Cosmetic brand photography
Cosmetic brand photography
I photographed Esthemax cosmetics for a Serbian distributor today.
Cosmetic brand photography goes beyond simple product shots by showcasing a brand’s identity, lifestyle, and values through its imagery. This kind of photography usually combines product shots, lifestyle scenes, and creative storytelling. As this brand is already developed, we needed to create marketing material. We needed beauty shots and product shots to use in the catalog, website, and social networks to advertise locally.
Cosmetics photography is a niche field within product photography that aims to showcase beauty products like makeup, skincare, and fragrances in a visually appealing and creative way. The final vision was to produce elegant, professional images that highlight both the cosmetics product appeal and the model’s natural beauty.
Doing shots for cosmetic creams, serums, and other products, may be catchy but interesting. I invest all my focus in shooting and try to avoid as much as possible editing in Photoshop I stick to these rules when it comes to production on the spot in the studio and post-processing at home.
Lighting
- Soft Lighting: soft, diffused lighting to highlight the model’s skin and emphasize the serum’s glow. Ring lights or diffusers can help achieve a smooth, flawless finish. I avoid ring lights.
- Highlighting Product Texture: I position the reflector to showcase the serum’s oily, gel-like, or creamy texture. For instance, a backlight can make a transparent serum look more radiant.
- Key Lighting Angles: I set up the lighting that creates soft highlights and shadows on the model’s face, enhancing cheekbones and contours to reflect a “skincare glow”, avoiding frontal lighting that will flatten the looks.
Editing
- Retouching: I do high-end beauty retouch with frequency separations and always avoid over-editing, as it may distort the product’s true look.
- Color Correction: I ensure colors accurately represent the product authentically by going back and forth through channels in Photoshop.
- Sharpening and Texture Enhancement: Important with skin details, and product texture.
Hydrojelly masks are colorful and fun to take off the skin, so we played with their nuances and tried to show their jelly texture when peeling off the face.
For various cosmetic products, we decided to swatch creams on models’ skin. Product swatch shows its texture, color, and the effect it has on skin instantly.
Cosmetic brand photography also includes product shots; here you may see some.
