What are some tips for taking high-quality product photos for e-commerce sites?

Taking high-quality product photos for e-commerce is crucial for attracting customers and driving sales. Here are some tips to help you achieve professional results:
 

1. Prepare the Product

• Clean and Polish: Ensure the product is clean and free of smudges, dust, or scratches.
• Assemble and Align: Assemble the product correctly and ensure all components are aligned.
• Consistency: Use the same preparation standards for all products to maintain a cohesive look.

2. Use Proper Lighting

• Natural Light: For products like clothing or lifestyle items, use soft, natural light near a window.
• Studio Lighting: Invest in softbox lights for consistent lighting. Avoid harsh shadows.
• Even Distribution: Use reflectors or diffusers to ensure even lighting without dark spots.

3. Choose the Right Background

• Neutral Backgrounds: White or light gray backgrounds keep the focus on the product.
• Lifestyle Context: Use settings that show the product in use for added appeal.
• Remove Distractions: Keep the background simple and clean.

4. Use a Tripod

• Stability: A tripod prevents camera shake and ensures consistent angles.
• Flexibility: Allows longer exposures without blur in low-light conditions.

5. Camera Settings and Equipment

• Use a High-Resolution Camera: DSLRs or mirrorless cameras are ideal, but modern smartphones can also work.
• Adjust ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed: Use low ISO for less grain, adjust aperture for depth of field, and keep the shutter speed steady.
• Focus: Always ensure the product is in sharp focus.

6. Capture Multiple Angles

• Front, Side, and Back Views: Show all angles to give customers a complete perspective.
• Detail Shots: Highlight unique features or textures.
• In-Use Shots: Show the product in action or being used.

7. Post-Processing

• Editing Software: Use tools like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to enhance images.
• White Balance: Ensure colors are true to life.
• Background Removal: Remove unwanted elements and refine edges.
• Consistency: Apply similar edits across the product range.

8. Highlight Key Features

• Close-Ups: Showcase intricate details, stitching, or textures.
• Zoom Features: Allow customers to zoom in for a closer look.

9. Maintain Branding

• Color Consistency: Ensure the product's color matches the real-life item.
• Style Guide: Follow a consistent style for angles, lighting, and background.

10. Optimize for Web

• File Size: Compress images to reduce load times without losing quality.
• SEO Optimization: Use descriptive filenames, alt texts, and captions for better search visibility.

11. Test and Review

• Feedback: Test images with a small audience for feedback.
• Review on Different Devices: Ensure images look good on desktops and mobile devices.

 

By following these tips, you can create professional and engaging product photos that help your e-commerce site stand out and convert more visitors into buyers.

Here are a few tips that completely transformed my e-commerce product photography:

1. Use Higher F-Stops
I used to shoot between f/2.8 and f/5.6, but I noticed my product images lacked the sharpness found in high-end photos. Switching to f/16 or higher made a significant difference, especially in a studio setting. Keep in mind, higher f-stops reduce the amount of light entering the camera, so investing in powerful lights is essential to maintain proper exposure.

2. Opt for Faster Shutter Speeds
I initially stuck to 1/80 as my go-to shutter speed, but upgrading to powerful lights allowed me to move up to 1/200. This eliminated any subtle motion blur and resulted in sharper images. While my studio lights max out at a sync speed of 1/250, I avoid going beyond 1/200 as the quality begins to drop.

3. Use $1 White Cardboards from the Dollar Store
These inexpensive boards are a game-changer. They act as reflectors, bouncing light onto all parts of the product to enhance visibility and detail. They’re especially effective for managing reflections on shiny or metallic surfaces, ensuring the product's features are highlighted without harsh glare.

These small adjustments significantly elevated the quality of my product photography, making my images look more professional and e-commerce-ready.

 

Photographing products can be very challenging, depending on the product you have in hand but there are a few basic principles that would instantly improve the quality of your photos.

When dealing with product photography, consistency is key.

Consistency in perspective, lighting and framing of your products will communicate to customers a sense of quality and fine aesthetics.

Let's go over some tips that will assist you in taking high quality results for e-commerce:

 

First of all, use a tripod!

A tripod is probably the most effective tool I have in the studio, I very rarely shoot handheld.

Using a tripod not only eliminate camera shake but is also a great tool to fine tune your perspective.

A tripod will help making sure every shot is consistent. 

 

Use optimal camera settings:

There are 2 main camera settings that will affect the quality of your images, the first and most significant is the sensor sensitivity.

The higher the sensitivity, the lower the output quality, so make sure to use the lowest ISO you camera offers.

The second setting is the lens aperture, the aperture setting can greatly affect the sharpness of your images.

When you will use wide aperture, you will get a shallow depth of field that will leave most of your product out of focus while on the other end, when you will use a small aperture, you will get soft and undefined images due to lens diffraction.

The middle of the aperture is the sweet spot which is usually around f/8-f/11.

If you are using a tripod then you don't need to worry about your shutter speed as the camera (and product) doesn't move, this way you can use long shutter speeds that will allow more light to reach your sensor.

 

Lighting is everything:

Photography is all about light, a good photographer will know how to shape the light according to the product's characteristics.

Lighting is an art form so no right or wrong here but for the most part, product photography benefits from soft light.

Soft light will eliminate hard shadows that might abstract some key characteristics of the product.

Soft light can be achieved in many ways.

The simplest way to achieve soft light is by bouncing the light off of big white surfaces such as walls, ceilings and large white reflectors.

To get started, simply point your light source to the ceiling, adjust your camera exposure value and see how the shadows are reduces or even completely disappear.

 

Lastly, Photoshop!

Nowadays, It's a well known fact that Photoshop is an integral part of the professional image making workflow.

Photoshop is where we put the final touches and making sure everything is perfect.

Most of the problems we face during the photography stage can be rectified to some extent with the help of Photoshop.

Having said that, it is very important to try our best to get as close as we can to the final result we want while photographing our products and not rely on Photoshop as magic solution to our photography problems.

The more we need to use Photoshop, the more artificial the result will get.

Unprofessional image editing can quickly destroy all the efforts we put in the photography stage.

We want to achieve natural results as possible.

Image editing is an art form of its own so probably the best tip I can give you is to hire a professional Photoshop retoucher.

Luckily, you can find many talented retouchers on Fiverr such as myself.

An experienced retoucher will know how to fix major issues in the image and improve or even eliminate imperfections in the image or product that are impossible to tackle in the photography stage.

 

As you can see, product photography introduces some major challenges but with the appropriate technical knowledge and some practice everyone can get high quality results.

I hope this helps.

If you need some further advice regarding product photography, don't hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to assist you.

Good luck.

Ivan