Seven Tips to Improve Your Product Photos

On one hand, product photos need to be flawless in order to entice customers; on the other hand, they need to be true to the original merchandise to earn credibility. Quality equipment, adequate editing and a logo defining the brand are all essentials for not only producing professional photos but also establishing your company.  

 

1) Photographic devices:

The first step is taking a photograph. Any device capable of doing so can be used.

• Camera: If you are going to do it, might as well do it right – choose a professional or semi-professional camera, with a pair of 35mm and 50mm lenses

• Smart phone: The biggest difference between a cell phone and a smart phone is their ability to capture photos; a smart phone is capable of doing so, the cell phone is not. Select a quality smart phone and when taking photos, ensure that the manual mode is in effect and not the automatic one.

 

2. The right settings:

Different settings are available in all cameras and smart phones and they must be accurately tuned to prevent unprofessional results. Accordingly, adjust the following features in your equipment correctly to efficiently produce befitting images.

• Sensitivity to light (ISO):

As its name suggests, ISO is a gadget’s responsively to light; ISO and lighting have an inverse relationship to produce a well-exposed image.

• • Low ISO – pertaining to a value of 100 to 200, low ISO is used when the background is intensely lighted. It produces an illuminated image without an over-exposure of light.   
  • High ISO – belonging to a normal figure of 800-1600 to an astronomical 3200, high ISO is especially desirable in dim lighting. Though a number greater than 1600 gives rise to noise in photos, modern devices are fairly proficient in noise prevention even at 6400.  

• Speed: 

The shutter speed is the time taken for the lens to close after capturing an image.

• • Low speed – a value of 1/1000 to 1/250 is utilized when the lighting is dim because low speed grasps more light and the movement of objects.   
  • High speed – a figure of ¼ to ½ applied where there is ample light because high speed, on the contrary, takes hold of less light and movement of objects. 

• White balance: 

White balance is essentially the balancing of the intensity of the colors to denote color temperature. Its figures are preset and you have to select the right one according to the environment and time of the day.

• • Low figure – it is around 3200-4000; used when taking night photos as it adds cool colors
  • High figure – it is around 5000-6000; adds warm colors so applied during normal day shoots. 

 

3) Background and lighting:

A smart phone and a camera, though being used for the same purpose, require different conditions for the background and lighting of a product photo.

• • Camera – various apparatus for lighting are essential for professional product pictures to be captured using a camera. Casting several lights on the product, along with a natural source of light present produce well-lit photos, accentuating the product’s qualities in all its glory. In addition, pale pastel shades for background notably ensure that no distractions will drift the focus away from the product. 

 

• Smart phone – unlike the camera, smart phone can make do without the many lighting tools, provided a ring of light is used in a white room; not even a flashlight is necessary. Thereafter, a wonderful picture will emerge in which light will be equally distributed to the product (courtesy of the ring of light) and product features will be predominantly emphasized.

 

4) Photo Editing:

Following the photographing of a product, image editing should be a priority no matter how confident the photographer is in their skills. Certainly, the software for such a significant task needs to be just as decorated.

• Adobe Lightroom – preset settings that aid in correcting light, texture, contrast etc. makes it remarkably easy to understand and use. Further ease is created with its feature to set your pictures in a proper order.
• Adobe Photoshop – it is fairly similar to Adobe Lightroom; some additions are its ability to amend a singular area without affecting the rest of the image.
• Snapseed – it significantly requires practice and patience, but with its diverse characteristics and tools, it is definitely worth the time.

5) Background Renewal:

Though soft-hued colors are recommended as the background to highlight the product as much as possible, in situations where it is not possible, changing the background after taking the photo is also feasible. 

Using the aforementioned apps, “Clipping path” is used to place the product on a different background, followed by “Healing Brush” to rid the product of any cuts or dirt marks. Alternately, some applications – for example, “Remove Object”, “Touch Remove”, “YouCam Perfect” – also exist that are equally qualified to take care of these two matters. Not only can they remove unwanted objects by isolating the product, they also ‘clean’ the product just as effectively.      

 

6) An insignia: 

As amazing a photograph may be, at the end of the day, it is just a picture. For a product photo to be recognized for its worth, it needs something more – the brand’s emblem, a style of editing that stands out and a concise product description that instantly catches the customer’s eye.

A worthy freeware platform to attend to this affair is called “Canva”. Containing a multitudinous different characteristics, it can add pictures, change the font style and basically everything that can turn an ordinary picture into an unparalleled masterpiece, enticing purchasers at a stroke.  

 

7) Moderation is key: 

It is a fact universally acknowledged that success will follow where moderation is practiced. Products especially need images that portray them in their truest form to not disappoint the expectant customers. The texture, color contrast, saturation, highlights etc., all aspects are vital during product photo retouching, but only ‘as necessary’ to keep the image as close as possible to the real product. Excessive editing in an attempt to make the product look better will be nothing more than deceiving the potential purchasers and in turn losing their faith.   

Following these guidelines will undoubtedly work for anyone setting up an e-commerce business. Set up the necessary apparatus, put your photography skills to use, don’t forget the requisite image editing, design a trademark and voila! Your work has started. You can always reach us out for any professional help