If photos are worth a thousand words, then an outstanding product image is worth a million visitors.
Product photos play a significant role in convincing potential consumers to pay for your excellence. Do you want to learn about top product photography tips? Here we go; first, let’s get a bit idea about product photography’s initial outcome before jumping into the in-depth discussion. According to a USA research group, around 50% of USA citizens showed interest in online shopping rather than traditional shopping. Now the question about the importance of product photography comes up. As a novice photographer, you may consider product photography a dull task, but it can be a creative one. All you have to do is to achieve proficiency in giving an alluring view to the product images. Today, you will discover a complete guide on how to take product photos and final touch up tips about product photography post production.
Product Photography Tips
As a beginner, you may be confused about how and from where to start product photography. This type of photography needs your deep concentration to represent yourself as a skilled one. Now let jump on the discussion of product photography tips.
Product Photography Place
Nominating a place as a product photography studio can be a tough one. Consider a space free from any disturbance, such as family interruption, pets, and any other element that delivers inconvenience for a photo session. Besides that, you have to deal with the backdrop with 100% efficiency. Proper arrangement of a backdrop will come up with an impressive product background. There are two ways to set up a backdrop that provides maximum output.
White Backdrop
Setting up a white backdrop is essential when you intend to highlight the product most. Product photos never get lost with a white background though sometimes other colors contribute immensely. Even a mobile camera can take a shoot with fewer flaws in front of a white backdrop.
Lifestyle Backdrop
- Maximum time products look charming in a situation where it fits with context. For instance, shooting furniture in a beautiful house will create more impression on the users. Besides, bringing the person in product images is a great way to mention the product size and all. But keep in mind this process will cost you immense time and effort.
Camera
Having a professional camera like a DSLR is a great advantage. High-quality cameras allow you to capture extraordinary portraits and still photographs. By the way, don’t be surprised to know that your smartphone can deliver excellent images and videos. Yet, product photography stands for the requirement of high-quality DSLR cameras. T professional cameras allow you to use several lenses for better image quality. Does anyone still have a question about the camera for product photography? I believe the answer is no.
Tripod
Taking product photos is not an easy task to do. If you fail to put 100% proficiency and effort, product images will carry blur with them. So, to keep your camera focused at a point without any movement, you need a tripod. Stabilizing the camera with this standard instrument will maintain consistency and will deliver a perfect caption.
You will find many tripods in the market, and buying one will not cost you a huge amount. Mostly two types of tripods are prevalent in the market and also famous to the photographers.
- Traditional Tripod
- Flexible Tripod
Product Photography Lighting
Launching your products on an e-commerce website needs crystal clear images to catch a consumer’s interest at first glance. Spotting products in a photo frame with excellent brightness demands a proper arrangement of lighting. Either you can depend on natural light or can install your lighting process. Therefore, based on the product, choose the lights system.
Natural Light
Natural light means sunlight as simple as that, and also, it is known as soft light. But be conscious of where to set the product; try to click images from beside the window. That way, you can avoid the excessive shadow. So, be creative and remember often natural light can give you unaccepted beauty to your photos.
Firstly, if the product means to be used outside, then the image looks great in the natural lights; Such as a briefcase, personal bag, and watches. Secondly, sunlight is more compatible with cloth photography.
Artificial Light
Artificial light is considered a hard light because it delivers tiny light but is commonly focused on the object. This type of light needs to highlight a specific part of the product that impresses clients. The fill light method is beneficial and part of artificial light. Shadow is a concerning matter when to shoot under an artificial lighting system. In that situation, the fill light technique helps you to cover an image without shadows.
Use Normal Lenses
Product photography doesn’t ask you to experiment with high wide-angle and telephoto lenses. Just play with regular and intermediate lenses for product photography setup. As a result, you will notice a view of the product as same as the original. It will be tough to discriminate. Therefore, buying regular lenses with 40mm to 58mm focal length can be a smart decision. But I recommend a significantly 50mm focal length for better output.
Keep Original Colors of Products
If you have the experience of buying something online, you would understand color is the thing that attracts online buyers. Distorting product colors would never help your client to grow his business. Especially when it comes to e-commerce product photography like clothes, the color becomes an asset.
Think about ordering a t-shirt just for the color, but you notice the color is different after receiving it. Disarrangement of color leads to thousands of product returns and huge loss for retailers.
So, as a product photographer, it’s your responsibility to leave the color as it was. You can embellish products a bit but be careful that it matches perfectly with the original color.
Finishing Touch-ups with Photoshop Software
Even though each of your clicks is remarkable, still your product photograph needs a touch of professional editors. Image retouching, background removing, shadow dropping, and clipping path are the outstanding services for this kind of photography.
Therefore take the help of photo editing software or hire professional editors to polish your images a bit. Now you are ready to deliver complete and well-organized product photos to your client.
Conclusion
Finally, you reached the end of the article and might achieve a complete explanation of various product photography tips. As a product photographer, remember your clicks will be shown to millions of people and used for multiple purposes. For instance, to display online or to promote by Ads and wholesaler presentations, and so on.
There is no golden role in product photography. So, be creative and always be ready to attempt the new approaches. Keep trying and keep learning—best of luck on your new journey.