High-quality, clear, and compelling product photography can convert website visitors into buyers. From Nike footwear to Amazon stores, all highlight product features on a white, transparent, or solid-color background. But why do they do that?
The answer is boosting sales and conversion rates through better photos. Are you curious thinking: how you capture product photos that boost your eCommerce sales and attract more potential traffic?
Your search is over! In this article, we’ll offer you expert-suggested product photography tips, how to shoot at home, set up strategies, a lighting guide, and more.
Let’s get started!
Before heading to the importance of product photography for eCommerce, let’s understand what product photography is.
Product photography is a type of still-life or commercial photography whose ultimate goal is to promote and market your product. capture your good images for sale. From showcasing the product’s unique features to benefits, high-quality product images entice shoppers to purchase the products.
Below are some reasons why product photography is important for your business:
- Influences’ first impressions: 93% of shoppers admitted that visual appearance influences their purchasing decisions. Crisp and consistent product images give consumers product-related details that are crucial for online business.
- Build brand identity: Product photography is a long-term investment for your business that communicates with your audience showcasing quality, professionalism, innovation, and more.
- Promote customer trust: 22% of online sold items are returned due to “items look different from the photos”. Professional product photography expresses product features, actual colors, and gives consumers a physical store shopping experience.
- Compete with business rivals: You might think your product is 100% unique, but without high-quality photos, you can’t beat your business rivals. So to differentiate yourself and gain more audience product visuals are a must-have thing.
- Encourage sharing: High-quality product visuals encourage the audience to share different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others.
Now that you’ve acknowledged the importance of product photography, it’s time to capture your own to promote your eCommerce business. Go through photography expert-suggested hacks in the next section!
Top 12 Product Photography Tips
As per Statista, eCommerce’s share of total global retail sales is around 20.1%. To attract a larger audience and build your brand value, high-quality product visuals are a must-have. There are a lot of product photography hacks that new entrepreneurs can use to capture product photos and improve their sales, such as:
1. Understand your product & target audience
The most important factor of product photography is knowing your product features and benefits. After that, finalize your marketplace where you want to sell your product, i.e., eCommerce store, social media, or others. Another important factor is considering the target audience.
All these help you to choose the perfect background, props, and composition. So do your research to attract your target audience and highlight the best product visuals. Also, consider the audience’s lifestyle and interests to resonate with them. For example, do they prefer vibrant colors, a minimalist look, or a vintage feel?
2. Use Proper Lighting
By choosing the right lighting, you can capture outstanding product photos. Natural light offers clear and authentic shots. For products of small to medium size, you can utilize sunlight. If the light is too harsh, use a white sheet or curtain to diffuse the light.
However, you can use artificial or studio lighting sources like softboxes or continuous LED lights to create even lighting. Other lighting hacks for jaw-dropping product visuals are:
- Clamp lights are helpful for different surfaces and adjusting to various angles.
- Three-point lighting setup including a key light, a backlight, and a fill light.
- String lights are useful for creating dreamy effects.
- Strobe and flashlights are effective for dynamic product photography.
- Overhead lighting is effective for flat-lay product photography.
- DIY light cones are useful for tabletop product photography.
- White bounce cards are excellent hacks for creating even illumination, filling in shadows, and reflect light back to the product.
But try to avoid harsh shadows, which can steal the natural glow of your product. You can also use fluorescent or tungsten lights but must avoid direct flash.
Note: Consider your product image purpose and the platform where you want to advertise it. Suppose natural light suits edible items, clothing, and others. Whereas, artificial suits for Amazon and Google shopping platforms.
3. Choose the right background
The right background plays an important role in creating sales-worthy product photos. It can enhance or distract the audience from the focus point. So before selecting the right background consider your product type, audience preferences, brand’s overall aesthetics, and advertising platform requirements.
Here are some different background options and use cases:
- White provides a clean and professional look that is ideal for eCommerce marketplaces.
- Gray suits dark colors or complex details products.
