Beginner Tips for Product Photography
Great product photography isn’t always easy to achieve. If you’ve just started a business and aren’t feeling too happy about your product photos, don’t worry since even professional photographers spend months or years perfecting their product photography technique. However, there are a number of techniques you can use to improve the photographs that you take of your products. If you’re not ready to invest in new, expensive camera equipment, don’t worry since none of these techniques will require you to spend any extra money. So, if you are ready to find out how you can start to make your product photos look more professional, read on.
Lighting
When it comes to taking good, professional looking product photographs, lighting is key. You don’t need to be a trained photographer offering product photography in London in order to achieve good results, since many of the best results can be achieved using natural lighting. Because natural light is soft and always available – except at night – it’s quite easy to obtain the results that you want. Find a large, north facing window and put a table under it, place your product on the table and play around with it until you find the angle where the light enhances it best. You can, of course use camera flashes and other artificial light, although this is trickier – you’ll need to avoid any ugly shadows that artificial light can cause.
Staging
Rather than taking a photograph of your product on its own, you can achieve better looking results by “staging” the product. For example, if you’re selling clothes, a photograph of the clothes being worn by a model is more likely to look better and more professional overall than simply a picture of the garment itself. It’s also a great way to help your customer visualize how the product will look.
Use different angles
If you’re selling your products exclusively online, it’s important to note that your customers won’t have the opportunity to physically see or touch your products before they make the decision to buy. For this reason, try to take photographs of the products from as many different angles as possible, providing the customer with the chance to see as much of the product as they can and really get a “feel” for it, helping to reduce any uncertainty or questions.
Choose backgrounds carefully
Although there is no right or wrong background to choose for a good product photograph — some photographers prefer a clean, simple background and others use patterned or colored backgrounds to contrast with the product. It’s important that your background compliments your product and is free from any clutter, mess or distractions.
Article by Cassie Matthews
This article was written by the guest author listed at the end of the article.