DIY Product Photography
Your Budget Friendly Way To Promote Products And Services Do you own a start-up business? Trying to build your company’s brand? Or increasing your target audience for your sales? Whether you own an e-commerce business or a small store in downtown, a perfect shot of your products and services would spike up your game! Yes! You read it right, amazing and enticing photographs can drive your business to the pedestal!
I can see what you’re thinking, ah, that’s easy! I’ll just hire a professional photographer to take pictures of my products! Well, yeah! That’s actually a good idea. But having a great photo has its price, an expensive one. So if you are just starting and paying a professional photographer is still out of budget, just grab your smart phone and read the top 5 tips that you need to remember when taking your own product photos.
1. Arrange your products First and foremost, you should have the products that you want to take photos of ready. Make sure it is complete and that it is clean and presentable, a small smudge can really destroy the presentation of the product. Make sure to arrange your products according to the order of your shoot. Prepare a basket or a box for the products that are done for the shoot. Make sure you have everything complete so the shoot will go on smoothly.
2. White Background For newbie photographers, you might have a very creative and colorful pictures and set ups in your minds. You might be thinking of your color wheel that you have learned in your primary school and identify which color has the better contrast and will make the product pop out. But product photography does not always involve colorful and abstract backgrounds. The simpler it is the better. That is why white background has been very popular when it comes to product presentation. Not only that it’s easy to play with graphical colors and design, it also increases the products impact and looks elegant. Psychologically, white is associated with trust, purity, clean and fresh. This will also make the readers or customers to focus themselves on the product and will leave them with positive impression. Indeed, less is more.
3. Light We keep on seeing phrases like, “It’s all about the lighting” or “When lighting says it all” and even “Lighting is vital in photography. Indeed, what we have read is true. Proper lighting is very important when it comes to photography. It accentuates the subject and shows the detail of your products. You need to know your product’s shape, color, size and texture and play with you camera setting for the perfect lighting. Natural light is one for the best source of light for photography; a wide window can lessen the shadow and deliver a clear story of your products and services. If it’s impossible to use natural light, you may also use strobe, soft boxes and reflectors.
4. Photo Shoot Now that you have everything prepared it’s time for you to take your photos. You have to allot time for the process which will roughly take 4-5 hours depending on the number of products that you want to take. As what was discussed in the previous tips, you may prefer to be in a studio, or a place with wide window for natural lighting, you may also opt to do it outdoors if the weather permits. Check your camera’s setting, find the right angle and shoot as many as possible. Also, try to add some props that can be used as a basis of the products size, this will give the consumers the idea of the products real size. Do not limit yourself and avoid clicking that trash button.
5. Utilize your Photoshop Authentic photos are great but for product presentation, a little editing can make the images perfect. Yes! Just a little, we don’t want to make major changes when it comes to product photography. We just want to make perfect the background or equally distribute the lighting for the product. We want to deliver accuracy and consistency on the size of each product. We don’t want another product to appear smaller compared to the rest. This will avoid false advertisement and will build trust among your customers.
There are a lot of ways to do product photography on your own. Whether you like to save money from paying a professional photographer or just want to learn the skill, you need to invest time and money to create or make set of photos that will change your business, for the better. Toronto product photography is a ongoing hobby and profession in Canada. Amateur and professionals are using this simple DIY strategies.
