5 Tips for Taking Product Photos for your eCommerceWebsite

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Imagine yourself going to an apparel store where you need to purchase from an array of dresses that aresecurely locked and showcased from behind solid glass windows. You can’t touch and feel the fabric ortake a closer view of the detailing and designs on the dress. Would you spend your hard-earned money onsuch a purchase?

I’m sure that now you can relate to the plight of the customers who visit virtually handicapped eCommercewebsites. Barring the sense of touch and putting several restrictions on detailed viewing, eCommerepurchasing can be a very tricky affair. Therefore, product photos form a very integral part of youreCommerce store. Rather than just showcasing the product, the photos perform multiple functions. Theybring out the best in the products in all aspects and convince your customers to lighten their wallets at yourstore. So once your eCommerce website is all set to be launched, it’s time to grab your camera and getclicking!

While many individuals shy away from ‘product photography’ for their online stores owing to lack ofexperience, it is safe to say that photography is both enriching and fun! Nobody knows your productsbetter than you do. A professional photographer may add a dash of right angles and lighting effect to thephotographs but the magic and creativity lies in your hands. You do not need rocket science know-how tocome up with brilliant pictures; just a little professional help and ample of creativity. Try your hand inproduct photography and explore your skills with the basic tips and tricks to give your customers a reasonto ‘shop till they drop’!

Here, I present to you the 5 handy, easy and effective tips for taking product photos for your eCommercewebsite that will add the ‘oomph’ factor to your store.

#1 Equip Right

One of the most important and elementary steps in photography is to have the right equipment in yourhands. Good equipment can help you get quality-rich clicks, adding immensely to your product appeal.

Here are the things you need to focus on:

Camera

Camera – the focal point of the entire session! Make sure that you use a good digital camera for taking thepictures to get the best results. A DSLR is a preferred option which is now readily available in the marketsat very affordable prices. A good camera helps you capture shots with high detailing. To show off yourproduct features, it is required that your camera can sense even the most minute details and reflect itflawlessly in the pictures.

Tripod

An absolute must in any photography session, a Tripod helps reduce a lot of hard-work. When you take apicture with the camera in your hands, there is a high possibility of noticing a blur, if not a significant onethen definitely a minor one. While viewing on the camera screen, the picture might look absolutely clearbut once you enlarge it on your computer screen, the blurs start becoming noticeable. No matter how muchyou try to steady your grip, the chances of vibration always prevail. So invest in a tripod and save yourselffrom the trouble of getting filtering and selecting from a 100 clicks when you can easily do with just 10!

Lighting Arrangement

Lighting is an aspect that cannot be ruled out. In photography, lighting and shadows go hand in hand.Dealing with these can get rather tricky, if not equipped with the correct lighting arrangement. It is normalto wonder, ‘Why use a lighting set when we have the sun?’. While sun remains to be the best lightingsource available to us, it is not advisable to depend on this natural resource. It is a fact that the bestphotographs can be captures in open sunlight, but relying on its consistency is not a wise decision. Withevery minute the sunlight intensity fluctuates and changes its angle of incidence. Varying light intensity anddancing shadows can make your work a complete mess. Therefore, it is advised that you opt for indoorphotography sessions to achieve desirable results. Many lighting kits are available online at veryreasonable prices. However, if you do not wish to invest on that scale, you can purchase considerablycheaper incandescent lamps that work on a parallel quality parameter.

#2 Organize your Shoot Setup

There are a number of different ways to organize your photo shoot setup, depending on how much youwould like to experiment with the pictures.

The most common and simple setup is the use of plain white or lightly tinted backgrounds that focus all theattention to the product only. So as to allow you to take multiple angle shots for the picture, without the restof the room showing, a very simple technique called the ‘Horizon Mirage’. It is very convenient to have thissetup ready just within a few minutes. All you need is a few reels of plane paper and binder clamps. Affixsheet in a curved fashion on a wide chair/ table with both its ends secured at different height levels (asshown in the picture below). This effect will help you capture good shots at different angles, withoutrevealing the room in the background.

Photo Credits: www.wix.com

Another way to create a setup is by allowing the product to blend in in its natural environment. Forinstance, if your store caters to providing jewellery items, your photo frame can be positioned in front of amajestic mirror with jewellery boxes and other jewellery items strategically scattered around the mainproduct. The main catch in this technique is to make your product stand out in its natural environment, sothat your customer finds it easier to relate to it.

Photo Credits: www.gardenology.blogspot.com

Many artists also prefer pictures with the product being used by a models or even regular people. Thishelps the audience to connect better with the applicability and versatility of your product.

Here is an example from this realm of photography:

Photo Credits: www.paulsdesigns.com

#3 Play with the Shadows

Shadows have a very stark effect on the quality of your product photographs. Your aim should be tominimize this effect to as much as possible while taking the shots. Shadows can broadly be classified intotwo as hard shadow and soft shadow. Hard shadows usually surface when the product being captured isbigger than the light source. When the converse is the case, soft shadows appear. Using a flash diffuser isa brilliant method to subdue the unwanted hard shadows.

In this picture you can notice the glaring difference that a flash diffuser can make to a photograph:

Photo Credits:www.adorama.com

#4 Pay Attention toDetailing

Your customers want to seeevery detail in your productsbefore they put money into it.While capturing productphotos, make sure that youevent the finest prints,functions, features anddesigns are clearly visible inthe pictures. This becomes allthe more important when yourstore deals in apparels,jewellery items, footwear and like. To achieve the close-up shots with perfection you can make use of theamazing feature on your digital camera known as ‘Macro’. It is represented by a small tulip icon and alsowidely known as ‘Flower’ feature. By activating this feature you can easily capture amazing pictures withfinest clarity and details.

#5 Editing is a Must

Like painting, cooking, writing or any other creative job needs final touch ups for a well finished product,the same goes for photography as well. Once you are done with the photography session, make it a pointto add a few final brush ups to the pictures. Resizing, cropping, retouching and exposure adjustment are afew musts when editing your pictures. A number of photo editing softwares are available in the market atreasonably good prices that will make your work all the more fun and interesting.

Conclusion

Feel free to experiment with your products and let your creativity flow to create wonders for youreCommerce website. So before spending thousands of bucks on having your products professionallyshot, give these easy tips a shot and save yourself from shelling out a treasure from your kitty. All it needsis out of the box thinking and the openness to experimenting. So grab a camera now and adorn your storewith amazing high-quality product photos that will have your customers come back for more!