The Product Placement challenge is the fourth and final challenge of Empower where we are joined by special guest instructors. Who better to lead this challenge than the masters of commercial pet photography, Nat and Bill from The Labs and Co.

In this challenge, our goal was to familiarise our challengers with the techniques and skills they need to become more comfortable with photographing pets and a product together in a natural way, and learning to create images ideally suited for commercial use.

We had a great variety of images submitted and we think it's fair to say our challengers enjoyed conjuring a client brief to shoot for during this one.

Here are our top 10 images, well done to the photographers.

Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

We provide video feedback on all images submitted for the challenge, and from there, we select our Top 20 and Top 10. Without further ado, here are the Top 10 images for this challenge!

Beatrix Szekelyi | @pawtion.dogphotography

The product is the most vibrant and bright part of this image, so the eye is immediately drawn to it. The image shows 2 angles of the product too, which is a nice bonus. And the dogs, setting and the owner have all been perfectly chosen and dressed.

Ginger Wick | Ginger Wick Photography

This is an image the brand would love, with multiple products being used. The moment feels genuine and there is a good amount of space for copy.

Helen Daniels | Not Just A Dog Photography

This is a fantastic and unique way to showcase this product. It's humorous and with the green background having plenty of space, there are different ways the image could be used, cropped and applied in a commercial setting.

Helen Green | Helen Green Photography

What a fun and creative image showing the dog shampoo, with the perfect breed. The joyful expression on the dogs face is really engaging and could easily sell the product!

Juliette Bercovici | Juliette Bercovici

What a great image, which gives the viewer an immediate emotional response. It's so fun and both human and dog have excellent expressions. This is more fitting of the editorial side of product photography and would work well with that application.

Liz Dranow | TimePunk Pet Photography

There's a lovely interaction and genuine moment of play here. The light and location makes the image feel quite aspirational and the product is shown off well!

Megan Thompson | Megan Thompson Photography

This is a lovely triptych showcasing the produce really well. The central hero image is excellent and the details shots showing the product being applied and used give three useful images for a client to use in a variety of ways.

Rebecca Labs

There's a fantastic balance in this image and in full would be ideal for a website banner or a double page magazine spread. But there is also versatility for a commercial client to crop it in different ways depending on how it is to be used.

Tanya Honkanen | Dog Letters From NYC
https://www.doglettersfromnyc.com/
https://www.instagram.com/doglettersfromnyc

This image has a lovely soft colour palette that is complementary to the pink jumper the dog is wearing. There's a good amount of negative space that allows copy space in a commercial scenario.

Yvonne Jansen | BlissfulTails

The colour harmony in this image has been thoughtfully chosen. The interaction is genuine and authentic. and seeing the brand logo repeated over multiple items hits the message home.

Empower is the advanced 6-month interactive challenge-based dog photography course in our Unleashed Challenges series, investing you with the power to refine your creativity and explore new horizons in dog photography.

Empower is open to students who have previously completed the first and second courses in the series, Embark and Emerge.

Want to be the first to hear when Embark opens for enrolment each year? Register your interest here.