Product Photography: Greeting Cards

March 1, 2022

Just about everything has gone digital, but thankfully, greeting cards are still going strong. I mean, could you be any more rude than send someone you love an E-card? Nope. You might as well spit in their face. Anyways, In the last couple years, I’ve had the pleasure of creating hundreds of product photos for the artist and illustrator Quinn Curnow. Recently, she had a new batch of greeting cards for me to photograph.

Product photography for e-commerce is always so much fun for me, because I really get to slow down and focus on the details. I love taking someone’s creation and making photos that best represent their hard work and vision. These photos have to show all the detail and quality of the product. They also have to make the viewer feel like they are holding the item in their very hands.

Pink Background

For these greeting cards, I created two different looks. The first gallery in this post (above) incorporates colorful pink papers as a surface/background and use a side-light to create depth and show off a bit of texture. I also used a bounce card (out of frame, camera right) to control shadow darkness.

White Background

In the second gallery (also above), the lighting is a little more even. Catalog photos need to be clean and simple, and nothing more. One thing I did was place a greeting card on a small item to lift it off the white surface. This creates a short shadow that further frames the item and provides just a bit of depth. As you can see from the setup photo (below) the main light is behind and quite a bit above the product. I flagged off the light with a bounce card to control the intensity on the background.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you can see the care and attention that was put into both the greeting cards and also the photos themselves. Down with E-cards!

-Chris