Benton Collins has spent years mastering the artful nuances of commercial product photography in Brooklyn, NY and beyond.

He understands that product photography should speak to the consumer; make them covet what they see on the page or screen and reach for it with their own hands. That this image should make the audience want to eat your food, buy your product, and use your technology that they’re compelled to buy it.

His focus is to create a lasting image or a video that accomplishes his client's goals. After years of working with large, national clients—such as Coke, Pepsi, Sony —and top agencies in the industry, Benton knows exactly what that takes.

"Creating images that convey meaning and subtext is what I strive to achieve as a photographer. Ideally, a photograph should tell a story, or at a minimum invoke an intended feeling in the viewer. If the project allows, I love to collaborate with clients towards achieving images that effectively communicates a story or intended feeling.

Other times, I'm asked to just take a great photo, and that has it's place too! The bottom line is that I always deliver what the client wants, wether it's high resolution still images for advertising or an impactful video.

One of my latest shoots was for a very high end LP turntable manufacturer called TechDAS. While I've shot their more expensive models, this shoot was shooting stills and video of their $20k "entry level" model. I consider audio equipment to be one of my specialties."

Title: The Shape of an Icon

"This is a photograph of red paint poured into water and shaped into the silhouette of the iconic Heinz ketchup bottle, with labels and cap added to complete the effect. The image was created in a series of lessons for my photography student, Ian Bianco. The first lesson involved shooting red acrylic paint being poured into a fish tank of water which required a fast studio flash and careful timing to capture the pour at the best moment.

The second lesson was shooting the classic Heinz glass ketchup bottle for it's labels, cap and overall shape. The third lesson was compositing the elements together in Photoshop, which involved stripping out the labels and cap using the pen tool, creating a guide outline of the bottle shape also using the pen tool, and then finally pushing the pixels of the best paint pour to fit within the boundaries of the outline guide using the liquify tool. I left the lower sides and bottom of the pour in its naturally captured state to add an organic randomness to the overall image."