The UN reports that global e-commerce spiked to $26.7 trillion in 2021. Now is the time to boost your e-commerce photography skills.
All that opportunity brings more competition. You need to stand out to find success, or you risk being lost in the data streams.
We can show you how to find success with your images.
Read on for your guide to stand-out photos for e-commerce.
Pick the Right Tools for E-Commerce Photography
Choose a DSLR or mirrorless camera. For optimal sharpness, go for prime lenses. 35 or 50mm focal lengths are best for e-commerce product photography.
Outdoor products suit natural lighting. For other products, choose LED panels, tungsten, or fluorescent bulbs. You will need at least 2 off-camera lights: a key light, plus a fill or backlight.
Bold backgrounds can make your e-commerce product photos pop; use color theory here. Props like mannequins are essential for clothing. Check here to learn about ghost mannequin techniques.
A tripod is essential. This will let you keep your ISO low, use slower shutter speeds, and keep everything sharp.
What Types of Shots Suit Your Products?
Single images work well for some products. But you have plenty more options depending on the result you want. For quick-scrolling and optimized images it’s best to use ones with lower size and you can use a background remover to do this job.
Storyboard sequences are excellent to demonstrate the user experience of a product. You can also use these in instruction manuals, or even as animated GIFs online.
Close-up and detailed shots bring intricate products to life. Think jewelry, fine textures, and luxury fabrics.
Plan your shoot before you touch your camera. You may want to include all three of the above shots. Packaging shots work well too online.
Angles, Composition, and Camera Settings
Low angles make a product look imposing and powerful. High angles can illustrate key features. Eye-level angles increase viewer engagement.
Compose your shots using the rule of thirds. The human eye needs a strong focal point, so make sure your product meets this need.
Wide aperture settings, like F/2.8, give you a shallow depth of field, blurring your background, or even making a transparent background. Narrow aperture settings, F/11+, keep background and foreground sharp.
Use your lowest ISO setting. This reduces noise and prevents grainy images. You may need to balance low ISO with a slower shutter speed. Use a tripod to keep your photos for e-commerce sharp.
Always shoot in RAW. This preserves greater image data than JPEG files.
Editing E-Commerce Photography
A solid editing workflow can bring out the best in your product photography. Crop your images to the right aspect ratio for your medium: print, web, email.
Boost contrast with levels. Bring your shadows out of the dark. Fix any overexposed highlights.
Fix your color balance if needed. These tools use inverse color relationships. Boosting yellow reduces blue, and less cyan means more red.
Sharpen your image and notice how your edges look. Sharpening can increase noise, so use a noise reducer to smooth things afterward.
Ready to Take Your Product Photography to the Next Level?
We hope you enjoyed our guide to e-commerce photography. This is a vast field, and much is beyond the scope of this article. But delve deep into the points here, and your product photography will leap from the page.
Choose your tools with care. Experiment to find the optimal camera settings and composition. Invest in photo editing software to fine-tune your images.
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