When clients think of catalogue photography, they often picture a location shoot — a beautiful room, a real home, natural light. And sometimes that’s exactly the right approach. But a lot of our most striking catalogue work never leaves the studio.
The reason is control. In the studio, we build the environment from scratch — which means we can get it exactly right, every time, regardless of weather, access, or what the light is doing outside. For a recent radiator catalogue, that’s precisely what we did. Julie, who leads our studio set design work, explains how it came together.
The brief: make radiators aspirational
“When selling a product like radiators, the imagery can make all the difference to a sales pitch. It doesn’t matter how innovative or designer your range is — looking at a radiator as a standalone object is pretty uninspiring. But show the customer how it could look installed in their home, and suddenly browsing the catalogue becomes something you actually want to do.
“When several dozen radiators of various shapes and sizes arrived at the studio, my job was to create room backdrops that would make each one stand out. Because some images would appear quite small within the catalogue, I needed to keep the compositions clean — but still striking. Colour became the key element.”
The process: planning before shooting
“I sourced various paint palettes — from a rich deep red to duck egg blue — and painted boards to act as makeshift walls within the studio. The client also wanted an accompanying object in each shot, so I spent time finding unusual decorative pieces that would complement each radiator design without competing with it.
“I sketch out rough plans for each shot before anything goes in front of the camera — matching colour, product, and prop. It saves time on the shoot day and means every decision is deliberate.”
The feature shots: building a room
“For the feature photographs, we went further — adding a window with a view, curtains, and specialist lighting to create the effect of streaming sunlight. In front of the camera, mid-build, it doesn’t look like much. But the finished image is a different story entirely.”
That gap between the reality of a studio set and the finished photograph is exactly why this kind of work is worth doing properly. The camera sees what you intend it to see — not what’s actually there.
If you need catalogue or product photography that creates the right impression, get in touch.
To find out more about our commercial photography work, visit our service page.
Related reading: Product Photography: What to Expect From a Professional Studio Shoot.
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