E-commerce stores are all the rage today. Everything is sold through websites and social media platforms, from cupcakes and jewelry to electronic gadgets. There are many reasons for the popularity of e-commerce, such as low-cost marketing and easy access to a large audience. However, a lot goes into making a successful e-commerce store, starting with high-quality product photography.
The aesthetics of an e-commerce store are critical in making the business a success. People who visit an e-commerce store cannot physically see or touch the products to gauge the size and material type. Therefore, you have to create a visual experience that can attract customers and help them understand the product, and to do that; you need to up your product photography skills.
What is Product Photography?
Product photography is a specific type of photography that focuses on building the appeal of a product to attract customers and drive sales. It is a technical art involving many elements, such as background setting, visual effects, and accessorizing. An attractive product shot can help build its appeal to potential customers exponentially.
If you own an e-commerce store and want to boost sales, use these product photography tips. It will help you understand the basics of product photography and save you from the expense of hiring a professional photographer.
Look for Inspiration
All the artwork requires inspiration. Fortunately, today, to get inspiration for product photography, you have ample platforms to explore and take inspiration from images online. You can even check product photos similar to yours available on different stock photography websites for inspiration. They have large collections of stock images, both free and paid. By sifting through the results, you can figure out how to capture your product that suits the vibe you want to build for your store.
Invest in a Professional Camera
While many product photographers use their mobile phones to shoot fantastic pictures, those taken from a professional camera has a different appeal. The focus and detail that a professionally shot image provides are unparalleled. Therefore, if you’re truly serious about building a successful e-commerce store, buy a good professional camera to get the best results. The price of a professional camera may make you rethink your decision, but remember that this is a worthwhile investment to boost sales on your e-commerce store.
Setup for Lighting
Perfect light is one of the most important elements in product photography. The same camera, same photographer, and same subject can give different results in natural light, artificial light, and professional light. Small purchases can give you the perfect lighting effect on your product images. You can invest in a ring light first. Ring lights help you capture perfect selfies with optimum lights and provide ideal lighting for product shoots. You can also DIY a lightbox using a simple plastic box and white paper for your product photography. It will help distribute the light evenly and help in capturing quality images.
Build a Background
While each picture you click will need a separate setup, you need to have a few things on hand that you can utilize to make several different backgrounds. For instance, good quality chart paper in several colors can go a long way in creating diversified settings. Similarly, empty bottles and a box of craft supplies can help add the ‘oomph’ factor to your picture and make your product appear luxe.
Manipulation Tricks
A fun and easy way to enhance your product photography is to learn easy photo techniques to create great setups for your product. For instance, you can use an image on your computer as a blurred background for ‘bokeh’ style photographs. Moreover, you can create a rippling water effect by blowing a hairdryer over a clear tray filled with water. There are many ways in which product photographers use simple household items to create gorgeous pictures. A few online tutorials will allow you to create next-level images of your products.
Use a Tripod
While many photographers choose to shoot with a camera in their hands, a tripod is essential to help you capture better pictures. When taking pictures, even the slightest movement or shaking of a hand can affect the picture quality. With a tripod, you can capture every element of the subject appropriately. You can also explore more angles and effects with a tripod to capture pictures of your products.
Be Generous
Do you know how you take a million selfies before finding the perfect one to upload as your new profile picture? Well, you have to use the same strategy when clicking pictures of your products. Take as many pictures as possible to have plenty of options to post on your website. This way, you can finalize the most perfect picture of your product.
Learn Basic Image Editing
Photo editing sounds like a very complicated and technical skill. However, it’s easy. Basic editing skills can level up your images to a great extent. It can phenomenally affect the final image even if you learn how to adjust the brightness and saturation. Therefore, taking a short photo editing course or watching a few online tutorials on YouTube can help you learn the basics. Even the most basic editing skills will help you create appealing pictures of your products.
Keep Experimenting
Art needs innovation as well. Therefore, the best way to create the best images is to continue experimenting. Don’t stop at set patterns that seem to work for you, which can lead to a monotonous aesthetic. Break some rules and try new things. Who knows, you may stumble upon something phenomenal and develop a trend that others might start following!
Conclusion
Learning product photography is a great way to build your e-commerce store. By dedicating time and money to this, you can take your business to a new level and drive sales. The above tips and tricks will not only level up your product’s appeal but will also help in developing product photography and editing skills, and with time, you can turn this skill into a separate business!
