The Subject:
Why I photographed Judith Williams mascara as a creative challenge
I chose Judith Williams as a creative subject because metallics are everywhere in prestige beauty, and most photographers get them wrong. Brands trying to communicate luxury end up with harsh glare, distracting hotspots, and surfaces that look stamped from aluminum foil. Working from Vancouver, I wanted to prove a different approach was possible. The mascara's satin tube and coordinated purple cap offered the perfect challenge: how do you preserve that reflective sheen without crossing into cheap, and how do you make the brush a functional focus without losing elegance? I set this up as a personal project to explore what brands positioned between clinical performance and sensorial luxury need when they shoot reflective packaging.
The Strategy:
Matching photography to market position
If a brand like this needed launch imagery that balances innovation and refinement, I'd start with their market position. Judith Williams sells a nature plus science story (anti-aging ingredients from Edelweiss, tubing technology mascara formulas), but they're priced for accessible premium, not ultra luxury. That means the photography needs to read credible and elegant at the same time. Too cold and it feels pharmaceutical. Too glossy and it feels like hype without proof. The brief I set for myself was to create images that could anchor a product detail page, support a campaign launch, and feed paid social without feeling like three separate shoots.
The Execution:
How I controlled metallic surfaces without losing refinement
The biggest technical decision was how to light the metallic tube. I used controlled highlights to shape the reflection across the barrel, creating clean gradients that preserve the satin finish instead of a single blown out hotspot. The purple background was chosen specifically to flatter the metal's natural tones and unify the reflections, so the tube and cap feel harmonious instead of lit independently. For the brush detail, I shot tight enough to show individual bristle fidelity, which becomes important when you're selling tubing technology or Ultra Black formulas. People want proof the wand delivers. I kept the angle consistent across the set so the tube reads premium in volume without distortion.
Building flexibility into the composition
Composition was built for cropping flexibility from the start. The angled placement and negative space mean these images work as product page photos, banner crops, and vertical social cuts without rework. I shot the brush both in context and as a standalone macro because mascara briefs almost always need both: the full product for recognition and the detail for performance storytelling. The lighting setup was repeatable so a brand shooting a full range could maintain consistency across SKUs, which matters when you're launching multiple shades or finishes and need the collection to feel unified on a product page.
The Deliverable:
A flexible photo collection for launch, commerce, and social
What these images are is a flexible photo collection: shots that pair the tube and brush for launch storytelling, clean e-commerce angles of the packaging for product pages, and macro texture studies for education driven content or paid social. They work well for brands that need to communicate innovation without sacrificing warmth (metallic packaging that looks engineered but still inviting, macro details that prove performance without feeling clinical). This approach could serve beauty brands selling premium formulas where the packaging and functional components both need to shine, literally and figuratively.
The Result:
Metallics that elevate instead of undermine price perception
The set demonstrates how a Vancouver product photographer can control metallics so they elevate price perception instead of undermining it. Most teams I talk to mention the same frustration: they get beautiful tubes back from production, shoot them, and the photos look flat or cheap because the lighting wasn't sculpted for that surface. These images show what's possible when you treat reflective cosmetics packaging as a lighting design problem, not just a product on a sweep. For brands in the accessible luxury lane, that control becomes a competitive advantage. Your product pages don't just inform, they convince.
Ready to build a visual system that makes your packaging look as premium as it feels? Let's talk about what your next launch needs.
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