I Grew an Online Business With Product Photography | Here’s How To Do It

Perhaps you’re just building your online store and want to showcase your inventory, or maybe you’re a seasoned seller looking to cut the cost of hiring a professional photographer – either way, learning how to take product photos is an important skill. In fact, a huge 75% of online shoppers are most influenced to complete their purchase by the product photos.

As an ex-small business owner, I understand the struggle; taking the best photos for online sales can feel like an impossible task when you aren’t camera-savvy. But thanks to modern phone upgrades, it’s now easy to take great product photos at home! Equipment doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, and the editing doesn’t require photoshop skills. Below, I’ll show you how to take product photos for your website and edit them like a pro. Keep reading to find out!

Types of Product Photography and When To Use Them

There are countless directions you can take your brand in with the help of photography. A story is told through the visuals in your store; there’s a reason for the saying “a picture speaks a thousand words!”

It’s important to understand your niche, identify your target market and what they want from your product so you can know how to take the best product photos to convey this. Before taking your pictures, these are some helpful questions to ask yourself:

• What is your product’s unique selling point? This could be anything from its premium materials, weight, portability, unique design, or affordability.
• Do you want individual or group product shots? Group shots can be used for when you want to sell products in bulk or sets.
• Would props help to elevate your product pictures? Props could be anything from lemons next to a citrus shampoo to glassware atop of home furniture.
• Do you want to show off the purpose of your product (such as fitness equipment), or its size and dimensions? (For jewelry or portable speakers, for example).

We cover some of the most common types of product photography in our guide on the best product photography setup, but other effective types are:

Scale Photography

The purpose of scale photography is to highlight the size of a product, which is achieved by adding context, such as another item, into the image. Scale is naturally achieved in photos in an outdoors setting through the scenery, but for an image taken in a studio setting with a plain background this is easily confused.

I’d recommend this type of photography for any products that have size as their USP, as well as any products that are to be worn, such as jewelry and clothing.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve held off from buying an item of clothing from a marketplace because the image doesn’t convey its size or length. Models or mannequins are a great way to give this type of content.

Detail Photography

Detailed, close up photography is brilliant at highlighting quality, small details, or making a product feel luxurious.

Shopping online takes away our ability to judge products in person and we rely wholly on the website images. Studies show a considerable 22% of returns occur due to the received item not looking the same as its representation in pictures, so capturing details helps to give an accurate portrayal of the product, therefore reducing returns and negative reviews.

This is a great choice for personalized products, clothing, jewelry, or any product that claims quality materials or intricate design.

White Background Photography

One of the best ways to keep your set of product pictures looking cohesive is utilizing white background photography. It’s simple, effective, and takes the least amount of time to set up. Also, it helps to accurately portray color and detail.

If you sell on an online marketplace such as Etsy, Depop, or eBay, which requires a large volume of product photos, you should utilize this method of photography. You’ll save a lot of time with setting up your shot and the backgrounds can be easily removed or altered in editing apps.

Steps to Photography Success

Now you’ve identified the types of photos you want to take, it’s time to put these plans in action and get snapping! Through trial and (many) errors, I’ll show you from experience how to take professional product photos that you can be proud of.

#1. Source a Location

This first step is vital to achieving a lovely result of your pictures. You need to make sure your location has a good amount of natural light, whether that’s indoors or out in nature.

If you’re taking your photos indoors, make sure there are lots of windows and natural lighting in the room.

If outdoors, there’s a lot of potential distractions that could draw attention away from the main focus of the image, so try to choose a location that’s relatively quiet and clean. You should also choose a backdrop that can stay consistent the whole time you’re taking photos.

If you’ll be taking product photos often and don’t want the unreliable weather to dictate their quality, I’d highly recommend buying an inexpensive light box. Amazon has some great options that start from as little as $10, and they make a huge difference in your image quality.

