Photographing Products for eCommerce Websites

Selling is all about image, and image is everything. Remember the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? What do you want customers to think when they see your pictures? The higher quality image a product projects, the more people are willing to pay for it. There is such high competition for small businesses, that even the smallest attention to details can make the difference between success and failure.

If you sell products on your website, you need to have professional quality images of your products. What is the point of setting aside a budget for your website design, just to launch it with substandard photos? We see this over an over again, and frankly it’s an issue that needs addressed! Selling is all about image and perception, and it doesn’t matter how gorgeous and elegant your website is, if you have poor product photos, the perception will be off and you will lose out on sales.

So, you’ve made the jump into online commerce with your spiffy new eCommerce website, ready to sell all your fabulous products – but wait a minute…you realize you don’t have any photos. What to do? We’ve got some ideas and suggestions for you. It doesn’t matter what your budget is, there’s no excuse for poor product photos. Depending on your budget and/or your time, you can choose from the following:

1. Hire a professional studio photographer to take your product photos. (Highest cost, but least amount of hassle, with most professional results)
2. Hire a less experienced freelance photographer to take your product photos. (Medium cost, minimal hassle, professional results)
3. Take your own photos. (Least costly, but more time intensive, results variable)

If you decide to take your own photos, which many smaller business do, that is fine – you can still have some great product images that look like a pro took them. Here’s some guidance:

For photos to be used on the web, you don’t need a fancy camera, elaborate studio, or tons of props. All you need is a regular digital camera which most people already own these days, a tripod, a backdrop, and good lighting.

Use a digital camera so the photos will already be digital. Use an inexpensive tripod to hold your camera steady and at the same angle for all shots.

You should choose a backdrop that is neutral and plain, white is really preferable for most products, although you can use another color if it fits the theme better. The key is consistency though, so be sure to use the same backdrop for all products. You can set up a backdrop easily by using a white sheet draped over a chair, etc, and make sure it curves behind the product, so that way the background drops out easily. Be sure to smooth out any wrinkles or folds in the fabric. You could also use paper for the backdrops, such as a matte poster board. Read up here for some easy to follow instructions on building a lightbox.

Professional photos should have soft, diffused natural lighting against the subtle background. The best choice is to take your photos outside on a sunny day. If this isn’t possible, then you can substitute with several clip-on lamps with daylight bulbs, like GE Reveal bulbs – very inexpensive! Don’t use the built in camera flash, it results in uneven light and dark areas on your product. Read up here about taking professional looking photos without a professional.

Final notes: do not put any props in the photo that aren’t being sold with the product. It’s unnecessary, as well as confusing to the customer. Take multiple shots so you or the web designer can choose the best one, or so you can show customers various angles or close-ups of details. Get some photo editing software and doing some of the basic photo touch-ups yourself will save you money as well. Some good inexpensive programs are GIMP (free), Ulead PhotoImpact (we use this in our studio, it is an amazing program), or PhotoShop Elements.

To conclude, we highly emphasize and encourage you to use professional quality photos for your products on your website, using one of the methods discussed here. There just isn’t much point to invest in a website and then put sub par photos on it.

Resources for more photography tips:

• Kodak
• Sitepoint Forum Discussion
• Digicamhelp