Figs + Jasmine is an online shop offering unique, beautiful, hand-picked Mediterranean items ranging from textiles and jewelry to kitchenware. When I met Tracy, owner of Figs and Jasmine, she was just beginning her journey into creating an online storefront, navigating her way through organizing a huge product inventory and figuring out how to photograph everything in a way that fit the style of the shop she’d been envisioning in her mind. Tracy wanted to be able to run the site and take the majority of the product photos herself so she wouldn’t have to depend on hiring someone each time new pieces came in. A project like this is a big undertaking and can feel a little overwhelming, but through a few digital and in-person mentoring sessions as well as an on-site styling and photography session, I was able to help give Tracy the tools she needed to get her store off the ground and to continue photographing her pieces on her own!
The Challenge
One of the biggest challenges Tracy faced was figuring out how to light and style her products in a way that felt natural and lighting all of the different kinds of products in a similar way to get a cohesive collection of images to use on her site. Her products range in size from very small jewelry to large baskets, dishes and blankets and large quantities of these items will arrive all at once, so we needed to craft a plan that would allow her to showcase all of these pieces easily and efficiently. She reiterated to me how important it was to show the quality and unique beauty of each of these handmade pieces so that customers could understand the level of detail and care that goes into each of the pieces they offer.
The Project
We started our journey with a few on-line mentoring sessions where we discussed her camera gear, lighting setup and the vision she had for her photos. From there, I was able to suggest different backdrops, lighting tools and techniques she could play around with to achieve the look she wanted. We’d circle back a few times online to go over questions and struggles before I then met her on-site to go over the issues she’d been having with her off camera lighting and to try some different lighting techniques together. We had originally started with trying to use strictly off camera, continuous lighting, but it just wasn’t giving her the look she wanted. After seeing the lovely natural light she has to use in her space, we began to shift towards utilizing natural light as much as we could to give her a more efficient workflow and to achieve the soft, dreamy light she had been searching for. I then came back for another on-site session where I could show her exactly where to find that great light in her space and how to manipulate it to get the right look regardless of weather thanks to diffusers, reflectors and bounce cards! We worked together for several hours photographing different collections and talking through lighting, camera angles and styling.
The Takeaway
By the end of our time together, Tracy had the tools she needed to continue photographing all of the products in her collection, a general workflow of where and how to take photos in her space and ideas of how to create engaging and authentic scenes. Thanks to our onsite styling and photography session, she also had over 230 images in the style and light she wanted to get her website up and running while she continued to pug away at cataloguing the whole collection. Here is what Tracy had to say about our time together: “My experience with Katy was exceptional! Her product photography session was informative and practical, covering crucial aspects of lighting, composition, and styling. I got some truly amazing photos! The mentorship session personalized the learning, equipping me with valuable skills and insights for my own product photography for my e-commerce company. Katy’s expertise, along with her warm and bubbly personality, made this dual experience invaluable!”
If you’re interested in a mentoring session for your own business or personal life, reach out today! I offer everything from support in learning to use your DSLR, off camera and natural lighting, workflows and systems, editing and more! These mentoring sessions are tailored to your needs to give you the tools you need to reach your goals.
