The Subject:
Why Purdys Chocolatier worked as a creative subject
I chose Purdys Chocolatier as a creative subject because they've built something rare in Canadian confectionery. A premium brand grounded in heritage recipes and ethical sourcing that still needs to sell hundreds of SKUs online during high-pressure seasonal windows. As a Vancouver chocolate product photographer, I see the visual challenge clearly. Packaging signals gifting and premium positioning, but conversion depends on showing customers exactly what's inside the box.
Chocolate is unforgiving on camera. Glare destroys texture, poor lighting turns milk chocolate grey, and fingerprints or dust become glaring flaws on dark shells. This project gave me a chance to solve those problems while building a flexible system that could work across e-commerce pages, email campaigns, and seasonal marketing.
The Brief:
Product-focused images that balance premium restraint with clear, appetizing detail
The brief I set for myself was straightforward. Create product-focused images that balance premium restraint with clear, appetizing detail. If a brand like Purdys needed to photograph boxed assortments for their online store, the images would need to do three things well.
- Show packaging accurately: bilingual labels sharp, brand colors true, no warped typography
- Reveal what's inside without heavy styling: piece count, variety, scale, and texture should be visible at a glance
- Maintain consistency across a high volume of SKUs: so the brand doesn't look fragmented between milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and vegan lines
I treated this as e-commerce food photography with a premium edge, not editorial indulgence.
The Execution:
Side and overhead lighting to control gloss without killing natural shine
I built the lighting around side and overhead setups to control gloss without killing the natural shine that makes chocolate look real. Chocolate reflects everything. Studio lights, the camera, even the photographer. I used large diffused light sources positioned to create highlights along edges and curves without blowing out detail.
For packaged shots, I kept lighting flat enough to preserve label legibility but added subtle shadow definition so boxes didn't look pasted onto the background. For open-box and assortment layouts, I shifted to a slightly elevated angle with softer overhead fill to show pieces clearly without harsh shadows between them. Temperature control mattered throughout. Chocolate blooms or melts under hot lights, so I worked in short bursts and kept backup pieces chilled between setups.
Minimal styling to maintain product clarity
Styling stayed intentional but minimal. I used pure white backgrounds for product shots that needed to function as clean listing images, the kind that work on product detail pages without competing for attention. For assortment layouts, I arranged pieces in simple grids that showed variety and inclusion count. Customers buying gift boxes want to see what they're giving, and cluttered compositions or dramatic props distract from that clarity.
I handled every piece with gloves to avoid fingerprints on dark shells, and I used a small steamer between takes to restore shine on molded bars without creating artificial wetness. These aren't tricks. They're standard protocols for chocolate work, but they separate credible images from amateur shots that look waxy or dull.
The Application:
Foundational content for omnichannel deployment
These images work well as foundational content for an omnichannel brand. The packaging shots could function as main views on product pages, showing boxes and sleeves with enough detail that shoppers trust what they're ordering. The open-box layouts serve as transparency tools. Here's what's inside. Which reduces purchase hesitation for assortments where customers can't see or taste before buying.
The cleaner, more minimal compositions adapt easily across placements. Email headers, paid social ads, homepage banners, even in-store signage if sized correctly. This approach would give a marketing team repeatable templates for seasonal launches. Swap the product, keep the lighting and composition logic, and maintain brand consistency without rebuilding the creative strategy every quarter. As a personal project, it demonstrates what I'd bring to a chocolatier or premium food brand that needs to move fast during peak seasons while keeping visual quality high.
The Takeaway:
Technical discipline matters more than dramatic concepts
The project reinforced something I've learned shooting reflective, temperature-sensitive products. Technical discipline matters more than dramatic concepts. Chocolate doesn't need moody lighting or heavy styling to look premium. It needs accurate color, controlled highlights, clean edges, and enough detail to feel real.
If you're a brand manager or creative lead working with boxed confections, seasonal assortments, or high-SKU gift lines, let's talk about building a photography system that scales without losing consistency. Working from Vancouver, I understand what premium Canadian brands need when they're balancing heritage positioning with e-commerce performance. Reach out and we'll plan a shot list that works.
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