#2. Choose Your Device

If you’re hesitant to commit to buying an expensive DSLR, don’t be afraid of using your phone camera; you’d be surprised by how common this is in ecommerce! If you decide to go for the latter, you should make sure of the following:

• The camera quality is a minimum of 12 megapixels
• You can manually adjust the ISO, white balance, and focus
• It has stabilization so that your photos aren’t blurred
• You’ll also need a sensor large enough to pick up a lot of light

These features will give you a solid foundation with which you can take great photos with.

#3. Set Up Your Camera

After taking product photos, I’d often be left scratching my head wondering why they didn’t look uniform as a set. I’d have the same setup for each, but I realized that the only variable was my freehand photography. Although you might feel confident that you’re keeping your hand steady, there will always be a slight movement. Using a tripod is a quick and easy solution to this.

When you’re starting out, experiment with DIY tripods. You can use anything sturdy enough to hold its position, so get creative. I found a good old fashioned stack of hardback books to do the trick. It’s more challenging (but not impossible) with a phone because it doesn’t stand upright without support, so I’d recommend investing in a flexible tripod because it will save you a lot of time and effort.

Set up your camera so the products are centered and in frame. If you’re using a phone camera, turn on the grid in the settings to give you a guide. Consider the most flattering angles with the backdrop and lighting in mind. If you’re inside, facing the camera away from the window will give the best lighting.

Now’s the time to set up your shot. The arrangement of your products and props ties together your choices in location and camera placement. A white background will accentuate every color palette so if you’re shooting inside or you don’t want a busy background, this is a great option. Any cheap piece of white card will work just fine, but make sure it’s large enough to cover your whole shot.

A bounce card is also a great piece of kit to have in your arsenal. This can be any reflective surface that you can position opposite the main light source, like a piece of white cardboard or foam board. What this does is reflect (or “bounce”) back light from the main source that would otherwise cause a harsh shadow.

If you’re taking an outdoor photo, make sure your product is the main focal point and that it’s complemented by the colors in the surroundings.

#5. Take Test Photos

There’s a high likelihood that the placement won’t be perfect after you first set up your camera and backdrop, so play around with the arrangement of your camera and products. Often, issues with lighting and product placement are only obvious through the photos, so take pictures and assess them after each tweak.

It’s good to take a range of photos for each product – customers will want to see it from all angles before buying. Different angles and levels of closeness will also mean you’ll have a variety of photos to choose from when you look later!

#6. Edit Your Photos

The final touch for your product photos is to edit them to remove any imperfections. Read on below to find out how!

Tips To Edit Your Photos

If you’ve finished taking your photos and you don’t feel satisfied, there’s always room for improvement with editing apps, many of which are free and available to use straight from your cell.

When editing your product photos, remember that less is more; the end result still needs to accurately represent your product. Here are my top editing tips that will elevate your photos.

Remove Backgrounds and Objects

Backgrounds can sometimes distract from the central focus of your product image, or you may decide that it doesn’t complement the colors. Whatever your reasoning, you’re able to conveniently remove certain imperfections, or even the whole background in editing apps.

Unless you’re a photoshop wizz, I don’t recommend relying on this tool because when used incorrectly it can quickly make the photo look unnatural or glitchy. If you do need to use it, it works best with backgrounds that are plain because it can easily patch over the area.

Color Correction

Whether it was your lighting or camera that wasn’t cooperating, inaccurate color representation is a common struggle for photographers. While it’s best to practice nailing this at the photography stage, it’s hard to capture everything accurately. Certain surfaces, like those that are bright or glossy, and outdoor settings are common examples of this.

The good news is you can make quick and easy tweaks in most basic editing apps to correct these! White balance is a great tool to restore an image to more natural colors; contrast will help to bring out details you want to show off; and exposure tools will lighten or darken the image.

Batch Edit

One of my favorite time saving tips is to edit your product photos in bulk. After importing them into your app of choice and spending time altering to perfection, the last thing you want is to manually input these settings for each. Luckily, modern editing apps allow you to group your imports and copy and paste edits between thousands of photos in mere seconds.

