The Brief:
Turning sensory experience into a credible purchase reason
I chose Truly Beauty as a creative subject because they've nailed something most brands either ignore or overdo: turning sensory experience into a credible purchase reason. Clean beauty often looks too sterile or too whimsical, and body-care products (especially after-shave oils and serums) rarely get the visual storytelling they deserve. The brief I set for myself was to capture texture and usage in a way that would work for both e-commerce conversion and social feeds, showing how macro sequences and paired product shots could communicate viscosity, dosage, and ritual without relying on lifestyle casting or heavy retouching.
The Challenge:
Making texture tangible for online shoppers
If a brand like Truly needed imagery that translated "feels like glazed luxury" into something a shopper could trust on a product detail page, here's how I'd approach it. Working from Vancouver, I'd start by understanding the core tension: these products win on sensory payoff (oils that glide, serums that sink in, textures that feel indulgent but never greasy) but standard product photos can't communicate any of that. Online shoppers need to imagine the product in use, especially for categories like after-shave care where trust and clarity matter. The business challenge is conversion friction: if the texture reads sticky or the application feels unclear, hesitation kills the sale.
The Execution:
Lighting and macro sequences that show viscosity
I built the lighting around soft, even diffusion to eliminate glare on the glossy orange bottle and keep the label typography pin-sharp. Truly's packaging is bright and playful, so I needed reflection control that preserved the brand's energy without blowing highlights or distorting the logo. The dropper became the main element, not just shown alongside the bottle, but captured mid-release in a macro sequence. I wanted each frame to show the serum leaving the dropper, pooling slightly, and demonstrating viscosity. That visual rhythm translates thickness and flow into something a customer can almost feel, which is important when "glazed" or "jelly" is part of the product story.
Solving transparency and reflection challenges
Glass and transparent packaging introduce their own challenges. I positioned the bottle and dropper at angles that revealed depth and liquid level without creating competing reflections or muddying the blue serum tone. The calibrated color work balanced Truly's playful orange branding against the cool blue formula, keeping both vibrant but true. I shot on white and neutral backdrops to give the brand maximum flexibility: these images could function on product pages, marketplace listings, or cropped for social ads. Each composition stayed uncluttered so the product remains the focus, with enough breathing room to support text overlays or bundle pairings later.
Proof moments that communicate texture in two seconds
The macro work focused on what I call "proof moments": close-ups of the dropper releasing serum, beads forming, texture spreading. I positioned the light to show the liquid's consistency without making it look artificial or overly retouched. These frames are designed to drop into enhanced content modules, email campaigns, or social hooks where the goal is to communicate sensory experience in under two seconds. The images are truthful: if the serum is lightweight and fast-absorbing, the macro shows that. If it has slip and glide, the photography demonstrates it. This approach works well for performance marketers who need images that reduce purchase hesitation and give creative teams modular pieces that adapt across different channels.
The Outcome:
A flexible system built for conversion and brand consistency
The collection includes clean product shots with legible labels and consistent angles, texture sequences that show application and flow, and styled frames that reinforce Truly's premium-playful positioning. As a personal project, this demonstrates my capability to deliver e-commerce-ready imagery that bridges brand aesthetic and conversion fundamentals, something beauty brands need when they're launching SKUs fast and can't afford endless revision loops. The work shows I understand serum texture photography from both a technical and strategic standpoint: how to light glossy and transparent surfaces, how to communicate viscosity and dosage visually, and how to build a flexible image system that performs on product pages, in ads, and across marketplaces.
If your brand is struggling to show texture credibly or needs product photography that works as hard on e-commerce as it does on social media, let's talk about building a visual system that bridges the gap.
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- other recent projects
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Superjelly supplement photography using levitation technique and flavor-matched backgrounds for e-commerce
Quo Beauty Tangle Teezer photographed with precision colour blocking and macro bristle detail
Kristin Ess haircare product photography with controlled highlights and label clarity
