How to Take Product Photos for Your Ecommerce Store
Those who are involved in ecommerce must know the importance of products’ images. Images are the only means to showcase products on your online store. It has been found that above 90% of the customers make their decisions based on the image they see. Even in the field of websites, a large number of visitors leave the website when they don’t find the website design to be attractive.
Talking of the online retail stores, the quality of products images is highly associated with the rate of conversion. In order to help you take product photos in the best possible ways, we are listing some valuable tips. Let us take a look at them and see which one works the best for you.
Planning is the initiation and most important step here
First, you should know that planning is the most important thing in this process. First, you need to understand it is a one-time process for each product. This is the main reason why you should never proceed without proper planning.
Before doing anything, ask yourself what your product image should look like? It needs to work with your ecommerce theme, and with your marketing materials generally. Once you get an answer to this question, you will be able to proceed further. Even if you are hiring someone for this job, you must have a clear idea in your mind about it.
Decide the genre
Now leading a step further. You have to decide the category of the product. While browsing some e-commerce stores, you will see there are either products’ photos or products represented in some context.
This is because several products can be shown independently. In that case, you can take photos of the product from different angles so that the customers will be able to see the entire product through a series of images. The background must be kept white for maximum visibility.
Then there is another type where the products need to be shown in relation to the lifestyle of people. In that case, you have to include some complimentary items along with the main product in focus. There is ample room for adding your creativity while shooting images of this category.
Such an image will let people think and relate to the situation appropriately. Once you fail to take product photos without considering these things, you will never end up getting the best shot.
- Watch as ecommerce product photography
Make proper use of the background
This is another important thing to consider here. You must be aware of the demerits of an image without any background. Such images are very tough to be fitted at different scales on a website.
You can definitely do that but people can’t get a proper idea about the size of the image. But when there is a proper use of the background, you can fit the image anywhere very conveniently. There is a rule that states your subject should contain only 65-70% of the entire frame.
In order to make use of the background, don’t use too much background that the subject seems too small. See the above example image of a watch as an example of great ecommerce product photography. You have to maintain a proper balance of background and subject in the image. This is the key to take product photos in a better way.
Your mind should always be open to editing
This is another important thing to keep in mind here. Editing is very important for enhancing the quality of the photo you have just taken. But it can be done right only if you know the limits precisely enough.
This is not a good place to fill up the photo with different effects. You have to keep it simple and edit the image only if needed. This tip is just to let you know that you can edit product photos up to some extent.
Use the right format while uploading the photo
It is really important to point this out here. In order to make sure everything is done right, there is a specific format when it comes to uploading product photos. Most platforms like Shopify and Strikingly work the same way.
Take a look at these specifications to make everything right.
- Opt for JPEG format in most cases.
- Coming to colour space, sRGB is the most widely used option on the entire internet.
- Based on the requirement of the website, make sure you have resized the image perfectly. In this case, you have to scale the image in the right way. Make sure that the image of dice doesn’t appear as big as a bookshelf. You can include some other items in the image to give an even better perspective.
- 72 pixels per inch is the standard resolution of uploading images for such purposes.
Apart from taking care of all the points mentioned above, never forget to use the right tags for this purpose. As most search engines and other means don’t study the image and product description text to match the search query, your reliance on tags is of the biggest help here.
Never include too many tags as that would not benefit you in any way.
- Example product photo being lipstick
Here is a complete set of photos that you should upload online
Now we are coming to the most important part of this article. In order to make things really easy for you, here is a list of photos you need to shoot.
One for the thumbnail first
This is the most important part. Make sure your product appears in the best way here. This is the first point from where you can persuade the potential customers.
One close up image and don’t forget to capture the other end
After that, you have to take photos from really close. It will let your potential customers see the fine details of the item before they make the final decision. In order to let them see the whole product, include some images of the rear end as well.
Include some photos of the packaging options you offer
This is a really nice gesture in online marketing. You can include some photos of the packaging options available. In this way, you will show your customers exactly what they are about to get at the time of delivery. In case you offer gift wraps, you must include some photos of these.
Final words
This guide is enough to help you take product photos in the best way possible. While photographing anything, you have to understand the importance of light. No matter how good a camera you have, if the lighting conditions are poor, you will never get photos of better quality.