Product Photography Techniques for Ecommerce (2020)

The eCommerce business is thriving and will continue to do so in the coming years, but with that, it is also seeing a great amount of competition. Every eCommerce marketer is trying to do something innovative to stand out and be at the top of the competition. The most important thing for the eCommerce business is its products. In that too, just having good quality products is not enough, you also need some effective way to advertise them. Believe it or not, people go with what they see and with online shopping, the chances of them buying the product mostly depend on the photograph of the product out on the website. Of course, they will read the description and other details about the product, but that comes after the product has passed through a filter. This is the filter that checks for the appearance of the product in the photograph. So, make sure that you put certain quality photographs of the products on your eCommerce website.

The customers would want to gather as much information as they can in a very short time and the best way to do so is to analyze the product from its photograph. Photos provide the customers with a way to get a closer look at the product as if they are present in the store and examining the product. The zoom-in and check the details too. They might also want to look at the product from different angles and get a feeling that they are holding it in hands and moving it around to examine properly before buying it. So, it would not be wrong in saying that the quality of the photo of the product is going to decide the quantity of the product that will be sold online.

There are two types of photographs that can be used on an eCommerce website.

1. Table of Contents

   White-background images

This type of image only includes the product placed in a white background for an enhanced view of the features of the product. It requires you to take shots from various angles to give better experience.

2. Lifestyle photo

This style shows the product being used at a place for which it is intended and it might be probably placed with other complementary products too. This can be also called an in-context image.

The following section is dedicated to various photography techniques that can be used by the marketers for their products to survive in the competition in 2020.

1. Select the camera wisely

The most important part of any photography is deciding on a camera. Technology has helped inventions of many kinds of DSLRs and other cameras and thereby, provided you with a range of cameras to select from. Smartphone photography has also evolved over time and sometimes you can even capture better photos with phones than digital cameras. So, you might not be required to invest much on cameras if you have proper light and a good phone. This will again depend on the type of photos you want. For high-quality photographs, you will be required to use a DSLR. There are some recommended settings for a DSLR that will be used for eCommerce photography – avoid using wide angles, use the correct aperture as per the type of shot you want, and most importantly, use the correct white balance.

2. The versatility of the capturing devices

Always chose such a camera that can be adjusted to take various pictures. The camera settings should be configurable as per the needs. This gives you the freedom of taking photos in different styles and thereby, it offers your options to select from. Having the option to configure the camera brings you out from a set of limited types of photos. This way you can capture and upload photos in unique styles instead of some two-three mundane styles. Such captures would capture customers’ attention and increase their chance of buying the product. So, while choosing the device, see that it is versatile enough to be configured and not just a simple camera. This investment will reap you excellent results in terms of business.

3. Light is a very important factor

Light can add life to the product. Use it wisely and you win the game. You might find it difficult to set up the lights, but once it’s done correctly, it will bring terrific results and boost your product sales. You can take advantage of the natural light that the sun provides or if you have the required budget, you can install and use a light-box in the studio and click photos there.

But, the natural light can be easy to work with and is often considered better than the studio lights for some small in-house product shoots. Also, it will suit your low budget too. It is also very easy to manipulate the natural light by using some cloth or paper to dampen the harshness of the sunlight. To tone down the shadow, cardboard or some other object can be put to soften the light on the product. When you have to use natural light, see that you do the photography in the day when the light is very bright. Then, it will be easy to manipulate the illumination and not in the evening.

The studio lights are also equally useful when you have the required budget and not enough time to complete the shooting during the daytime. With these lights too you can play with the intensity of light and shadows by using white cloth or paper for diffusion and cardboards for softening the shadows. Try to change the angles and distance of the light source to observe various ways until you get the most suitable one for the type of photograph you intend to click.

4. Tripod is recommended

Although it is not mandatory to use a tripod, it is highly recommended that you use one for the eCommerce photography of the products. Tripod would make the camera stable and focused. This would eliminate the blurred photos that can be captured because of human error and humans, as you know, are prone to errors. Moreover, a hand might get tired of holding the camera with the same stability throughout the entire shoot. Also, why bother so much trouble when assistance is already available? Tripods, if they do not fit in your limited budget, you can make your own stand with the help of a table and books. This will save you a lot of effort and energy that you might waste in taking blurred images.

5. Post-processing

Every cake requires icing to look good, just the bread would not look appealing. Similarly, every photo needs to be touched one more time to polish it; give it a final touch. There are many photo editing tools available that can help you remove or hide the flaws in your photographs. You can correct the color, brightness, saturation, etc. in the photo. It is a time-consuming process, but at the same time, it is capable of doing wonders for your eCommerce business.

Here is a list of all the apparatus you will need for the best product photography for your eCommerce business.

• Table or stool for shooting
• Light tent (if you are using studio lights)
• Tripod
• Camera (can be a mobile phone too)
• Image processing and editing software: Pfixar, Pixc, Canva, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

Once you are done with capturing photographs and have processed and edited them too, create a guideline of the size, color palette, saturation, brightness, shadows, consistency, and other metrics. This will allow you to increase the speed of processing other photographs and also maintain a consistency in the photos you will upload on your eCommerce website. The uniformity will keep the customers attracted and connected. Non-uniformity can draw them to some other website very easily.

So, follow these techniques and capture amazing photographs of your products and upload them on your eCommerce website to get the maximum benefit from them and boost your business online.