Product Photography

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Product Photography for Sales

Now more than ever a picture is worth a thousand words. Using the plethora of apps and filters available for smartphones, many people fancy themselves to be photographers. Still, when it comes to taking good product photos there are a few tips that even the handiest amateur smartphone photographer could use.

Photographing Products to Produce Sales

Whether you’re adding photos to your social media outlets, running a small Etsy shop or marketing a well-established company, product photography tremendously impacts your brand identity and sales. The perceived value of your product directly correlates with the quality of your product photography.

Product Photography Starts with the Right Equipment

Want to take your product photography from good to great? Sure you do. First, you’ll need these essentials:

  • Camera—a smartphone works, although if you’re using one you might want to consider downloading an app that helps you create professional-looking images. VSCO Cam is a good app for iPhone. You can get a great consumer DSLR camera for a pretty reasonable price that will take stunning product photography, but it does require a learning curve, so consider that before buying a camera you don’t have the time to learn how to use properly.
  • Tripod—what kind will depend on what type of camera you’re using
  • Good Lighting
  • A table or stand
  • White background—which can be anything from a white sheet, a white wall, or even a piece of poster board.

As you start taking product shots, you’ll think of other helpful items such as tap, lenses and more, but these are some essential elements to start taking good product photos.

Most photographers will tell you that lighting is the most important part of a photo shoot and will really make your product shine. You can buy a light tent or even construct your own using sheets or white poster board and 5000K bulbs.

Pose Your Product Correctly

Depending on how your product is used or worn, you might want to consider using a model for lifestyle photos. Showing people how the product can fit into their lifestyle or make their lives better or easier in some way can help sales skyrocket.

Use High Resolution, then Edit Down

Take photos in the highest possible resolution and then crop and edit later. Check size requirements for the platform you’re using. You don’t want to upload a photo only to find out the image has been stretched out or the quality has been degraded.

If you shoot your images as large as possible, you can edit and resize without losing much quality by shrinking the photo. On the other hand, taking a photo that’s too small and stretching it out, or making it bigger, can cause huge problems.

Since you’ll likely have to crop the photo, remember to crop the image so that all sides have the exact same space.

Once you have the perfect product photo, you’ll want to make sure that it’s optimized for your website. Large product images can cause your website to load slowly. There’s a delicate balance here: If you over-optimize an image it can destroy the quality, but larger images slow sites load speed. Shoot for small images no larger than 200kb.

Don’t Forget About the Product Description

Make sure you show all the aspects you mention in your product’s description in the form of an image.  Shoot the product from multiple angles and in varying situations. Dimensions? Cords? Adapters? Special Features? Each of these should have their own photo.

After Product Photography Comes Marketing

Once you have the right photo to promote your product, make sure it’s seen! The experts at Green Arrow Marketing & Media can make sure your brand, store, and product are seen by the right people. Contact us today at 888-248-2134 or info@greenarrowmm.com.