The Context:
Why Purdy's Became My Benchmark for Vancouver Artisanal Chocolatier Product Photography
When you've built a life around Vancouver, its rain-silvered streets, its coffee rituals, its quiet pride in making things well, certain brands become part of your own story. Purdy's Chocolatiers is one of mine. I've watched their signature purple boxes move through hands at holidays and birthdays for years, noticed the way their Robson Street windows change with the seasons, absorbed the unspoken promise that what's inside will be exactly as good as you remember.
So when I wanted to push my capability in Vancouver artisanal chocolatier product photography beyond where client briefs typically allow, Purdy's became the natural subject. Not because I was hired, this is a personal portfolio project, but because their visual identity poses every technical challenge a food photographer should master. Glossy shells that trap every stray reflection. Caramel that needs to stretch at the perfect viscosity. Macro textures so fine they separate craft from commodity. A heritage narrative that must read as both 1907 and today.
The Brief:
Building a Multi-Channel Asset System for Retail Expansion
The hypothetical brief I set myself was strategic. If a brand like Purdy's needed a complete visual refresh to support expansion into grocery retail and seasonal e-commerce surges, what would the asset library look like? The answer isn't just prettier product shots. It's a system.
Every image would need to function across channels. Product detail pages that convert. Retail signage that stops foot traffic at Save-On-Foods end caps. Social content that drives engagement among younger buyers exploring vegan lines. Campaign hero shots that anchor the brand's ethical sourcing story.
The core challenge in chocolate photography is that the same glossy finish that signals quality becomes a liability under standard lighting. Every specular highlight turns into a distracting hotspot. Every uncontrolled reflection pulls focus from the product itself. Purdy's deserved reflection-free glossy chocolate images that let the viewer see craftsmanship, not the photographer's studio.
The second challenge was revelation. Showing what justifies the premium. That meant cutaway shots exposing ganache layers and caramel stretch. Macro caramel pour shots that make the physics of their original 1907 recipe visible. Texture macros capturing the toffee shards in their English Toffee, the hazelnut grain in Hedgehogs, the crystal structure of Himalayan Pink Salt Caramels.
The Execution:
Three Technical Systems for Chocolate That Performs Across Platforms
I approached the shoot as three interlocking systems. For the glossy shells, Sweet Georgia Browns, the vegan iterations, anything with that mirror-like finish, I built a tented diffusion setup with a circular polarizer and gradient cards to control specular highlights without killing the dimensional quality that makes chocolate look edible. The goal was images clean enough for e-commerce product detail pages but rich enough for print.
For cutaways, precision mattered more than spontaneity. I used a heated knife to section pieces. Timed the caramel drip to catch it mid-stretch. Focus-stacked to keep both the cut face and the flowing caramel tack-sharp. These shots are what convert browsers into buyers. They answer the "what am I actually getting" question before it becomes a return.
The macro work required a different mindset entirely. At 1:1 magnification with focus stacking, every micron of depth becomes a decision. Cross-polarized light revealed the granular texture of toffee, the nut inclusions in gianduja, the way pink salt crystals catch light differently than the caramel matrix around them. These aren't decorative details. They're proof points. They communicate artisanal craftsmanship and ethical sourcing in a way no copy ever will.
Styling the Heritage-to-Modern Tension
The styling carried the heritage-to-modern tension the brand lives in. I avoided the obvious. No forced vintage props or overly clinical white backgrounds. Instead, I used warm wood tones and subtle archival cues that nod to Vancouver-made tradition without falling into nostalgia.
The purple packaging became a compositional anchor. Purdy's brand equity is so tied to that color that any shot had to either feature it prominently or justify its absence. For the accessible packaging detail shots, I switched to raking light and macro magnification to render Braille legends and QR codes clearly. These aren't afterthoughts. They're differentiation. A Vancouver chocolate product photographer working with a brand this committed to inclusivity has a responsibility to make those details legible and beautiful.
Every frame was color-managed from capture through export, knowing that consistency across an e-commerce-ready PDP system isn't optional when products appear simultaneously on proprietary web platforms, third-party grocery retail sites, and in-store digital displays.
The Impact:
How This System Would Scale for Seasonal Campaigns and Retail Partnerships
What this portfolio project demonstrates is a system that would scale. The macro caramel pours could anchor seasonal gift campaign imagery, driving add-to-cart rates during November and December surges. The anti-reflection workflow would ensure product consistency whether the image lives on Purdy's own site, appears in a Save-On-Foods flyer, or gets adapted for Instagram Stories promoting the Dear Santa Bar.
The cutaway ganache shots would increase perceived value, and therefore average order value, by making the premium filling visible before purchase. The texture macros would support storytelling around sustainable cocoa sourcing and original recipes, giving the PR and brand teams assets that prove claims instead of just illustrating them.
For a brand navigating both an 80-store retail footprint and first-time grocery partnerships, this approach would deliver a visual language flexible enough for every channel but disciplined enough to maintain brand integrity.
If your brand faces a similar challenge, heritage that risks feeling dated, premium quality that's hard to communicate at thumbnail scale, or a product line that spans traditional and innovative, this is the kind of work that moves the needle. Let's talk about what your specific catalogue needs and how a strategic image system could support your next chapter.
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