What is Product Photography?
Product photography has always been the key to ecommerce. Without quality product photos, customers don’t understand or trust what they’re buying.
When you use professional product photography, you build trust, you offer the users an accurate representation of the product, and, most importantly, you boost conversions.
Definition of Product Photography
Product photography is any image that’s used to showcase and present a brand’s product. This can also be called commercial photography, as the photos are used to advertise a product.
Why is Product Photography Important
If you sell products online, product photography is seriously important. It can help:
1. Boost First Impressions & Trustworthiness
Most consumers, 93%, consider visual appearance as one of the key factors in their purchasing decision. By using quality photos, you can increase the perceived value of the brand’s offering, which can help build trust with potential buyers.
2. Drive Higher Conversion Rates
Professional product photography can increase conversion rates by up to 94%. This is backed by another stat that suggests that 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is VERY important.
3. Reduce Product Returns & Increase Customer Satisfaction
High quality photos provide a realistic and accurate representation of an item. This actually reduces product returns. Research from Trueship actually suggests that these product returns drop by 22% when professional product photography is used.
4. Improve SEO
SEO produces some of the best returns for ecommerce businesses. Part of this is because of images. In fact, pages with images see 94% more views compared to those without. Not only this, but it gives you the option to advertise your product via image SEO.
5. Increase Social Media Engagement
Using visuals on social media posts attract 94% more views. You can use these views to your advantage, driving them to special offers or limited-time deals.
How to Make a Good Product Photo
If you want to make your own product photos, here’s how you can make it look professional.
1. Know Your Goals
First, you need to know your goals. This should be decided by yourself or your creative/marketing team.
The objectives should be centred around your target audience. For this particular type of product photo, who are you trying to target? That’s the question you need to answer.
Once you know, you can then design the whole product photo process around this type of customer.
2. Use Proper Lighting
The secret behind any good product photoshoot is proper lighting. Lighting that’s natural. You can get this type of lighting through a softbox or something similar.
You may even want to experiment with different lighting. It depends on the type of photos you want.
If you just want individual product photos on a white background, standard softbox light is good. If you want lifestyle photos, you may want different types of lighting to produce more natural lights and shadows.
3. Choose the Right Background
A white background is perfect for most ecommerce photos. You can accomplish this with a light box or with a large white background with good lighting.
For advertising purposes, however, you may need to “spice” up the background to make it more attractive. You can create a scene, incorporate objects, people, etc. Whatever you think will appeal to your target audience.
4. Capture Multiple Angles
If you’re renting out a photo studio, get multiple angles of your product and then decide on the best. At the end of the day, the more images you capture during your session, the better. You’ll then have a selection to choose between.
Plus, customers love multiple perspectives. It’s rare to see a quality ecommerce listing with one image. In most cases, you have a few different photo angles so the customer can get a full understanding of what they’re buying.
5. Edit and Optimise Your Photos
It’s rare that product photos are final once they’ve been taken by a photographer. After the photography session, the images go into post-production.
This requires a whole different set of skills. During this time, photo editors adjust brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc., to polish the images to make them look professional.
Type of Product Photography
When it comes to product photography, you have a ton of different options. Some of the main ones include the following:
Type of Product Photography | Description | Best For |
Individual Product Shots | Standard product photo on a plain background, often used for a clear, distraction free product photo. | Ecommerce shops, online marketplaces, etc. |
Lifestyle Photography | Shows the product in a real-world setting, for example, if you sell laptops, someone at work using the laptop. | Social media, lifestyle branding, and advertising campaigns. |
Detailed or Macro Shots | Focuses on the small details and texture of the product, ideal for close-up views of small items. | Jewellery, electronics, fashion accessories, etc. |
Group Shots | Displays multiple products together, usually they’re all part of a collection or bundle. | Product bundles, multi-item promotions, etc. |
Scale Shots | Highlights the size of the product in a realistic light to ensure the user knows the products size. | Home decor, furniture, and gadgets. |
Packaging Photography | Photos that focus on the product’s packaging to emphasise branding. | Luxury goods, subscription boxes, premium retail, etc. |
Get Product Photography in Dubai Today
If you own an ecommerce brand, you need professional product photography.
Though it can easily get overlooked, the impact it can have on your website’s performance is huge. It can increase traffic, sales, and most importantly, trust.
At Masoud Raoufi, we can help with your product photography in Dubai and the surrounding area. To make a real change to your brand today, contact us.
1 Comment
winwavelotto
October 06, 2024Your blog is a testament to your passion for your subject matter. Your enthusiasm is infectious, and it’s clear that you put your heart and soul into every post. Keep up the fantastic work!