The perceived value of your products and the trustworthiness of your brand are often judged based on the quality of your visual representation. This means having beautiful, high-quality product photography can go a long way.
Commercial product photography is the most widespread genre, yet the most overlooked. This is primarily due to the over-saturation of advertising that we are exposed to at any given moment of the day. However, the beauty of it pops when you finally come across that one product that strikes something within you. And thus, you find yourself looking to learn how to capture pictures as incredible as that one.
Whether you are getting started or have been shooting your product images for a while, these essential product photography tips will help you to capture quality photos and drive increased conversions.
1st: Use a Tripod
Tripods might sound like an unnecessary piece of equipment, but they bring a huge difference in the quality and clarity of commercial product photography. And they aren’t difficult to use or necessarily expensive! They are great equipment and stabilize your camera from your shaky hands. Using a tripod will ensure blur reduction and make your photographs look high-quality and professional. It will be worth taking those few extra minutes to set up the tripod for better-looking product photographs.
2nd: Choose the right lighting
Without proper light, your photo won’t represent the products’ true colors, and it will be difficult for the customers to find out the details. There are two options for product photography lighting: Natural lighting and Studio lighting.
Natural lighting can work excellent for product photographs featuring people, clothing, and edible items, and these natural-looking pictures can work well on social media platforms. The best time to shoot outdoors is early morning or late afternoon when the sun is still shining but not too harsh.
On the other hand, if your product features small details or is being sold on any e-commerce platforms, then Studio lighting is preferable.
3rd: Avoid harsh shadows
Hard lighting that results in harsh shadows can leave your photos looking less than professional. So, you will want to reduce them as much as possible. Natural light is good at this, but studio lighting can be a struggle without a diffuser. This camera accessory can help you fill in shadows and create a more balanced exposure.
4th: Shoot to edit
Capturing a photo is just the beginning. Editing and touch-ups are just as essential as taking the photo itself. To get started, you can search for the free version of various photo editors online. Take a look at the colors in the image and compare it with the real one. Do they look similar? Is the blue looking more green in reality? Or, are the reds more orange in the pictures? Be careful as a gentle adjustment is all that you need.
5th: Tell the product’s story
When people look at your products they should be able to envision themselves using them. To enter into people’s subconsciousness capture different lifestyle shots revolving around the product. And to do this, you need to find the perfect balance between advertising and subtlety. Meaning people should not feel that you are trying to grab their attention in a way that does not feel too obvious.
6th: Explore the endless possibilities
Commercial product photography offers the perfect platform to let your creativity come to life. Knowing about different lenses, various camera positions, and how different products look from different angles play around with textures and depth of field as, in the end, the best way to create and prosper is by having fun.
7th: Keep it simple
In the world of photography, less is more! Many a time you will find yourself looking for a plain background that makes your product shine. Keeping the background simple and plain will make sure that the product you are trying to sell does not get lost in the shot. While other colors like yellow, pale blue, light pink might work well, but white will always be a great option. This will make the product sole star against a clean and crisp background. Use subtle color palettes to grab the viewer’s sight into the main subject.
8th: Shoot with a wide aperture
o make sure that your subject stays the star of the image use a narrow depth of field. But keeping a large part of the captured scene out of focus, you can separate the product from its surroundings. In such a case, there won’t be any other elements distracting people’s attention from the product. When shooting with a wide aperture, make sure complete product details are visible while still keeping the subject stand out from its surroundings.
9th: Choose the right lens
When choosing the camera lens type for commercial product photography, there are two important things to keep in mind: speed and distortion.
For the speed, you will need a fast lens giving you the freedom of depth of field and exposure times. We advise you to opt from prime lenses as this will allow you to simply reposition the camera rather than zooming in.
Avoid any kind of shape deformation as the pictures you clicked need to portray the product as close to reality as possible. For this, you will need a standard focal length of 35mm-70mm.
10th: Look for inspiration
It turns out to be of immense help to look to others for inspiration. You likely already have some of your favorite brands in mind. Take a look at their product photography page and come up with the ideas on how these similar shots or techniques can be helpful for your products. For example, take a look at the Instagram page of your favorite clothing brand and analyse what you love the most about their product photos. Then think, can you create something similar with your products?
There are so many points to consider when it comes to marketing your products properly through photographs or videos. Commercial product photography is the only way that can help you to visually grab the attention of your potential customers. Follow these 10 tips and eventually see the difference this brings to your bottom line.
Recent Comments