Footwear photography in the studio

Case study – Northamptonshire Footwear Studio Photography

I was commissioned to photograph footwear for a Northamptonshire shoe manufacturer with a long history of hand making shoes and boots. The photographs are intended for an e-commerce website. It was important each pair were photographed at exactly the same angle with the same lighting for a uniform look across the website with each pair the same size on the page.

My studio is set up for product photography with colour accurate flash lighting and a colour checker calibration chart to ensure products are exactly the right colour in photographs. Each pair required four different angles to show the full shoe, detail of the middle of the shoe, the toe and the sole. Footwear photography might look simple but in fact it requires knowledge of lighting to ensure the shine of the leather can be seen as well as detail in the grain. Each pair of shoes must be carefully prepared before being photographed as any dust or excess polish will show up on the finished photographs. The shoes are then packed with stuffing to give the correct shape and then carefully placed in exactly the same position as the previous pair. A shadow under the products prevents the cut out look and gives a more natural look to the finished images.

Once the photography is compete the images are uploaded to my digital assets website from where the client can view and download the files.

The images below have been compressed for quicker loading on my website, the original images are 8256 x 6192 pixels and then supplied full resolution and website resolution, this allows the client to use them in print as well as for their e-commerce website.