Easy Product Photography Tips
Simple Tips to Help You Take Better Product Photos
Strong product photography is extremely important for the success of your sales. Whether for your website, advertising in a publication or direct mail, your product images showcase the quality of your items and give customers a glimpse into the rest of your product line, e-commerce site or brick-and-mortar store. To help, our staff photographer, Kevin Bohn, put together some simple tips for effective product photography that won’t bust your budget.
Your product images are often the first impression consumers see, so you need to make sure they engage customers and get them to take action. Streamline your processes and take consistent, color-accurate product images with Kevin’s helpful hints below.
Find product photo inspiration
- Look at your favorite brands. See what you like about their product images and try to replicate them.
- Search social media sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, as well as e-commerce sites for product photography you like.
- Browse magazines, catalogs and any item that showcases looks or styles that grab your attention.
Create perfect lighting
- You can create soft white lighting by making your own lightbox with PVC and white fabric. These items can be bought inexpensively at your local hardware and fabric stores.
- A simple clamp light works well, as the light will be diffused by the fabric.
- You can find basic light box kits for under $40 on Amazon.
- Keep it simple with only one shadow.
- For light balance, buy a gray card. This will help adjust your exposure and white balance settings by providing a reference point and keeping colors consistent throughout the entire shoot.
Rent or make your own studio space
- While small products can be shot in a light box, renting a small location may be necessary for larger products or frequent photoshoots.
- Check out warehouse space where you can rent a small corner as studio space for a more permanent solution.
- Try an extra office, storage room or conference room area for small or temporary use.
Equipment needs
- Experiment with different lens attachments for a variety of looks, especially if using a mobile phone.
- When using a digital camera, 50-80 millimeter lenses are preferred. The wider the lens, the more distortion will occur.
Backgrounds
- Use paper or cardstock with solid colors that you can buy at art supply or craft stores.
- Try different backgrounds to get a variety of looks
Product photography composition
- Frame your products using props that are relevant but remember, less is more. Don’t over-style and keep your product the focus of the image.
- Try using portrait mode which blurs the background to put the focus on your product. This can be especially helpful if using a mobile phone.
- Use the Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio to get the best image composition.
- Leading lines – lighting or background should “point” towards the point of focus
- Keep it simple and elegant
- Make sure you can see your product label
- If you have too many shadows, use white or reflective cardstock or paper to bounce light back into the image.
Large photoshoots
- Group the products being photographed by similarities such as size or color to simplify camera changes
- Shoot small products first working up to large products if you’re doing one-by-one shots.
Retouching product photography
- For color accuracy use automatic settings if you’re a beginner
- Check your screen color for accuracy as not all screens are created equal. At the very least, you need a 99% sRGB screen for editing photos.
- Know how to read your histogram in your camera or software program. It shows whether your image is under or overexposed.
- Keep your background color consistent.
- Watch for reflections, especially when featuring shiny objects.
- Keep in mind where to crop your image. Know where you will be using the images and if they need to be square, vertical or horizontal and what sizes.
- For large quantities of images that need retouching, consider hiring a freelancer using creative agencies or a freelance site like Upwork.
Take a class
- Look for a photography class at your local community college.
- Find a local small studio that offers product photography classes.
- Search the Internet for webinars and YouTube tutorials that can help with photography tips and tricks.
Do you have any helpful tips for taking product photos? Or have a question for Kevin? Let us know in the comments below.
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what is a grey card?
Hi Nora,
A gray card is to help adjust your exposure in a high contrast scene and obtain a good white balance from mixed light sources. If you place a gray card toward the direction of the incident light and then take a reflected light meter reading, you’ll ensure consistent exposures across your images. If you’re taking photographs with backlighting or side lighting then the gray card would face the camera. They can cost as little as $10. I hope this helps.
If I send a list of names and addresses to print labels for Christmas cards will you be able to that?
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We can definitely print your labels for you, as long as your names and addresses are in either an Excel or CSV file. Then you can easily upload them into our free software for printing on your address labels. Check out our step-by-step video on how to do a mail merge to walk you through the process using our online software.
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I hope this helps.
Melanie
Thank you, Kevin, your tips are immensely helpful. I am always taking pictures of my products. I shall use your tips next time, especially grey card board for light balance.
We’re glad they were helpful. I passed your kind comments along to Kevin. Let us know how the tips work out for you when you take your next photographs. We’d love to know if they help.