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When a Montreal brand launches a new product, the first decision is rarely the launch date — it is whether the press kit photography is ready in time. Editors at The Globe and Mail, La Presse, NYLON Canada, BlogTO, MTL Blog, and Quebec lifestyle outlets receive hundreds of pitches per week. The brands that get covered are the ones whose press kit images can be dropped straight into a story without a follow-up email. As a working product photography Montreal studio, here is exactly what your EPK should contain in 2026.
What an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) Actually Is
An EPK is a single downloadable folder — usually delivered as a Dropbox or Google Drive link — that contains everything a journalist or content creator needs to write a story about your launch without contacting you. The folder includes the press release, brand bio, founder headshots, hero product photography, lifestyle imagery, packaging shots, and high-resolution logo files. Photography is the largest component, and the most common reason kits get rejected is that the imagery is too small, too dark, or too on-brand-promotional and not editorial enough.
The Eight Image Types Every Press Kit Needs
- Hero product on neutral background. A clean, well-lit hero of the product itself — the image that becomes the article’s lead photo. See our hero product photography guide for what makes a hero image earn the click.
- Hero product on lifestyle backdrop. Same product, real-feeling environment, room for the magazine to crop wide or tall.
- Packaging in-context. The unboxing or shelf-ready packaging shot that lets the editor show what arrives at the customer’s door.
- In-use or on-model shot. Hand model holding the bottle, foot wearing the shoe, person assembling the kit. This is the image that humanizes the product.
- Founder portrait, vertical and horizontal. Most brand profiles need both a vertical for Instagram embeds and a horizontal for desktop layouts.
- Founder with product, environmental. The founder in their workshop, kitchen, or studio holding the product. This is the image lifestyle magazines ask for most.
- Detail macro. A tight macro of texture, stitching, or material detail. Premium magazines love this. Our macro product photography service covers the technique.
- Brand world or studio overview. A wider shot that gives the journalist a sense of where the brand makes or sells the product.
Image Specs That Get Past the Editor
Press images must be a minimum of 3000 pixels on the long edge, 300 dpi, sRGB colour space, JPEG or TIFF. File names should describe the image: brandname_hero_white_01.jpg not IMG_5471.jpg. Editors receiving 200 emails a day will not rename your files. Our image naming guide covers the convention we use.
Why Press Kit Photography Is Different From Product Photography
Standard e-commerce product photography is sales-driven: every image works hard to convert. Press kit photography is editorial: every image must look like it could already be in the magazine. That means more white space around the subject, more atmosphere, less aggressive cropping, and absolutely no overlay text or logos burned into the image. The journalist needs the freedom to crop, recompose, and pair the image with their own headline.
Founder Portraits: The Single Most Underrated Asset
Most Montreal brand launches under-invest in founder photography. Profile journalists often need three or four different portrait images to support a long-form feature. Provide a tight headshot, a mid-length environmental shot, a wide environmental shot, and one candid working shot. We shoot founder portraits on the same studio day as the product hero work, which keeps the cost down. Browse our studio portfolio for examples.
Lifestyle Backdrops That Travel Well
Press kit lifestyle images need to translate to print, desktop, mobile, and Instagram embeds. Choose neutral interior environments, soft natural light, and human elements that suggest use without obscuring the product. Avoid overly trend-forward backdrops that will look dated within six months — magazine archives last forever.
Quebec Press Outlets That Care About Imagery
If you are pitching Quebec outlets — La Presse, Le Devoir, Châtelaine, Coup de Pouce, Elle Québec, Véro magazine — caption your images in French. If pitching Anglophone Canadian press, English captions are fine. For dual-language launches, see our bilingual product photography approach.
Launch Day Coordination
Your press kit photography needs to be ready a minimum of 4 weeks before launch day so journalists have time to schedule the story. We typically schedule press kit shoots 6–8 weeks before launch, allow 2 weeks for retouching and selects, and deliver final assets 4 weeks before press embargoes lift. See our product launch guide for the full timeline.
Common Press Kit Mistakes
Mistake one: sending only square Instagram-cropped images to print magazines. Mistake two: watermarking images. Editors will not use watermarked imagery, full stop. Mistake three: low-resolution exports. Mistake four: forgetting horizontal versions of vertical images. Mistake five: not including a basic image-rights line (“Free to use with attribution to BrandName, photo by [your photographer]”). Mistake six: treating the press kit as a one-time deliverable instead of a living asset that gets refreshed each season.
What a Montreal Press Kit Shoot Costs
A typical press kit shoot at our studio runs CAD 2,500–5,000 depending on number of products, whether founder portraits are included, whether you need lifestyle imagery in addition to studio work, and the depth of retouching. Compare to our standard pricing, press kit work commands a premium because the editorial sensibility takes longer to nail.
Crowdfunding Press Kits
If your launch runs through Kickstarter or Indiegogo before retail, you also need a separate crowdfunding image set with embedded campaign messaging. Our crowdfunding photography guide covers the differences.
External References
The PR Daily archive maintains useful editorial guidelines on what journalists actually want from brand press kits. Canadian PR association CPRS publishes guidance on Quebec-specific press relations.
Launching a Montreal brand and need a press kit that earns coverage? Book a kit shoot at our studio and we will plan the deliverable list against your press calendar.
