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Boost Sales in a Flash: 7 Product Photography Tips for Your Business

When it comes to buying products online, consumers trust images more than text.

What does this mean for your business?

A bad photo could be standing between you and a sale. Worse yet—no photos could mean you lose a consumer’s trust and that they invest in a competing brand instead.

When it comes to product photography, use these essential product photography tips and tricks guaranteed to boost your e-commerce sales.

1. Get the Best Equipment

Before you’re able to capture the best photos of your products, you need the best equipment. While a cell phone may take decent photographs for your Etsy page, if you want to launch a real business, you’ll need to invest to get the desired results. 

To start, you’ll need the following:

  • A DSLR camera
  • An adjustable tripod
  • Studio lights
  • Computer with an editing program

Getting the best equipment also includes a product photographer. If you don’t have the skills or the eye for product photography, don’t be afraid to hire a professional to get the work done right.

2. Know Your Lighting

To get the best product photography, you need to concentrate on the lighting. You have two main options when it comes to lighting—studio lighting and natural lighting. 

Most product photography uses studio lighting. That’s because a studio is a controlled environment. Once you get the lighting the way you want it, it stays that way until you turn the lights off or move them. 

Purchase a few studio lights and play around with the effect that different settings and locations have on your product.

Natural lighting is using sunlight to light your photograph. This doesn’t necessarily mean the photo is taken outside. You can also use window lighting for your photographs. 

To avoid shadows, you’ll want to find the area where the light meets the shadowed area on the ground. For the best photos, shoot right inside the shaded area, known as open shade. Just be aware that as the sun moves, your lighting will change, so you’ll need to work fast with natural lighting. 

3. Choose the Right Background

You have two main options for your photo background—a blank background or a background that features the product in use. 

A blank background allows the buyer to concentrate solely on the product. They’re able to see all the product’s details without a distracting background. 

You can also take photos of the product in use. For example, if you’re selling dinnerware, shoot the photos with a set table complete with delicious-looking food. That way, the buyer can envision themselves using the product and gets an idea of how the product would look in their own home. 

It’s best to take a variety of photos, some with blank backgrounds and some of the product of use. That way, the customer can see a photo of exactly what they’re looking for. 

4. Work the Angles

The most time-consuming aspect of product photography is getting the lighting and background set up. So once you have everything in place, make sure you take more than one photo at more than one angle. 

Get creative. Get up on a ladder and shoot from above. Try crouching on the floor and shooting at an upward angle. No angle is a waste of time. With a digital camera, you aren’t wasting money on extra photos. 

The multiple angles are especially important during the buying process. A consumer wants to know what the product looks like everywhere. If you only show the front side of the product, the buyer may be skeptical about what the other sides look like. 

5. Maintain Proper Color Balance

Color balance is an important aspect of the best product photography

Color balance is the intensity of all the colors in your photo. Certain lighting can affect the color balance of your photograph. For example, tungsten lightings would make the color orange more intense in a photo. 

You can adjust the color balance by controlling the lighting by using only studio lights or sunlight. If you can’t control the color balance before you take the photo, you can adjust it later with editing software. 

6. Retouch and Perfect

All the best photos are created with a little help from a photo editing software. 

You can use a photo editing software to adjust the color, brightness, and contrast of the photo. You can also remove items like dirt, fingerprints, or distracting background objects from the photo. 

Just remember to keep the qualities of your product the same. Don’t adjust any features, delete actual imperfections of your product, or completely change the color. You don’t want to misrepresent your product. That’s unethical. 

7. Remember the Brand

The last tip for creating the best product photography is to remember your product’s brand. 

For example, if your business promotes eco-friendly solutions, you’ll want to take your photos in a natural environment versus an industrial one. Bright colors with little contrast would help tell your brand’s story than dark and moody photos. 

If you find a certain photography style that represents your brand and product, use that in other products. You’ll want a consistent look and feel across your product line so people can better understand your brand. 

Put the Best Product Photography Tips to the Test

Using these product photography tips, you can take the best photos to promote your products. 

But even the best photo won’t guarantee sales. Once you’ve captured your product photographs, you need to implement a marketing plan. Knowing how to use the photos and where to post them is as crucial as having decent photos in the first place. 

To get started with your marketing plan, visit the blog section of this site for all the best business tips and tricks.