Oat & Ember Bakery · 2026
Oat & Ember: a still life system for 18 bakery products
Packaging and campaign stills for an organic granola and cracker brand, built as a repeatable lighting system so new products can be shot to match.
- Client
- Oat & Ember Bakery
- Year
- 2026
- Role
- Still life photographer
- Duration
- 3 studio days
- Services
- Still life
- Packaging photography
- Campaign stills
The problem
Oat & Ember was moving from farmers markets into three national grocery chains and needed new packaging across eighteen products in six months. The design agency had already set the pack layout: one hero shot of each product on a plain background, plus a texture crop for the side panel. The brand also wanted six campaign images for in-store displays and social.
The real problem was consistency. Products ranged from pale oat crackers to dark rye granola, they had to sit side by side on a shelf, and new flavours would launch every season. The budget allowed three studio days, a food stylist and one reshoot day if needed. Anything shot had to be reproducible by me, a year later, without guesswork.
Process
- 01
Testing the light on the darkest product
I built the lighting around the hardest product, the rye and cacao granola, which loses all texture under flat light. The final setup is one large softbox as a north window at 45 degrees, a black flag opposite for shape, and a small grid spot raking the surface from behind. Every measurement went into a lighting diagram the brand now keeps.
- 02
Styling and capture
The stylist and I worked through six products a day on the same linen surface. I shot tethered on a 100mm macro lens at f/11 with focus stacking for the texture crops, so every flake stayed sharp. The agency's designer joined remotely and dropped each frame into the pack template live, which caught two framing problems before lunch on day one.
- 03
Colour for cardboard
Packaging is printed on uncoated board, which darkens and warms everything. I proofed three images with the printer before grading the full set, then built an output profile that compensates for the board. Web and campaign files were graded separately from the same raw files, so the screen versions keep their contrast.
Selected images
The lighting diagram alone was worth the fee. We shot two new flavours this spring and nobody can tell which day they were made.
Outcome
Eighteen packs went to print without a reshoot, and the reshoot day was used instead for four new flavours. The brand launched in all three grocery chains on schedule. When the next flavour arrived, I reproduced the setup from the diagram in under an hour and the new pack sits on the shelf with the rest of the range.
- 54
- final images across the range
- 0
- reshoots needed
- 3
- grocery chains at launch
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All work