IN-HOUSE VS OUTSOURCING PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY: WHICH IS BETTER?
We’re ready for your close up now
Anyone in the e-commerce business—whether you’re a startup or an established brand—knows what goes into running it. From purchasing to inventory, from sales and marketing to customer service, you’ve already got a lot on your plate!
That’s why adding an entirely new department to that list should at least be carefully considered. Having your product photography or content marketing in-house undoubtedly gives you more control, but also requires more resources. Outsourcing these solutions mean the opposite.
Either way, the fact remains that if there was one area you need to invest in, it’s in professional product photography. However small or large your business is, the numbers show that you always benefit from high quality images, because they speak to your professionalism and credibility. No one trusts a site populated with poorly taken product shots. It’s that simple.
There’s always going to be a trade-off, so it’s up to you to determine which option better suits your company’s needs. Make sure you read to the end for a possible third option.
The Pros and Cons of In-House Product Photography
Let’s start with the upside.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of having your own in-house team is exactly that: it’s your team. Members are handpicked and the processes and standards are tailored to your exact specifications; from concept to execution. You have full control.
This goes a long way in maintaining brand consistency when it comes to tone of voice and visual communication, especially if they’re working directly with the relevant departments within your organization. In short, you assembled a dedicated team of experts who know and understand your business inside out. And that level of predictability is always comforting.
You can set up your studio in your office or warehouse, which saves you time and money in transport and logistics. This is particularly advantageous if you’re dealing in very big objects like heavy machinery or industrials-sized equipment. More convenience and less friction equal higher productivity.
Additionally, the higher the volume of images you require per year, the more costly it becomes to outsource, making in-house the more viable solution. You can read more about what goes into setting up your own studio.
Just a few basic tools. But you might need a lot more.
And Now, the Downside
The initial investment for a professional product photography studio is steep. The very process of putting together the perfect team takes time and money. Hiring the best is expensive, and training people to meet certain standards also requires resources. And even with the personnel covered, you’ll inevitably experience growing pains while overcoming the learning curve honing technical skills, processes, and workflow, which could conceivably take months, or even years.
The studio itself is an enormous expense. You’ll need space, determined by the kind of products you sell. But most of all, you’re looking at a huge investment in equipment. Cameras, lenses, tripods, lights, computers, and software are just the beginning. Sourcing the best deals for your gear (because you’re going to want to save wherever you can) is, put simply, quite involved.
And then there’s the upkeep. If you’re doing your product photography in-house, you’re likely working with a high volumes of images. This translates to the accelerated wear and tear of your very pricey gear, in addition to utilities and other hidden costs of running a studio.
Shooting a product is one thing. Editing the image in post-production is another.
The Pros and Cons of Outsourced Product Photography
The biggest advantage in hiring a professional product photography studio is that it’s a turn key solution. That’s why outsourcing especially benefits small companies with limited time and resources. You get access to a highly specialized team with years of experience and an established workflow. There’s no learning curve to contend with.
What you get are high quality images within a quick turnaround time. They can conceptualize, style, shoot, edit, and archive your product shots in a matter of days. By employing their services, your costs are fixed, and since the price per shot is quite low, you can easily earn back what you spent with just a few sales.
Professional product photography studios are purpose-built to produce high quality images efficiently and cost effectively. They are tried and tested and therefore a pretty safe bet. And if it proves too expensive or inconvenient to send your items to them, some studios would be glad to go to you, which would still offset the cost of transport.
It’s also in the studio’s interest to maintain and upgrade their gear to keep abreast of the latest technology in order to produce the highest quality output. They’re also versed in the constantly changing platform requirements when it comes to following standards and regulations for uploading product photographs. You can add all this to the list of things you don’t have to worry about.
We take a deeper dive into the benefits of outsourcing here.
Have camera, will travel
There Are a Few Cons, Though
The biggest is that you have less control. Unlike having an in-house team, you’ll have to at least relinquish some of it. You’re not going to be the only client, so if you want something done urgently, you still have to wait in line. That means a longer lead time. Having your own studio allows you more freedom to maneuver, make changes on the fly, or respond quickly to sudden changes in the market. It could mean the difference between having something done by the end of day, as opposed to the end of the week.
Outsourcing inevitably becomes a matter of whether your company and a prospective studio are a good fit. And sometimes that can take time. You’re also dealing with a separate team, so it’ll take extra effort to align your vision with their execution. That means having to clearly brief them on what you want and how you want it. And if that changes over time, you’d have to repeat this process.
There’s also a sweet spot regarding the volume of images. If you’re looking to shoot tens of thousands of images a year, then it will be far more cost effective to have your own product photography team in place. In fact, we’d say that volume plays the biggest factor in your decision of whether you want to go in-house or outsource.
We Shall Overcome
Barring the need for a high volume of images, you can easily overcome the major cons of outsourcing your product photography to a professional studio, and still get the benefits of an in-house team. It just requires a bit more planning and making sure you’re very clear on what you want.
There are plenty of product photography studios to choose from. It’s even possible to hire someone for much cheaper outside your country, where rates more than compensate the cost of shipping, depending on your product of course.
Here’s a quick guide on what to look for.
By forging a partnership with your studio of choice, it’s easy enough to develop a relationship where they know exactly what you’re looking for when it comes to product photography. You can eventually negotiate for better rates and even enjoy preferential treatment.
But Wait, There’s More…
What if you could have it both ways? What if you could bypass the learning curve, avoid the huge initial investment, and pay none of the upkeep?
As promised, there’s a third option. For medium to large businesses who can’t justify the expense of putting up their own studio, they can opt for secondment. This essentially means a studio, like FMI, will second a team that exclusively handles the company’s product photography requirements. It’s like tapping a third party like you would for custodians and security.
For a fixed monthly retainer—calculated according to your needs—you get a dedicated, professional product photography team with none of start-up cost. Companies can immediately leverage the studio’s experience, equipment, and space, while also avoiding the HR headaches that come with the additional headcount. You get the best of both worlds, with none of the downside!
THE BOTTOM LINE
In summary, outsourcing remains the best, most cost-effective option for MSMEs who don’t require a huge volume of images. On the other end of the spectrum, bigger brands stand to benefit from putting up their own. And of course, there’s a happy medium for those who don’t quite have the numbers to justify an in-house team but still want all the advantages it entails.
So we’ve covered the broad strokes between alternatives. The second part of this series goes deeper into what actually goes into setting up your own in-house product photography studio.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions or if we missed anything out.
https://pencilone.com/reasons-to-outsource-product-photography/
https://www.squareshot.co/post/in-house-vs-outsourced-product-photography