One editing style will most definitely not work for all of your pictures, but for your photos that have been taken during the same shoot, this is an effective shortcut.

Optimize Your Image

Graphic content like images and videos can slow the loading time of your site down considerably. Studies show that 45.4% of online shoppers are less likely to follow through with their purchase if the site has a slow load time, so optimizing your image is important to make sure all your hard work gets rewarded.

So how do you magically speed up your site? It’s easily achieved by resizing the image and changing its resolution. The trick is to reduce the file size as much as possible while keeping the quality high, so have a play around and see what works for you.

This is just one factor of image SEO that considerably improves user experience, so I’d recommend familiarizing yourself with this list to help

Top Editing Apps

So now you know the best ways to enhance your photos, here are three apps that allow you to make all of the above changes and many more:

Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is an editing app that allows you to edit photos from your computer or mobile app. It’s a great option for those who find editing overwhelming, since every change you make can be reversed at any time during or after editing. You’ll also be able to find lots of tutorials online to make the most of its features.

Key features: premium editing tools, presets, and the ability to batch edit across lots of photos at once.

Price:

• Lightroom basic plan: free
• Lightroom premium plan: seven day free trial, then $9.99 per month

PicsArt

PicsArt includes a social community called Spaces, where users can join groups of people with similar editing tastes to share photos, gain inspiration and receive support.

Key features: background removal and a Smart Background AI tool.

Price:

• PicsArt basic plan: free
• PicsArt Plus: $13 per month
• PicsArt Pro: $15 per month

Snapseed

Snapseed is an editing app by Google that’s available on iOS and Android. It has a range of features – from simple to advanced, like deleting objects and extending the background – so it’s useful for editors of all experience levels.

Key features: 29 adjustment tools, RAW image editing, and a selective filter brush.

Price: completely free

Before You Start: Pointers To Remember

Make sure your products are clean and presentable. This may sound obvious, but it’s very easy to miss small things during the initial setup. I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when you finish taking photos of clothes you want to sell online, only to see a tiny loose thread or a crease on show! This leads on to my next tip:

Check your photos as you go! After taking a few, check on your screen. This is where you will spot issues with placement and lighting, so you can adjust as you go.

Clean your phone camera. Again, an obvious but easily overlooked step. We take our phones everywhere with us, and the camera often gets grubby. If you’ve followed the above steps and your pictures aren’t coming out the way you want, it might be time to give the lens some TLC.

Consistency is key to giving your product photos a cohesive look. Lighting, camera position, and editing are the main players that make a difference, so stabilize your kit, invest in some basic studio lighting, and get to grips with the apps I’ve mentioned. You’ll be glad you did!

Summary

Learning how to take product photos has never been more achievable thanks to modern technological developments. Phone cameras, DIY setups, and free editing apps can give the same effects as a high quality studio if you know how to use them to their full potential.

While this might seem like a lot of information, getting stuck in yourself is the best way to learn and improve. If you follow these steps you’ll be well  on your way to improving your photography skills and reaping the benefits!

The best part is that these skills won’t just help you to create strong images for your website, but will be transferable to other types of website imagery and visual content such as social media photos, videos, and infographics.

Written By

Annie Angus

Annie Angus is a Writer for Website Builder Expert with a passion for shaping jargon-heavy research into digestible content. She has previously researched and written about industries ranging from tech to fashion, and now, after testing our top website builders such as Wix and Squarespace, she is enthusiastic to share her findings with our readers.

With first-hand experience in utilizing social media and online marketplaces to grow a small handmade clothing business, Annie understands the priorities and concerns held by SME owners, and knows precisely what they look for in a website builder. She combines this unique perspective with her knowledge of website builders to produce engaging content spanning all areas of the small business journey, from creating a strong website to growing and maintaining an audience.

You can read Annie’s articles below, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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