- Black creates a dramatic and sophisticated look that suits high-end products.
- Color background adds complement to your product or brand.
4. Shoot from Multiple Angles
Different product angles demonstrate product uniqueness and features that give the audience a physical store experience. It might be tempting to capture one or two photos of each product and then move along. But with this, you will not be able to get diverse phases of products.
Here, multiple photography angles play a vital role and demonstrate your product’s actual view. Some popular angles are:
- The eye level is like you are looking straight at it.
- The high angle or top angle is a cinematography technique like you are looking down at it.
- A low-angle product view is like you’re looking up at it.
- Bird’s eye view is like you’re standing above your product.
- Close-up shots focus on product details like texture, pattern, or materials.
Note: You must use a tripod to keep your shots consistent and rotate products to change angles. Rotation helps you get the same frame effects in an attempt.
5. Macro shot to capture the finer details
Are you selling detailed products like jewelry? The camera’s macro setting zooms in closely and highlights those tiny and elegant details perfectly. The details attract buyers’ attention and build trust in purchasing.
Hacks to capture macro shots are:
- Light it right: Soft and even lighting without shadows highlights precious gems cuttings and styles.
- Focus manually: It helps you to showcase the details of your product.
- Play with angles: Discover the best perspectives through tilt, turn, and experiment with different angles.
- Tweak aperture: By adjusting background blurs it makes your product amazing.
6. Use Props Wisely
- Use a leather watch box or a vintage camera when you shoot a luxury watch.
- If you shoot a new smartphone, you can add a pair of headphones.
- Sometimes, you can add models wearing the clothes in a natural setting to showcase the fabrics, fittings, and styles of the clothes.
- To highlight kitchen appliances, you can use a staged kitchen scene or other tools.
- Use props to highlight brand identity. For a sustainable brand, you can use recycled materials or eco-friendly products.
- Avoid using too many props and consider props size.
7. Shoot from a tripod for photo consistency
A tripod is a must-have to achieve the highest level of professionalism in product photography. It ensures the picture is blur-free and clear. Try to use a tripod for your DSLR or smartphone.
Also, to avoid the slightest movement or camera shake, you can use cable release or remote shutters. It’s a wise decision to use a tripod with a slow shutter speed and in low light conditions.
8. Consistency is Key
When you take different product photos, it’s important to maintain a consistent style. For this, you can try your creative styles or follow brand colors. Whatever you follow, ensure to use the same framing guidelines like the rule of thirds or centered compositions, select specific angles, and create an editing style like –
- Color palette,
- Saturation,
- Exposure and other edits.
Also, ensure shooting multiple products in one pattern or session, try to create templates and many more.
9. Level up your gear
The camera and lens play a critical impact in your product photography. You can choose a good and high-resolution DSLR from Nikon or Canon brands. And for the lenses, you can choose a macro lens or a fixed-length lens, depending on your budget. If you have a tight budget, you can buy a cost-friendly camera and lens.
Here are some camera settings you can try to capture amazing product photos:
- Adjust the white balance to make your photos natural in different lighting.
- Turn the flash off for indoor shots.
- Choose RAW and set the highest JPG setting.
- Set lower ISO 100 for a clean and less sensitive image.
- Utilize manual mode for more control over photography.
10. Optimize Images for Web (SEO)
- Understand container size: If the site recommends images at 645 pixels but the image’s actual size is 1500 pixels, it still loads but slows down the loading speed.
- Determine container size: For screen sharpness inspect site elements and find out the container size.
- Resize: Use image resizing tools like Microsoft Pictures or others. Save the resized images as JPEG.
- Compress: After resizing, the file size might be large. So, use compression tools like Photoshop “Save for Web” or software like “JPEGmini”.
11. Stay Updated with Trends
Product photography trends help you make more sales and stay away from your competitors. There are different eCommerce product photography trends you can follow, including:
- Minimalist design guides your consumers to the actual product visuals without any distractions.
- Lifestyle images demonstrate product context, such as how it looks in everyday life.
