New York & California Photo & Publishing

Product Photography is a steady ongoing & profitable business especially for small photography business owners. Everyone, whether you are an amateur or a professional photographer, have done some product photography at some point in time.

Some of the most popular items for product photography have been flowers, beauty products & food. Contemporary Footwear is also a very high paying subject for product photography.

Fashionable women’s shoes are a great subject. There are a few ways in which you can shoot fashion footwear for a product company. I have tried all of them with good success:

• you can set up a small home studio with a light box & buy shoes to take pictures
• you can rent a professional studio & request for footwear as props
• you can spot fashionable footwear in the streets & request the owner to take a few shots
• you can request shoe samples from a local footwear shop for photography
• you can request any footwear sales outlet to allow you to take pictures in their stores

Before you attempt footwear photography you have to understand a few things that make footwear photography a challenge. Fashion Shoes are an integral part of the ornamentation – shooting them in isolation could be difficult. On the other hand, the shoes are probably the last place one would see when you are taking a glamor shot with a model.

Choice of shoes are very important. I found that two types of images should go in together. Isolated pictures of the pair of shoes alongside a picture showing how the pair fits in the overall fashion statement.

I would usually browse the internet, preferably Zappos for great shoes, and pick up some of the latest ones. After spending hours with a lightbox and snapping some studio shots, I would ask a few friends to put them on for a model shot. This technique has always worked for me.

On the topic of shoes, select a store that has a wide range of options, typically the most popular shoe brands. And since you would probably be buying a lot of different types of shoes, the prices have to be reasonable. Again, as I mentioned before, I find Women’s Shoes at Zappos to suit the budgets & styles perfectly.