Black Pear Bespoke were preparing to launch a new line of furniture. Every piece carries its own bespoke touches, but the collection itself is repeatable, which meant they needed a proper library of images to promote it: a clear list of consistent angles for each piece, plus detail shots that let customers appreciate the craftsmanship up close.

The deliverables were cut-out images with built-in base shadows, so each piece could be superimposed onto different backgrounds, dropped into the various layouts on their website, and used print-ready in marketing materials. One set of photographs, endlessly reusable. That’s exactly what a product library should be.

Hiring a studio big enough for furniture, with an infinity curve to match, doesn’t come cheap. Then there’s the transport: moving large, handcrafted pieces across the county introduces cost, hassle, and the very real risk of damaging the products before they’ve even been sold. So we made the practical decision to photograph the collection at Black Pear Bespoke’s new work unit. There was plenty of space, and furniture could be swapped out in minutes rather than hours.

As this was my first shoot with this client, I brought considerably more kit than I expected to need. When you’re building a new working relationship, you want to be able to handle anything that comes up on the day, and it’s far better to have a light you never use than to need one that’s sitting back at the studio.

After an induction and a scoping conversation on arrival, we decided to use the client’s existing 2.74-metre roll of off-white background paper, mounted on the background stand I’d brought with me. That made life easier on the day and gave the client more options for the final photographs. The paper had picked up various marks over time, but that was never going to be a problem: the plan from the start was to clean up the backgrounds in post-production and also deliver the furniture as cut-outs.

During the shoot, the conversation turned to lifestyle shots, the furniture photographed in a beautiful room, telling a story. The sticking point was finding a suitable location. I regularly scout locations and work with stylists for exactly this kind of shoot, but for this project it was likely to push the budget further than made sense at this stage.

Because we were already delivering the images with transparent backgrounds, there was another option: I created a few samples using Google Gemini to show what an AI-generated room setting could look like around the real photography.

A lot of photographers are shunning AI because they think it will take business away from them. My view is simpler: if it gives clients what they need, it’s worth considering. A real-world lifestyle shoot is always the best way to tell a story, and I’ll happily make the case for one. But if it’s not in the budget, and your customers can’t visualise what a piece could look like in their own home, you will lose sales. The ability to picture a product in context without a sample in front of you is rarer than you’d think.

Black Pear Bespoke now have a library of consistent, professional images of the new collection: hero angles and detail shots of every piece, cleaned up and also cut out with built-in base shadows, ready for their website layouts, marketing, and print. And because I also provided images that are transparent cut-outs, they can be placed on any background the brand needs in future, real or AI-assisted, without another shoot.

If you’re a furniture maker or product-based business in Worcestershire, Birmingham, or the wider West Midlands, and a studio shoot doesn’t suit your products or your budget, shooting on location at your own premises might be the answer. I bring the studio to you.

If you would like to discuss a photography project to help you increase sales, get in touch.

Get in touch to discuss your project → Discuss your project