Tips for E-Commerce Product Photos
Imagery is at the heart of your website. At the dawn of the internet, the rule of thumb was to keep pictures to a minimum – dial-up internet connections (remember those?) meant that too many photos many too much time waiting for them to load. But that’s all over now.
Crisp, engaging imagery looks great and grabs eyeballs: people will stay on your site based on how it looks. High-quality photography is, therefore, an essential element to any successful web experience – so getting the imagery right is just as important as understanding how navigation works or as writing a good tagline.
All this is especially true for e-commerce. On sites trying to make a sale, photos become critical. In the absence of a bricks-and-mortar experience, e-commerce companies rely on great images to seal the deal. So – how do you make your site, and your products, look their best?
Set up a photography space.
Don’t just snap your product in any old place. Carefully tailor the area in which you take your photos to give them the edge. If you’re shooting smaller product photos, then having a space with the right background and lighting can make a huge difference to the quality. Avoid brightly coloured rooms and fluorescent lights, as they can add a tint to your photos. It’s important to remember too, that shiny products will reflect the room. Think about your product’s surroundings as you snap the shutter.
Consider equipment.
First, the good news: to take high-quality photos, you don’t need an expensive camera. Many modern smartphones have high-quality cameras with a range of features, such as depth of field, to make your products stand out. Going beyond your smartphone, you can find relatively inexpensive cameras which can improve the quality of your photos. The key is to ensure that the resulting image is of a high resolution – eliminate blur and fuzziness so that your product looks as crisp as it does out of the box.
Editing photos.
It’s time for us all to admit it: editing cannot make a bad photo look good. But Photoshop has a reputation for a reason: you can make a decent picture even better with very slight editing. You can add a light colour correction, contrast changes, brightness changes, etc. Don’t airbrush your image to death – your users are sophisticated consumers of imagery, and will know when something looks “off” – but don’t be afraid of helping your photos be their best. Beyond of Photoshop, there are various free photo editing tools which provide a range of useful features for this sort of simple editing.
Always think of the basics: maintain aspect ratio (the relationship between the vertical and horizontal of an image) to avoid a squashed or stretched look; crop cleverly, so that the main element of your photo is always at the centre; and consider orientation (portrait or landscape).
Humans are visual creatures – we respond strongly to things we see. Your e-commerce site needs photography that plays to that preference. See the difference a good pic makes, and make a start with these tips for your e-commerce product photos!
Contact Image Plus for Photography Services
If you need high-quality product photos for your e-commerce website or professional team member photos for your website, then speak to our friendly experts. Our photographers are based in Coventry, Warwickshire and are always ready to provide photography services. Please feel free to contact us and speak to one of our expert photographers.
Contact us on 024 7683 4780 or send us an email at info@image-plus.co.uk.
