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If your brand sells through DTC e-commerce, Reels are the highest-leverage paid-social asset on the calendar — and Instagram Reels product photography Montreal is now a daily request from our DTC clients. The math is straightforward: a Reel that converts at 0.6% CTR earns three to five times the impression equity of a static feed post for the same media spend. To produce that kind of Reel reliably, you need a shoot day that prioritizes 9:16 vertical hooks, looping motion, and clean product reveals in the first 1.2 seconds.
What makes Reels product photography different from static
Static product photography Montreal work is anchored in a single composed frame. Reels work demands stacked frames: a hook (frames 0–30), a payoff (frames 30–90) and a recovery (frames 90–end) — all shot, lit and staged for vertical playback. Background depth, parallax-friendly props and the option to drop a clean motion-graphic overlay all change how we light and frame. Pure-white hero stills are still part of the package — and a 1080×1920 vertical hero crop is now an automatic deliverable on every shoot.
How we shoot Reels in Montreal
We capture hero stills, lifestyle, and a Reel-ready short clip in the same shoot. The clip is shot on a stabilized rig — sometimes a slider, sometimes a robotic arm — at 60fps for slow-motion play, in DCI-P3 color so the brand colour stays on-brand from Instagram preview into TikTok. We share a vertical 1080×1920 master plus a 1080×1350 portrait crop for feed, and a 1080×1080 square for Pinterest. The whole reel-ready workflow is laid out on our TikTok product photography page — Reels deliverables overlap entirely.
Hook frames, reveal frames, payoff frames
The hook frame is the most important asset of the day. We shoot 4–6 candidate hook frames per SKU — top-down drops, hand-in-frame product reveals, close-up macro detail (see our macro product photography page) and clean lifestyle holds. The brand team picks the hook in the editing booth, we cut to spec. Payoff frames lean on our lifestyle product photography workflow.
Reels vs static still photography vs cinemagraph
If you need motion that doesn’t read as full video — a single moving element on an otherwise still frame — that’s a cinemagraph, and we shoot those on the same day for premium DTC brands. If you want a 360° spin for the PDP, that’s our 360 product photography service. Reels live in between, and the lighting strategy is closer to a hybrid still-and-clip setup than to traditional video production.
Volume math for DTC Reels
Most of our DTC clients keep a weekly Reels cadence of 3–5 pieces. We batch that as a monthly shoot day — 12–20 Reels worth of footage banked, edited and ready to push. Compare with our video product photography service for longer-form work, and our YouTube thumbnail coverage if you’re also shipping long-form video.
Platform specs Reels demand in 2026
Aspect ratio: 9:16. Resolution: 1080×1920 minimum, 1440×2560 if you want headroom for re-crop. Duration sweet spot: 7–15 seconds for hook-and-payoff, 28–35 seconds for product-story Reels. Format: H.264 MP4 at 30 or 60fps. The reel-ready file naming convention we use: BRAND_SKU_HOOK_REVEAL_v1.mp4 with separate static frames as BRAND_SKU_HERO_1080x1920.jpg.
How to brief a Reels shoot
Bring product, packaging if relevant, and one reference Reel you wish you’d made — competitor or otherwise. We back-engineer hook, payoff and motion strategy from that reference, build a shot list, and lock the shoot date. Start at our contact page or review the services page.
Pricing and turnaround for Reels shoots
Monthly Reels-day pricing is published on our pricing page. Standard delivery on a 12-Reel batch is seven business days with hero stills delivered next-day. Rush available — see our same-day rush page.
FAQ for Instagram Reels product photography
Do you deliver edited Reels or just the footage? Both — we deliver the footage plus 2 cut versions per hook frame. Full edit-only packages are available.
Can you shoot Reels and static frames the same day? Yes — same lighting strategy, parallel deliverables.
Do you handle hand-in-frame product reveals? Yes — that’s one of our most-requested Reel frame styles.
Is voice-over or music included? We deliver the footage; music licensing and VO are scoped separately on request.
Authoritative reading: Instagram Help — Reels guidance.
