How to find professional product photographers?

Updated on November 9, 2022 in Photography by Nishant Shrimali

With a constant hike in the demands of online shopping, brands all over the world are facing one common issue. The lack of professional resources and talent to scale the brand. Even if you can find a good photographer, they aren’t always the best fit for commercial photography.

In this article, we are sharing How to find professional product photographers for your eCommerce? Even if you are looking for a freelance product photographer, you’ll learn how to find one.

More specifically, we are sharing ways through which you can tell potential candidates about the opening, how to filter your applicants, things that you must look for in the final candidate, and how to find the perfect fit for your eCommerce and products.

Without any more delay, let us help you find professional product photographers that can help your brand scale.

How to find professional product photographers?

Evaluate what you need

In order to find professional product photographers, you first need to evaluate what you actually need. Before you post any openings for a new product photographer, you must be sure about the responsibilities that the role will fulfill.

Are you looking for just a product photographer or someone that can help manage all your product images and post-production work? Cause if that’s the case,  you might want to hire an Art Director with photography skills.

Also, make sure that you are clear about the duration of the project.

Most of the eCommerce prefer to outsource their product photography and eCommerce post-production to specialized experts. This can be on a freelance basis or a contract basis.

If you are just starting, you can hire a freelance product photographer, and if you believe there is a continuous demand for a photographer in your team, you can hire one full-time later.

Create your recruiting strategy

Once you know what you are looking for, it will be much easier to find professional product photographers that are interested in working with you. Here, you’ll have to figure out your recruiting strategy. One way is through recruiting and talent acquisition agencies.

These agencies will help you find candidates and pass on their contact information to you for a fixed fee.

If you don’t want that, you can post it on various job portals and your social media handles along with a line “no agencies, please”. Adding this will save you a lot of time and filter away agencies who might contact you.

The best way to share a word about your openings and hiring employees is through your existing network. Ask people on your team and in their network if they could refer someone for the role. You can even use Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups to find professional product photographers.

It will ease a lot of work and help you find candidates that are much more likely to join your mission.

Ask for their portfolio

In the field of photography, past experience really matters a lot. And when you are looking to find professional product photographers or freelance photographers, their past work can really help you narrow the list of candidates. It helps you decide whether or not, the person has the skills that you are looking for and can he or she deliver the work on time.

If you are ready to pay for their experience, the last thing you want is a photographer that you have spent a major portion of your time teaching them what to do.

When you ask people to apply for the job, ask them to send in their experience and portfolio. This will help you instantly look at their work and filter candidates based on their work.

Filter down candidates

Once you have received the applications and portfolio of your candidates, it’s time to filter them. When you are looking to find professional product photographers, it can be a long process. But make sure you start by filtering candidates based on your requirements.

For example, if you are looking to hire a professional product photographer with some prior experience, start by picking candidates that have experience. Again, the filter will be based on your priorities.

Finalize at least 4 to 5 candidates for the final stages if you find a good fit. If you do not find the right candidates in the first round, do not settle under pressure to hire one.

A good candidate for the job will make a lot of your work easy. And hiring any random or unqualified candidate for the role will really cost you a lot of your resources. 

In-person interview

When you have around 4 to 5 candidates, you can schedule an in-person interview with them. Meeting in person can help you learn and find professional product photographers that bring the right skills to your organization.

The goal of this interview is to know about the candidates and what are their strengths, weaknesses, and expectations regarding the role.

In the interview, you can even share what you are looking forward to and share the responsibility that the person will have to fulfill.

Probation & Negotiation

After the interview, you shall have a clear idea of who might be a good fit for the role. Here, you have to understand that even if you don’t find professional product photographers for your team, the best thing would be to inform them and look for other candidates.

It will save you and their time. Now, when you have your final candidate, it is time to come to common terms and start working. It will be the right time to negotiate the salary, benefits, and probation time.

The probation period will further help you and the candidate be sure of the role and if you both are a good fit.

Sign legal agreement and contract

A legal document will help ensure that there are no future conflicts. That is why it is really important that you put everything that you discussed in writing.

When you are looking to find professional product photographers, ensure that you are clear with the range of salary that you can pay and all the benefits that you are extending.

This includes ownership of the work they do, the salary, the working hours, benefits they get, and everything else.

Having all this done, send it to your new photographer to review it and sign.

Final Read

It is very hard to find professional product photographers. And that’s because it is a very creative field. You have to look for people who are ready to commit to your work and give you consistent quality work.

The same happens when you are looking to hire professional product image editing experts. But why would you, when you can outsource it to a highly qualified, and responsive team.

PixelPhant is a leading product photo editing service that works with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands across the world and fulfills their image post-production demand every single day. Got images that you would like to get edited? Send them to PixelPhant now. Click on the get started button below and get a free image editing trial for your eCommerce.