Offering 360 Product Photography as a Service
Did you know 360 product photography is one of the hottest trends in online merchandising? Even 360 Product Photography in Amazon listings has begun! This presents a gold mine of opportunity for professional photographers and NOW is the time to capitalize….
UPDATE 4-15-2021: Iconasys now offers clients the opportunity to join the worlds largest 360 Product Photography Services Network for free
360 product images are the hottest trend in eCommerce Product Photography
In the past, 360 product photography required a large up-front investment to get started – a good professional photography turntable/software started at >$2,000. This was an investment that professionals would typically shy away from until they had a signed Purchase Order from their client that guaranteed to cover their initial investment in the equipment. This presented a revolving door in which no portfolio of 360 product views was available to convince their client they were the right candidate for the job. Or even worse, the work had to be turned down because the PO was not enough to cover the investment and manually shooting 360 product photography was just too painful and time consuming of a process.
We’re here to tell you there’s a better and more affordable way to get started in 360 Product Photography. Shutter Stream 360 Product Photography Software is the latest offering from Iconasys and was developed as an effective alternative to expensive, high end, professional 360 product photography turntables. Shutter Stream 360 is the first software of its kind that integrates camera control (Canon and Nikon DSLR compatibility), composition, capture, editing, process and 360 view output features into a single offering. By integrating tools that allow users to control the entire workflow through mouse clicks, users can expect efficiencies that rival the professional turntable solution – create a web-ready 360 product view composed of 24 JPG image (one shot every 15 degrees) in < 6 minutes when using a manual 360 product photography turntable.
Now that we have established there is a much more affordable alternative to 360 product photography as a service, lets get into the details about the service offering.
Pricing
Obviously pricing is the most important consideration – is it even worth your time to offer such a service? The short answer is yes – this is a no brainer. We have done an industry analysis and price points for 360 product photography as a service range from $35 (on the extreme low end) to as much as $250 per product on the high end. Pricing is quite complex as it includes multiple variables, the most important being:
Number of Frames: The more frames, the smoother the 360 rotation. On average most professionals are offering 360 product views with 24 frames – and this we agree is a good amount of frames to produce a relatively smooth 360 (see example 24 frame 360 product view). We would suggest 24-36 frames be your ‘standard offering’ however give an option for more frames should the customer wish to pay a premium. Learn more about 360 Product Photography Turntables
Product Orientation: A big consideration when quoting for a 360 job should be based on the product line you are being sourced to shoot. Consider the first example of a shoe. This is easy to shoot as a shoe lays flat on its sole and you are not required to prop it up in any way. Now lets consider shooting a 360 of a diamond ring – this will be simple if your customer is ok with the ring laying on its side however, should they be interested in having the ring stand up vertically, this will be a lot more challenging (update: see 360 Ring Mount Kit for Iconasys Turntables). And will require some sort of adhesive or prop to aid it in its position. A third consideration should be products with handles or straps that need to be propped such as a purse. While this is an easier task, it will still require some extra effort to achieve. Also consider Iconasys Turntable 360 Product Photography Hanging Kits.
Quantity of Products: Economies of scale come into consideration here. The more products, the lower the cost for shooting each product in a 360 view.
Size/Weight of Product: Bigger and heavier products will require a larger table for shooting, with a larger expense. In addition, you will require more lighting in your studio. Iconasys offers heavy duty 360 photography turntables that can support weights upward of 500 lbs.
As you can understand pricing gets quite complex. We would suggest to offer a standard pricing on your site starting at a competitive rate ($50 – $75 / product range) and offer different tiers of pricing based on quantities of product being shot. This will include a 360 web-ready output composed of 24 frames with a white background (Shutter Stream 360 has batch editing tools that can help automate editing to pure white backgrounds) Ex.
0-10 Products $75 per product
11-20 Products $60 per product
21-50 products $50 per product
50+ products $40 per product
It is also good to include a disclaimer of some sort stating that pricing can vary based on product orientation and to inquire to get a quote.
360 Product Photography Industry
The most attractive part about 360 product photography is the market it is relatively unsaturated – that is, there is not too much competition and the market is ripe for the picking. The beauty about this, as standard commercial photography also promotes, is local business is easier to capture. This simply comes down to shipping product to and from the studio location. It would be good to do some local searches for 360 product photography as a service to get a better feel for your competition and the rates they are offering. With some local marketing (Google Adwords, Yelp etc…) you can easily capitalize on the market.
360 Product Photography Output
After shooting a set of JPG images, you will compose these set of images into a 360 product viewer. This is a file that has supporting code and scripts that will play the 360 product view in a number of different ways. Typically output can include GIF, Flash, HTML+JavaScript or HTML5. There are drawbacks for each option (GIF image quality is poor and large file sizes, Flash will not display on mobile browsers, pure HTML5 will not work on older browsers that have not been updated). We would suggest HTML+JavaScript as it will work on any browser – both desktop and mobile. Also, it is important to note that should your potential customer be using a CMS or Ecommerce platform (ex. Shopify, Magento, X-Cart etc..) integration might not always be so simple. You should consider a 360 Product Viewer software program that will support embed code (iFrame) as these will be the easiest to integrate into any website. Take a look at the Iconasys 360 Product View Creator Software. It is the most advanced in the industry offering endless customization and multiple 360 product view format output.
Who Should you Target?
We see 360 product photography most prevalent in the fashion, apparel and accessories market. Think Jewelry, Apparel, Eyeglasses, Watches, Shoes, Handbags etc… However, there are many other product types that will benefit from 360 product views. Both retailers and manufacturers will benefit from interactive 360 product views.
Benefits of Offering 360 Product Photography
This is the why should I include 360 views of my products on my website? Chances are you will hear this from time to time. If this is an incoming lead, chances are they already understand the benefits
• Increased Conversion Rates
• Increase Customer Satisfaction
• Increase Session Duration
• Increased Customer Retention
• Decreased Product Returns
360 Product Photography is a nice way to generate additional revenues for commercial photographers. In addition, it can be affordably, easily and efficiently created using an Iconasys 360 Product Photography Software.
If you are not currently offering this, we strongly suggest you do so! Create a dedicated page on your website all about professional 360 product photography as a service. Common search engine terms are as follows:

We are happy to provide some sample 360 product views you can use on your website to highlight your offering. In addition, we are available should you have questions from potential customers you are unable to answer. Feel free to give us a call at +1 (949) 945-0779.
Learn more about Professional 360 Product Photography as a Service