Almost every overrunning shoot we have seen ran over for the same reason: the shot list was a list of products rather than a list of shots. Forty products sounds like a comfortable day until you work out it is really two hundred and forty frames across four setups.
Start from the product page, not from the range
Open your own product page template and count what it actually shows. That is your frame count per product, and everything else follows from it.
A typical ecommerce product page needs:
- A main frame, on white, that works in the category grid
- A back view
- A side or three quarter view
- At least one detail, for fabric, hardware or finish
- Something that communicates scale or fit
That is five frames as a floor, before anything creative. Ranges where fit is the deciding factor need more.
The template
One row per product. These columns cover almost every shoot:
| Column | Example | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| SKU | MW-SHIRT-014 | The only reliable key between the shoot and the website. |
| Product name | Oxford shirt, white | So a human can find it on the rail. |
| Treatment | Ghost mannequin | Flat lay, ghost mannequin, on model or still life. |
| Frames | 5 | Main, back, side, detail, scale. |
| Crop | Square, 85 percent fill | Locked once for the whole range. |
| Setup | A | Which lighting build it belongs to. This is what you sort by. |
| Priority | 1 | What gets shot if the day runs short. |
| Notes | Collar must sit open | Anything the photographer cannot guess. |
The priority column is the one people leave out and then wish they had. Days run short. A list sorted by priority means the pieces that matter are already shot when they do.
Sort by setup, not by product code
This is the single biggest time saving on a shoot day. Every time the lighting changes, you lose time to rebuilding and testing. Every time you go back to a setup you already struck, you lose it twice.
Group the whole list by setup, shoot each setup out completely, then strike it and move on. On a mixed day that might be:
- Setup A: flat lay table, all accessories and basics
- Setup B: ghost mannequin, all shirting, tailoring and outerwear
- Setup C: on model, all hero pieces, in look order so styling flows
- Setup D: detail and texture, using whatever is already on set
Running two stations at once is the other lever. On ecommerce days we usually run a still life station for detail and product frames alongside the main set, so while one look is being styled the previous setup is still being shot.
Realistic frame counts
Be honest about pace when you build the list. Styling time, not shutter time, is what sets the rate.
| Treatment | What slows it | Plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Flat lay | Steaming, laying out, tidying edges | The fastest treatment per piece once the table is built. |
| Ghost mannequin | Dressing and pinning each garment, plus the inside neck pass | Noticeably slower than flat lay, because every piece is dressed twice. |
| On model | Changes, styling, hair and makeup touch ups between looks | The slowest, and the reason to run a second station in parallel. |
TODO (needs the studio): drop in the real average frames per hour by treatment from recent shoot days. Published numbers here would be genuinely useful to anyone planning a shoot, and they should be yours rather than an industry guess.
The mistakes that cause reshoots
- Crop decided per product rather than once for the range, so the grid does not line up
- Camera height changing between setups, so the same garment reads at two scales
- Samples arriving in the wrong size, so the fit shown is not the fit sold
- No scale reference anywhere in the set, so customers guess and return
- Colour judged on an uncalibrated laptop rather than against the physical sample
- No priority order, so the day runs out during the least important products
What to send the studio before the day
- The shot list, sorted by setup
- Your spec sheet, or a request for one if you do not have it yet
- Reference imagery for anything that needs to match existing shots
- The samples, steamed, on a rail, in the sizes being shot
- A named contact who can make a decision on the day
The last one matters more than it looks. Most delays on a shoot are not technical, they are somebody waiting for approval on a styling decision.
Sources
The Motherlight team
Written from the studio floor at Holborn Studios in Shoreditch, where we shoot ecommerce, campaign and product work for fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.