Aime Leon Dore Product Photographer

Natural Light Product Photography Studio: Brooklyn as Laboratory

My pure gentle product images studio strategy is inseparable from location. I’m Brooklyn-based for a purpose. The gentle right here is unbelievable while you study to work with it. Large home windows, industrial areas, the best way afternoon solar filters by way of in spring versus the tough readability of winter gentle—all of this informs the work.

But it is extra than simply the sunshine. Brooklyn has grow to be a hub for premium manufacturers that worth craftsmanship over mass manufacturing. There’s an aesthetic sensibility right here—an appreciation for authenticity, high quality, and work that respects each the maker and the viewer. That cultural context shapes how I strategy skilled pure gentle product images studio work.

I’m not making an attempt to create pictures that seem like they have been shot wherever. I need the work to hold a way of place, a heat and character that comes from actual environments relatively than seamless white infinity coves.

The Business Reality: Pricing, Value, and Boundaries

Let me inform you one thing that makes shoppers uncomfortable: Product photographers working full-time needs to be making minimal $100,000 per 12 months. But virtually none of us do.

Why? Because the trade undervalues this work. Brands do not perceive what they’re really buying. They see the ultimate picture and miss every little thing that went into creating it—the bodily labor of climbing ladders and capturing from awkward ground angles, the hours of modifying, the years of expertise that make it look easy.

In my fourth 12 months capturing for Aime Leon Dore, I checked out my checking account after ending a season and thought, “For all that work, all those hours, where is the money?” So I known as my supervisor and mentioned, “I’m raising my prices. I have to.”

His response? “Are you kidding me?”

Kinda insulting, however I caught by it. They mentioned they could not do it. Six months later—the most effective six months of relaxation I’d ever had—I get a name. They labored with one other photographer, hated the outcomes, and needed me again. My costs hadn’t modified. Their perspective on my worth had.

Here’s what I realized: You need to personal the worth of your property. You need to be prepared to show down shoppers who cannot meet your charges. You need to set boundaries, even when it is scary, particularly when cash feels tight. Because the choice is burnout, resentment, and a profession constructed on undercharging for work that deserves higher.

I do not settle for Net 30 or Net 60 fee phrases. When I bill, fee is due upon supply. None of that two-weeks nonsense. Who the fuck created that rule? Just some one that thought, what if I may pay for this later? Absolutely not.

Beyond Aime Leon Dore: The Expanding Client Roster

While my work with Aime Leon Dore established my fame as an ALD photographer and outlined my pure gentle product images strategy, the years since have introduced unbelievable artistic alternatives with different premium manufacturers looking for this aesthetic.

MadHappy, a Los Angeles-based life-style model, reached out pre-pandemic. At the time, they weren’t able to decide to the extent of funding this work requires. But in 2022, they got here again—critical, targeted, prepared to ascertain a top quality normal for his or her visible id. We created dynamic product imagery that maintained the model’s optimistic power whereas elevating their manufacturing worth.

The sample repeats: manufacturers acknowledge the signature look, perceive it units them aside, and decide to the method. They’re investing in additional than product images. They’re investing in a visible id that communicates care, high quality, and authenticity—values their prospects more and more demand.

The solely factor that frustrates me now? Seeing manufacturers copy the aesthetic poorly. I want firms paid photographers sufficient to do it properly. So properly that the pictures they produce push me to stage up my very own sport. Right now, I simply see the shortcuts. And here is the reality: there is not any trick. It’s time, element, and energy.