- Product animation entices the audience most for its realistic experience, such as product packaging or how it looks when using.
- Another famous product photography trend is a 360-degree view which gives consumers an amazing outlook of overall product visuals.
12. Edit & Retouch Your Images
After capturing some “Wow” shots, your work hasn’t ended yet. Photo editing helps you to make your product photos more realistic, feature-rich, and marketplace-worthy.
From enhancing product color to adding effects, removing unwanted backgrounds, cropping, and many other edits are essential to give a product a realistic and more appealing look.
If you have enough time, you can do post-production work all by yourself via Photoshop software or outsource photo editing services. But remember, post-production is crucial to showcasing products in the best possible light and increasing sales rates.
Read this article to learn about “Amazon Product Photography“
Do you need a professional photographer?
- Save time: Professional product photographers have diverse experience that helps them to work quickly and more accurately. Professional photographers know how to adjust lighting, camera exposure, and product setup to capture feature-rich images.
- Professional quality: Unless you are an experienced photographer, you don’t have the necessary equipment to highlight every aspect of your product. From packaging to the present, they have studio setups and plans that match the requirements of different online platforms.
- Consistent editing: A talented photographer must follow your brand guidelines and provide consistency in both quality and style. High-resolution and feature-rich images encourage the audience to visit your store and confirm your purchase.
Read this article to learn about “Shopify Product Photography“
Can I shoot product photography at home?
Yes, you can shoot product photography at home. But for this, you need to determine your photography’s ultimate goal and what you need to achieve. Here are some product photography tips you can apply for shooting at home:
- Choose a DSLR, mirrorless, or smartphone for shooting.
- Select a natural light-enhancing room and, if possible, set up a table near a large window.
- Remove all distractions and create a clean space.
- Try some artificial lights like desk lamps or LED panels if possible.
- You can create a DIY lightbox.
- You can use a poster board or a plain white background for a professional outlook.
- Must use a tripod for blurry-free photos.
- You can try props to add context.
- Ensure your product is clean and free from dust, scratches, or fingerprints.
- Try different product angles to showcase its features.
- Must use editing software to make it more professional.
Start with simple setups and don’t hesitate to experiment with complex lighting and compositions.
Frequently Asked Questions About product Photography
What are some common mistakes to avoid in product photography?
There are lots of product photography mistakes that destroy your all efforts at a glance, including:
- Poor lighting setup,
- Incorrect white balance,
- Adding inappropriate reflections,
- Busy backgrounds with distracting layouts,
- Poorly presented product items,
- Lack of uniformity or lack of scale,
- Using blurry or soft focus,
- Using harsh lighting,
- Cluttered backgrounds,
- Cropping ineffectively,
- Providing too few product angles, and
- Improper post-production steps.
What do you need for a product photography setup?
For a perfect and sales-worthy product photography, you need a well-planned gear setup, such as –
- Camera (DSLR or smartphone),
- Lens,
- Tripod,
- White product photography backdrops,
- Reflective white bounce cards,
- Light tent (lightbox),
- Studio lighting,
- Table,
- Tape,
- A room with a natural light resource i.e., a window, and
- Editing tool for post-production.
How do I choose the right background for product photography?
For choosing the right and eCommerce-friendly product photography background, you need to consider different factors, including:
- Consider your sales or advertising platforms, i.e., social media or online store. For example, transparent, slightly off-white, and light gray are popular backgrounds for your e-commerce stores, like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.
- Pay attention to your product colors.
- Consider other subjects in your product photos (if there are any).
- Try to select colors that evoke emotions, such as a wooden background to create a rustic feel, fabric backdrops to add luxury, patterns to add a playful element, and more.
- Select a high-contrast background to make a product more visually appealing.
Final Verdict
That’s it. You now have the top 12 product photography tips that guide you to take amazing product photos for your online business. Remember to pay attention to consumer requirements to develop your brand.
So, what are you waiting for? Use our hacks to shoot images and increase your audience’s trust and loyalty in your business today!
