With hundreds of millions of active users every day, Instagram is now one of the primary channels for promoting a product. As a commercial photographer, creating the very best photographs for a platform with such impressive engagement rates when compared to other channels is a no-brainer. The best practices for Instagram are always evolving and it is the job of every product photographer to stay up to date.

Some of the guidance below may not fall to you as a product photographer but your client or another member of your team. However, it is increasingly becoming part of a commercial photographers job to consider all aspects of best practice.

Incorporate branding into your images

Whenever shooting a range of images for a product, range of products or brand in general, you need to ensure that branding plays a part in the process. We want to deliver images that engage, attract and transform potential customers into conversions and this is all made easier by making sure they know the brand in question.

Creating a cohesive set of images that tell the brands story allows a product photographer to effortlessly deliver on-brand images for every platform, including Instagram and the companies website. Adding colours, words or products that are synonymous with your clients brand to your images are an easy way to achieve this. It is likely that every commercial photographer does the relevant research prior to undertaking a photoshoot so this should be a very simple task to complete.

Collaborate with others

One of the most helpful aspects of Instagram for product photographers is the ability to collaborate with other users and businesses. Perhaps a business wants to cross-promote multiple products or work with a complementary business to promote a series of product collaborations.

As a commercial photographer, you should embrace these ideas because they will allow you to really dive into new ideas, creative designs and stunning product photographs. Take the time to do your research so that you understand all parties involved in the campaign and from there, let those creative juices flow. You will often find the businesses that choose to collaborate will have similar branding and ethics which make it easier to find those props or background ideas that truly fit with your subject.

Plan the campaigns

No matter whether it is up to you to schedule posts or decide on the number of posts within a particular campaign, or not it is still important to plan what the campaign will look like. Countless companies suffer from both under-sharing and over-sharing on Instagram, but no matter how often they post each and every image needs to deliver the very best quality.

Every product photographer will be used to having to create product images that will go into Instagram posts and stories, with each one trying to make a particular statement, such as showing off the features of the latest set of trainers or new menu at a restaurant. Planning is key to shooting the perfect images for a campaign, no matter the type of size.