Estimated time to read: 7 minutes.
Besides the general design of your online store, professional photography of the product will largely determine whether people will buy it or not. Improving the browsing experience of your SHOPLAZZA store can be as easy as having great product photos.
Table of content:
- Prepare for your photo shoot
- Understand how your camera works
- Using a tripod
- Light to highlight the most important aspects of your products
- Install a white background
- Use a light reflector
- Give the desire with the situation
- Touch up if necessary
- Reduce the size of your photos before uploading them
- Conclusion
Prepare for your photo shoot
Getting good photos of your e-commerce products starts with the actual preparation for the photo shoot. Indeed, you must start by checking your products to unseal and correct the slightest imperfection. Because your consumers will prioritize your products by images, you need to be able to tell the difference.
Thus, you must make sure to remove the stickers and price tags, to adjust them properly if it is for example jewelry or clothing placed on a model. Your product is the focal point of the photograph and that is why you should avoid any frills by cleaning out the space in which the product will be showcased.
Understand how your camera works
Digital cameras take better photos than smartphones. There is no doubt about it. Still, smartphone cameras are getting better and better with each passing year. Some already exceed 15 million pixels. It is therefore now entirely possible to take professional-quality photos with a smartphone. It is important to master the possibilities of your device to use it to the fullest of its potential.
Using a tripod
Although you will use a professional camera to take your product images, there may be times when the images appear blurry or of poor quality. Usually, this is due to a lack of stability when shooting. However, this problem can be easily solved with a simple tool: the tripod.
Consisting of a transportable three-legged stand designed for a photographic camera, the tripod is an accessory used in photography to ensure neat framing and thus take sharp photos. Note, however, that if you do not have a tripod, you can still stabilize your camera by placing it comfortably on a chair, for example.
Light to highlight the most important aspects of your products
Professional photographers, without exception, say that a successful photo depends on the light, not the megapixel power of a device. You only need to take pictures outside to realize this. Natural light is the best photo studio that can exist because the rays are diffused in all directions. Particularly on a cloudy day, the softer shadows allow you to take the most beautiful shots. In the same vein, all experienced photographers will tell you that it is very difficult to take good pictures at noon when the light is very direct. The indirect, crimping, or grazing light from the beginning of the morning or the end of the afternoon does not crush objects and on the contrary softens the reliefs.
Install a white background
The key to having great photos is to use a white background. The white background enhances your products and produces much better-quality photos. It also helps to ensure that the white balance is in focus, which helps to better capture the colors of your products. It is advisable to use a curved white background which allows better rendering of the volumes. For small products, place the installation on a table, for more flexibility and to be able to better adjust the brightness. You will find tables specially designed for taking pictures on the market. Otherwise, you can use any table, if it is stable and allows you to set up your white background.
For larger products, things are a bit more complex. If you plan to take photos regularly, you can buy a white backdrop commercially. It will make your life easier. Otherwise, use a large white sheet of paper and find a support to stabilize it.
Use a light reflector
The only problem with taking pictures near a window is that the light only hits the product from one side. To avoid shadows and distribute light all around the product, we recommend that you use a reflector. The easiest way is to make a frame and affix an aluminum sheet to it which will reflect the light and diffuse it on the side not exposed to the window.
The reflector should be placed opposite the side where the window is. Play around with the angle of the reflector to find the best position.
Give the desire with the situation
For successful photos of your products, it is important to take shots that showcase their usefulness or use case. Scenario photos offer new ideas to consumers. They allow them to make projections on the daily life of the product.
The scenario is also a way to highlight the additional features that you bring to your product when it already exists on the market.
This type of image is also a good way to display several products at the same time or to convey feelings of joy, relaxation, or relaxation. When a product comes in different colors, it is also good to take pictures of the different color schemes. The mixture creates an irresistible effect, a beautiful visual and pushes the consumer towards the "click" which leads to the purchase.
Touch up if necessary
It's very rare that product photos look perfect right out of the camera. For a clean aesthetic, touch-ups are always necessary. Even professional photographers do it!
You can use Photoshop, Lightroom, or any other image editing software to brighten backgrounds, remove shadows, and make your product stand out.
Just make sure you don't overload the editing: you know the phrase "the best is the enemy of the good"? Visuals that are "fake" lead to a lack of confidence and discourage customers from buying.
Reduce the size of your photos before uploading them
As you may know, the size of the photos is an important element for the flow of your website. This is especially true when it comes to an e-commerce platform as it allows for quick page display and visual zooming of images.
It is for this reason that e-commerce CMS often limit the size of images to download. Therefore it is important to reduce the size of the images to be uploaded to your merchant site. On the other hand, we know that a fast website promotes SEO, and yours can easily earn a good place in the search engine rankings.
Conclusion
Many people mistakenly think that all you need is a good camera to take good photos. The real emphasis should be on the elements that make the image of a product captivating to the customer. The light, the composition and the angle of view are opportunities to bring out the added value of objects. Will you be successful in achieving your visual goals? What is certain is that digital photography is a chance to try, try again, and ultimately learn to escape the crude mistakes of photos that return the wrong image of too many small businesses.
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