When you own an e-commerce store, it’s easy to take basic photos of your products and slap them onto a website. But when you don’t take the effort and care to capture beautifully accurate images of your products, you run the risk of turning your customers away from buying from you.
Dark and dingy looking photos can lead customers to believe that you don’t care about your products, or that your products are lower quality than they actually are. That’s why it’s super important to take excellent, well-lit photographs of your products, to give your customers the most accurate representation possible on a computer or phone screen.
It’s not that difficult to take great product photographs if you have the right equipment and the determination to do so. Here are a few tips that can get you started on the path to taking awesome product photos.
Get The Right Equipment
One of they keys to taking good photos is to have a good camera. That seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many folks out there will attempt to take photos of their products with a point-and-shoot low-resolution camera. Even a low-end DSLR camera, with a good lens, can be great for taking high-quality photos.
You don’t need to break the bank to get a good camera. Even a low-end DSLR camera, with a good lens, can be great for taking high-quality photos. You’d also be surprised at how many cellphone cameras these days are great for taking photos. Just be sure to use a high-end phone camera if you’re going to use your phone for taking product photos.
If you can’t afford to make the investment in a DSLR camera right now, you can always find a friend or family member that has a camera that you can borrow, or rent from them. The quality of the camera you’re using makes all the difference when it comes taking great photos.
Make Sure Your Lighting Is Good
Next to having the right equipment, your lighting is the most important piece of the puzzle for taking gorgeous photos. You don’t want your photos to be too blown out by bright lights, and you also don’t want them to be too dark, where it’s impossible to see any details.
You can get a lot of great lighting by taking photos of your products in natural light, such as light from a window, or taking your photos outside. But, you also run the risk of having too little or too much light when you’re using natural light. In these cases, it’s best to control your lighting through lamps and lighting set ups.
If you don’t have the money to shell out for a nice lighting rig, you can always make your own through a DIY set up. This blog post from A Better Lemonade Stand details how you can make your own DIY setup for less than $40.
Capture The Details And Color
Finally, when taking product photos you have to ensure that the colors and details of your products pop when displayed on a computer or mobile device screen. You can achieve accurate color in a number of ways, but you’ll need some sort of photo editing software to do so.
For most photographers, Adobe’s Creative Cloud programs (including Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.) are necessary for editing photos to look the best they can possibly look. These programs allow you to edit simple things like brightness and contrast, to more complex and time-consuming details. These programs aren’t free, but if you can’t afford Adobe CC programs, there are also a number of free online photo editing tools, like Pixlr and Fotor, that make editing photos a breeze. These are great for simple edits like color, contrast, and brightness, which are oftentimes the only thing you’ll need to edit.
You want to make sure your products don’t look washed out and dim when you upload them to your website. Make them stand out and grab people’s attention with bright colors and great contrast.
These tips will help you attract more customers to your shop, and entice them into buying your products. Great photos lead to more purchases, so be sure to get your product photos looking great and ready for your website!
Leave a Reply