Product Photography for an e-commerce Store

The main goal of Product Photography is to focus on a single product by itself. It should have a plain background that puts the viewers’ attention on the product. Ecommerce has become a vital tool for retailers and some stores only exist online. These stores rely on Product Photography to push their products and convert viewers into paying customers. Some online markets might reject your product if you do not have a high quality image to represent it.

You can create your own makeshift area for product photography easily. Push a table against a wall and use a white card and use a blank sheet. Attach the sheet to the to the wall and the table in a way that allows the sheet to curve instead of creating hard lines and creases. This will create a seamless background appearance.

The next step is to set up your lighting. Utilizing two lights will result in much better photos than natural light. The ability to control the strength and position of the lighting will give you better results and help eliminate unwanted shadows. These lights need to be continuous and hot. Make sure your lights have stands so you can control how they are positioned and that they will remain still. Make sure to utilize a method to diffuse the light otherwise you will get harsh shadows. Diffusion is usually achieved through the use of umbrellas, light boxes, reflectors etc.

Product photography does not require having a top of the line camera and expensive lenses. Lighting is the most important factor. Also knowing how to set up the camera you own. You need to make sure to set your White Balance (WB) to Auto. You also need to turn your flash off. The image settings should be set to the largest quality setting. If you have the option for raw, set it to raw. Set your ISO to 100 the higher your ISO the more grain and noise will appear in your photo. The images that are displayed do not necessarily what you are going to get. Keep an eye on your histogram to make sure the exposure is correct.

Frame the product using zoom and the position of the camera. You do not want to crop in post it will lead to less than desirable results. Take your time. Positioning of your product might not come to you right away. Use a reflector card to wipe out unwanted shadows after you have your product positioned. Take your photo and evaluate. It might take a few tries to get the results you are trying to achieve. Before you upload your images to your website or other social media accounts make sure to crop and resize your image according to the specified dimensions.