Tips for Outdoor Lifestyle Product Photography

Product photography doesn’t need to be done in a studio with hundreds of continuous lights set up. As a travel photographer, I enjoy working outdoors and in different environments with natural light to produce creative photoshoots.

While an outdoor product shoot can come with a set of challenges, plenty of products can benefit from a lifestyle photoshoot outside of the studio. Products like backpacks, portable electronics, hiking shoes, sunglasses, and other items that people use for traveling in daily life would find a lot of use in an outdoor shoot.

Just like any other photoshoot, you’ll want to plan out which location you think would be best to photograph each product. If you’re able to incorporate a model, then you have the opportunity to create a larger catalog of diverse images.

In this blog post, I’ll be talking about how I use lifestyle photography to showcase products and brands in their locations, as well as the benefits and challenges of doing a photoshoot outdoors and in the field with examples.

What Is Lifestyle Photography?

Lifestyle photography involves producing authentic and candid images that tell a story. As a result, producing lifestyle images for a brand or business requires a lot of creative direction and pre-planning so that the image properly shows the use or application of a product as you might see it in daily life. The way that I like to describe this genre of photography is imagining that the entire photoshoot is a movie production, and a lifestyle image is like a still from the movie.

There can understandably be a lot of crossover between portrait photography and lifestyle photography. For me, lifestyle photography is less about the details of a subject or capturing a model with perfect lighting, but looking at the scene as a whole and understanding how to show off the product in that environment. Essentially, lifestyle photography involves seeing the product/model in action.

Do Brands Need Outdoor Lifestyle Photography?

Lifestyle product photography provides an opportunity for a brand to show off their unique voice. If the brand produces lightweight camera bags geared toward adventurers, a close-up shot of the camera bag in a studio won't necessarily get the message across. Lifestyle photography involves thinking about location, the brand's demographic, and the overall story of the photoshoot.

In the photos below, I worked with actress Rhea Morales and male model Clifton Sneed for an outdoor photoshoot with a backpack in different locations around Los Angeles. I planned a city lifestyle photoshoot in Downtown Los Angeles to showcase the travel bag in the city. I also provided a mood board that would help Rhea pick out an outfit that made sense with the photoshoot. Alternatively, I went to the Griffith Observatory with Clifton for the blue backpack with a hiking narrative in mind. If you’re a backpack brand that focuses on adventure and travel, you might want to consider a photoshoot in the mountains rather than inside of a studio location.

How To Find A Good Outdoor Product Location

Location is one of the key factors for producing a successful product photoshoot for any brand. The location should align with the brand identity or concept of your photoshoot, but not distract from what you’re trying to advertise.

When it comes to lifestyle photography and working with models, location scouting is an extremely important step in the pre-production process because you need to take into account factors such as lighting on the models face, the environment that the model can interact with, how busy certain outdoor locations will be, and more.

If you are doing the photoshoot in a familiar location that you have visited before, then there’s an advantage of having an initial idea of what the lighting will be like at a certain time of day. Are there trees that would make a good background for the photoshoot? Do you have to take into account high-tide if you’re photographing at the beach? Is there a hidden gem in a busy location where you don’t have to worry about crowds of people walking in your shot?

I like to create mood boards for my photoshoots in order to map out an initial idea of what I want the photos to look like. Including a photo of the location in the mood board can help you decide whether or not the photoshoot will work in a certain location before production day.

Flat-lay photography in a studio under a controlled environment is a great way to capture the details of a product. But if you want to show off what your brand is about, it might be a good idea for clients to leave the studio and diversify your brand images with a photoshoot on-location.

One helpful tip for outdoor lifestyle product shoots is to play with different textures. When I was photographing a fragrance at the beach, I would use the sand, rocks, and grass as different backdrops.

Models for Lifestyle Product Photography

While you might not need to feature models for a lifestyle product photoshoot, casting talent provides a lot of benefits in the long run when getting your final photos. In the case of products like carry-on luggage, fragrances, or water bottles where the model isn’t wearing a product, you can produce a variety of images showcasing the product by itself and a model posing with them.

Another benefit of working with different models is if you’re trying to produce a photoshoot that targets a certain demographic - something that would be a lot more difficult to do if you just photograph the product by itself.

As I mentioned before, lifestyle product photography usually involves seeing that production in action, and having a model take the place of the customer is a great way to showcase your product in an authentic light. 

One of the biggest challenges you might run into when it comes to outdoor photography with a model is lighting.

Natural Lighting for Outdoor Product Photography

As a lifestyle photographer who shoots outdoors, the time of day is one of the most important things I consider when choosing a location. Depending on what kind of shot you’re trying to get, you need to be conscious of how the light is hitting the model’s face or your product. If you set up your product shoot in the middle of a sunny day with a model, you’re going to get harsh shadows hitting the models face.

One of my favorite locations for lifestyle photography (and for travel in general) is the beach. For two separate photoshoots, I shot the same beach location during sunrise and sunset. I already had in mind how the model’s face would be lit and how the product (earrings and watch respectfully) would appear in the final image.

If you are in a situation where you need to photograph a model in the middle of the day and under harsh lighting conditions (and assuming that’s not the look you’re going for), I would advise to find a location that has some shade so you can get some kind of even lighting. In the photoshoot below with Alex Cojocaru, I started off the photoshoot underneath the Venice Beach Pier because we started about an hour before the sunset and the sun was too harsh.

Composition Tips for Lifestyle Photographers

Product photoshoots in the studio will usually be shot up close and bring attention directly to the product and its details. When it comes to photographing products outdoors, I like to showcase a variety of different compositions to showcase product brands in action in the location.

One of my favorite products to photograph is watches. Instead of just taking close up photos of the watch itself, I’ll also include photos of the model wearing the watch that are zoomed out so you can see the location.

Asking the model to walk around, put on accessories with the hand their watch is on, and other posing ideas that require you to get a wider angle of the shot is helpful in producing a variety of product photos outdoors.

You can see more examples of how I photograph watches in a blog post I wrote featuring campaign photography ideas for watch brands and microbrands.

Final Notes

There are a lot of technical and logistical factors that come into play when I’m producing an outdoor lifestyle photoshoot for a product or brand. I look for specific locations that will fit the mood of the photoshoot, find models that meet the demographic of the photoshoot, plan for the best time of the day to produce the shoot, and work as a creative director to make sure that the photoshoot goes as smoothly as possible.

Despite all of the challenges that can arise in an outdoor photoshoot, the final photos are definitely worth it.

If you’re a brand looking for a lifestyle photoshoot or video shoot to promote your product, don’t hesitate to reach out. I am available to work with brands worldwide. If you’d like to know more about my process, I invite you to read my approach to commercial advertising photography.

Until next time and thank you for reading!

Explore my website further:

• Downtown Los Angeles Photoshoot with Rhea Morales

• Commercial Lifestyle Product Photography Gallery

• Nolan O'Connor Downtown Los Angeles Lifestyle Photoshoot

• Sunset Photography at Venice Beach, Los Angeles

• Cinematic Photography with Natural Light

• Sunrise Beach Photoshoot with Erla Garcia