Product photography is defined as a type of commercial photography used for showcasing different types of products on e-commerce platforms. Professional product photography requires appropriate tools like lighting kits, bounce cards and diffusers,white or colored background material, camera gear with the appropriate depth of field, along with comprehensive knowledge about different camera angles, and editing techniques.
Product photography services for e-commerce websites allow customers to look around the products in high resolution before making an actual purchase. Sellers are always recommended to hire professional photographers or photography agencies to enhance the appeal of their portfolio in the online market. New techniques of product photography are also evolving based on the preferences of the buyers,letting them choose better by clearly differentiating products. The following section of this article talks about different types of product photography techniques and their purposes.
Importance of using a white background
A white background allows the subject in the frame to be the center of attraction, and also helps the photographer take sharp and crisp shots of the product. Different kinds of materials like vinyl, canvas, paper, or cloth, is used for this purpose. Lighting is equally important while working with a white background if the backdrop is not properly illuminated, it will appear grey in the photographs. Professional photographers prefer to use diffusers and reflectors to adjust the background lighting as needed.
Lifestyle photography
Lifestyle photography involves people posing with the product against different backgrounds to represent the use of the product at a specific place and time. Lifestyle photography allows potential customers to connect and interact with the product.
Fashion photography
Fashion photography is quite different from traditional product photography as it involves paid models wearing the piece of clothing or accessory in exotic locations to make things more aesthetically pleasing to the prospective buyer. Fashion photography is mostly done outdoors and requires a completely different skillset to get appropriate results. Fashion photography is particularly suitable for clothing lines and helps create a lifestyle-based marketing campaign for the product.
360-degree Product photography
Photographers take multiple shots of a product from different camera angles that are arranged in a specific sequence using advanced software to producea 360-degree view of the product. Typically a 360-degree turntable is used for creating a smooth sequence of photographs. However, only a handful of e-Commerce platforms use this technology for showcasing the products
With the growing demand for e-commerce platforms, product photography has also become a vital part of their marketing campaigns. E-Commerce websites completely rely upon high-resolution photographs of the product for attracting buyers. Customers tend to buy products with clear images and instinctively to avoid those with poor quality images. Companies have now realized the importance of professional Product photography services for online advertising and its impact on actual sales conversion. Some organizations prefer to outsource product photography services, while others create dedicated photography teams. The following are simple guidelines for taking professional-quality product photographs.
Using appropriate lighting
Lighting plays an essential role in all kinds of photography. Without proper lighting, neither the product nor the background will appear prominently in the picture. There are two ways of adjusting the light for product photography,namely natural lighting and studio lighting. Based on the product, the platform purpose of the photograph lighting setup is chosen. Mostly natural lighting is preferred for clicking photographs of edible items, accessories, clothing, etc. It is used for creating natural-looking photographs perfect for social media advertising. Usually,the product is set facing a window to maximize the amount of natural lighting, for outdoor photography early mornings and late afternoon works the best.
Studio lighting is used for shooting products that are mostly used indoors or will be sold on popular eCommerce platforms. Studio lighting helps in highlighting small details and capturing a high-resolution photograph. Making use of a studio lighting setup might seem intimidating but it is important for capturing detailed photographs for advertising purposes.
Using a tripod
Tripods make a considerable amount of difference for enhancing the quality and clarity of product photography. Tripods serve as a tool for stabilizing the camera to avoid blurred photographs and give it a high-quality professional touch. Irrespective of the type of camera tripods add an indispensable piece of equipment for taking professional quality photographs. Investing in a high-quality tripod is completely worth it, to take high-resolution photographs.
Understanding the basics of photo editing
Photographs look natural only when there is a minimal amount of editing but still, it is essential to learn basic photo editing to take professional quality photographs. Minor tweaks like adjusting the saturation or masking small flaws within the photograph can make noteworthy differences to the final product.
There is a host of options available with editing software which often becomes quite overwhelming for beginners to learn. Popular editing tools like Photoshop require some amount of basic knowledge to learn the editing process. Business owners can hire professional photography services to take care of all their photography needs.
Taking multiple shots from different angles
Usually,businesses make the mistake of taking up only a few photographs for advertising products. But in reality,the product becomes more attractive to the customer only when there are multiple shots from different angles. Photographs are the only means for online shoppers to check around the product, and therefore, they look for multiple angles to understand how the product will appear physically.
Professional Product photography services play a major role in determining the salability of a product. It is essential to remember that online shoppers do not have the opportunity to look around the product and solely depend upon the photographs to understand its physical dimensions, appearance, and fit. It is essential to have high-quality equipment for great product photography; the essential thing is to understand the basics to take a clear photograph of the product that will appeal to the potential customer.
