Ecommerce photography is a popular and a huge subject if you consider the amount of earning and job it creates every year.
Ecommerce business is supposed to increase more than 95% within 2040. And according to experts, it will reach more than $4 trillion in sales by 2020.
Therefore, we have created this article to help anyone interested in starting their Ecommerce product photography journey. We have tried to keep this article short, as well as giving you important suggestions and equipment knowledge that will help you get started. We hope this will be a helpful guide to photography in general.
What is Ecommerce product photography?
Product photography is a genre of photography that intends to capture photos in such a way that attracts customers into buying the products. A good quality product photo will increase the conversion rate and generate sales for the company.
Why is Ecommerce product photography important?
This won’t be a DIY or budget-friendly blog, but we won’t even be suggesting any expensive equipment. We will go over what you need to have a better efficient setup. For Ecommerce photography, organization, time, and speed matters as you will likely be working with a large number of products.
Organization & Backup: Organize your products as best as possible. Pair them if they are in groups. Differentiate and divide by colors, size, product manufacturer, and other ways of identifying the products. Label them as you see fit.
Also, make sure to backup all of your unedited images and edited images, that way you can get back your images if your hard drive crashes.
Preparation: Once you are done cataloging your products, make sure to clean each product just before the shoot. If the products have spots then it will be difficult to remove in post-processing. If there are too many spots and scratches, as well as the lighting is bad, then it will result in a very unnatural image after being post-processed, so always remember to clean them.
Lens & Camera: A higher-end camera will give you things like better internal and external hardware structure, all-season protection, better software experience, better processor, etc. But doesn’t matter that much when it comes to image quality.
Regarding image quality, lenses are very important. Most photographers will recommend skipping kit lenses if you are doing professional work. A higher-quality lens comes with better glasses and additional internal changes that really add up to the image quality. High-quality lenses often come with features like automatic stabilization, which also helps with capturing better images.
Things to keep in mind when choosing lenses: Avoid wide-angle lenses for product photography. These tend to create distortion in images and mess up the dimension of the product. Buy either zoom lens or prime lens.
Editing software: Photoshop and Lightroom are enough for editing Ecommerce photos. Some photographers prefer to use Capture One Pro, that is also a good option for retouching.
Buy a Tripod: Tripods come really handy for getting stable shots in any environment. These would be an excellent addition to your equipment list. Also, tripods help to maintain the consistency of your product photos, you can set up the tripod in the exact position and height.
Lighting setup for Ecommerce photography
Lighting plays the primary factor in deciding the image quality of products. If lighting is bad then a lot needs to be done in post-processing to fix it. And if the lighting is excellent then very little needs to be done to make it perfect. So, focusing on lighting is important.
What light you choose is important. There are two primary lighting setups that most people choose from. These are Continuous light and strobe light.
Continuous Lighting: The most preferred choice for beginners. These are easy to setup and pictures will come out exactly what you see during the photoshoot. The continuous light setup is commonly used during model photoshoots. Working with such lighting is much easier than studio strobe that we’ll discuss soon. Continuous lightings are generally cheap and instead of buying separate lights, look for options that come with a full setup.
Studio Strobe Lighting: Don’t purchase strobe lighting unless you are a professional. These are a hassle to work with and takes a lot of experience to be flawless with it. The primary advantage of strobe light is that it can completely crush ambient light and give a well-lit professional looking image. The duration of such light is very small, usually around a split second.
Adding shadow and depth for professionalism
The best way to make converting and professional looking image is by adding high-quality shadows to your products.
Usually, shadows are things to avoid in professional images unless needed for a specific purpose, but for Ecommerce product photos, it is an excellent idea to add shadows, as these add depth and unique perspective to the images.
When adding shadows, there are some important things to keep in mind. Shadows need to look realistic and natural. It needs to be the same throughout the entire photoshoot, otherwise, it might look messy. You need to make sure that the shadows are consistent in terms of angle and size ratio, which will help to create a professional-looking brand impression.
Two types of shadows are mostly used by Ecommerce businesses, which are drop shadow and reflection shadow.
Drop shadow: This shadow can be achieved in two ways, first is during shooting. Use reflectors and change light positions to get the drop shadow effect. The second option is through editing in Photoshop. You will have excellent flexibility in terms of how the shadows look by adding it in photoshop. Most online businesses prefer this method and are also very cheap.
Reflection Shadow: Similar to drop shadow, it can also be achieved in two ways. In the first approach, the product needs to be placed on a reflective glossy surface to achieve this effect. Secondly, by using photoshop reflection shadows can be done fairly easily.
Importance of Post Processing
Doesn’t matter how professionally the photos are taken, without editing, photos will always be incomplete. Even the slightest adjustments can make a drastic difference. Editing photos will increase your chances of generating sales, as products will look more professional if edited correctly.
If you own an Ecommerce business or are a photographer, then we are offering photo editing services at a very cheap price. Consider visiting our site for more information. We do photo editing services for all types of customers. Our primary clients are from sectors such as Ecommerce, Fashion houses, Garments factories, photographers, and many more.
Conclusion
It will take a lot of trials and errors to master Ecommerce photography. With proper attention and effort, anyone can be proficient at it. Look for ways that will make your task easy and less time-consuming. Look into other’s work and try to learn things that will help you improve.
