the learning comes from. There is a mass of information on the web. Some of it is dross, some of it is really good. Some people will give you loads of stuff, other people will give you small chunks of information but then really want you to sign up for something. If you have the time and the focus, you can teach yourself some great approaches, gain lots of cool tips on how to shoot products.
But here is my beef with the Internet… Nothing is really for free! Free information does not exist to have your best interests at heart. Let’s think about videos on YouTube. That content is out there to suck you in, to get you to like it. Ultimately the real reason is so the creator gets to show you loads of paid ads. That resource is not there to teach you to be a successful and great photographer. Free information on the web exists as a portal to sell you something else – simple.
If you are learning product photography for work, then this is where things get more serious. Your job is on the line, or your business is on the line. If you want to learn photography for a business, I truly believe you need professional focused high level training. I got into training product photographers because I want someone to be outrageously amazing at creating great product shots. What you learn from me, sets you up to be a confident lifelong creator of product photography assets. That’s why I am here. My training exists to make you better.
This is the difference between paid for training and free training. And this is also the answer to the original question of ‘where do you get product photography training? Is It YouTube?’
Yes, my training has a cost attached to it. There is a low cost online course option or a high value face to face workshop alternative. However, what you gain in value long-term will far outweigh that initial investment. You are investing in yourself and in your business. If you are serious about your business success and your job, you must be serious about how you learn.
In Summary
Where you get your product photography training from really depends on what you need it for. What is your level of commitment to yourself, your business, and your future? Do you have an urgency to make massive improvements to your marketing assets? How quickly do you want that to happen?
Your chosen route for product photography training comes down to how much you want to raise your standards. If it is as high as I think it is, then it’s time for you to contact me and let me know where you want to end up. Tell me exactly how good you want to be, and let’s start working out how to get there.
Decide your route now and start walking down that road. Trust me I’m a photographer😁
Enjoy Module 13 from my online product photography course Shoot Products Like A Pro. This course underpins all my teaching. Get in touch to learn more.
