Why does my product shot look flat?

Almost always the light is at the camera. Move it to the side and put a fill card opposite. Then give the product an edge: a bright strip down one vertical edge, or a black card to draw a dark line.

How do I stop the model adding props to a product shot?

Say what the ground is and say the frame holds one product and nothing else. Every entry here carries a ban list, and props, plants and folded cloth belong in it.

Why does the shadow matter so much?

The shadow is the only thing that says where the product is. A contact shadow puts it on the table, a soft shadow far below puts it in the air, and no shadow at all leaves it nowhere.

Can I mix these with a film stock or a colour scheme?

Yes. Each prompt here is a clause rather than a whole picture, so it drops into a prompt from any other catalogue: a flat lay on Portra 400, or a range shot in an analogous palette.

Product and commercial

The shots a product needs, and the light, shadow and edge each takes.

Every shot on this shelf is a job somebody pays for. A packshot goes on a marketplace listing, a hero three-quarter goes at the top of a product page, a ghost mannequin goes on a clothing site. Two things settle all ten: the shadow under the object and what happens at its edge. Get those right and the product sits solid and separate. Get them wrong and it floats, smears or dissolves into the background. The cinema catalogue publishes Product as a shot type, and that one is the moving shot: a slow push in, or an orbit around the thing on a turntable. This shelf is the still.

The catalogue shot

Three shots a shop listing cannot open without. The product alone, the product turned, and the whole line together.

On white

The product alone on pure white, lit so its own edges still read.

Hero three-quarter

The product turned 30 to 45 degrees so the front, the side and the top all read at once.

Range shot

The whole product line in one frame under one identical light.

Laid out and lifted

Three shots decided by where the product sits: flat on a table, up in the air with nothing under it, or pulled apart along a line.

Flat lay

Camera straight down on objects laid out on a flat surface, with the shadows killed.

Floating product

The product lifted off the surface with nothing holding it up.

Exploded view

The parts of the product pulled apart along one line, in the order they assemble.

Close, wet and worn

Four shots that go past the object itself: the material up close, the liquid in the air, the empty garment and the working hand.

Macro texture

One small part of the product fills the frame so the material reads.

Splash shot

Liquid caught in the air around the product and stopped dead.

Ghost mannequin

A garment holding its own shape with nobody inside it.

In use

A person holds, wears, pours or operates the product, and the product stays the subject.

Shoot one of them

Copy a prompt into an image model and pay for that one run. No subscription.

Open an image model

Other look groups

Colour film stocksThe colour stocks, and what each does to skin, to sky and to green.12 colour stocks Black and white film stocksThe stocks, and what each one does to grain, to skin and to the sky.8 black and white stocks Slide and instant filmThe positive stocks, their narrow latitude, and the wording for each.8 slide and instant stocks Camera and formatThe ways to size a frame, and the wording that gets each one.8 cameras and formats Darkroom and processThe changes made to the film itself, and the wording for each one.6 darkroom processes Historical processesThe processes from before the film roll, and the wording for each.10 historical processes Photographic genresEach genre written as the lens, the light and the distance that make it.16 photographic genres

Cinematic techniquesShooting a video rather than a still? The same reference, for the camera in motion.

The on white packshot, because a listing cannot go live without it. Add a hero three-quarter for the top of the product page, then a texture crop and an in use frame to fill the gallery.