A Beginner’s Guide To Product Photography

If you are trying to save money with your business, you might have considered creating your own product photos. Having good, clear photos can make a big impact on the success of your products. Learning how to take and edit photos takes some time and effort, but is well worth it once you see what you can accomplish. If you are looking to start taking your own product photos, here are some tips and tricks to help get you started.

What You Need To Take Product Photos:

To take good-quality product photos, you will need a camera, and some editing software. That’s it! A newer smartphone camera will work just fine, especially if you are new to photography. Once you get more advanced, it might be worth it to look into a legitimate camera, but they can be complicated for new photographers. Props such as a neutral backdrop or different lighting options are helpful, but not necessary.

Types Of Product Photos:

There are several ways you can choose to take your product photos. One of the most common types is the individual shot. This tends to highlight the product over a clean, white background. Hydroflask demonstrates individual product photography well, by highlighting each product and color option by itself. The next style of product photography is the group shot. This is often used when customers tend to buy certain products together or to show off a range of similar products. Glow Recipe offers a fun, on-brand way to show off multiple products at once. Lifestyle product photos are a great way to show off people using your products in everyday life. They can also double as content for your social media. Show off common and creative ways that customers can incorporate your product! If you are selling small or dainty items, detail product shots might be right for you. Many fine jewelry companies go for detail shots so that their audience can get a good look at what the product looks like up close. Lastly, there are packaging product shots. If you have packaging that is aesthetically pleasing, this is a great option! Part of the fun of getting a new product is unboxing your purchase, so showing off what your customers can expect (in addition to the product itself) can get your audience excited.

How To Edit Your Product Photos:

There are many different programs you can use to edit your product photos, depending on your experience and budget. Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Snapseed, and VSCO are popular photo editing programs. There are so many photo editing programs available, so test out a few to see what suits you best! You might have you use more than one to get your desired result.

Once you have photo editing apps and have taken some product photos, it’s time to start editing! Your first step is to edit the lighting and shadows of your photo. It’s difficult to get the lighting right every time you take a photo, but changing the brightness to be brighter or dimmer, as well as removing distracting shadows, makes a huge difference in the quality of your photo. Next, look at the exposure and saturation. Exposure and brightness are different- exposure simply brightens the lighter areas in your photos, while brightness lightens the entire image. Next, edit the saturation of your photo if needed. Adjusting the saturation can help bring out the colors of your product, or bring them down to be a more accurate representation of what they look like. Adjusting your white balance can help your photos as well, by balancing the colors to be cooler or warmer.

Taking your own product photos takes practice, but it gets easier the more you practice. When you are editing your photos, make sure not to overdo them so that they are an accurate representation of what you are selling. The goal is to make your products stand out, and not to make your photos look edited. Spend some time learning to make adjustments and you will have clean, bright photos in no time! Have you edited your own product photos? What are your favorite editing programs and tricks?