Product Photography – Taking Those Great Photos That Sell
Posted by Car Battery Jump Starter in Article, tags: Photography, Photos, Product, TakingLighting is Key
The light source is of key importance in your overall photo shoot setup. Typically for indoor shots, you’ll want 2 light sources – one is the main light for either direct light on your product, or it can be diffused in some way, such as using a light tent. Then the second light source is typically fill or reflection-diffusing light to take away from the shadow effect.
Lighting TIP – rather than buying lighting equipment such as lights, tripods and a light tent, try shooting outdoors on a cloudy day – this can often have the same effect as a great set of indoor lights and diffusers, and without any shadows (assuming it is in fact cloudy when you shoot).
Lighting TIP 2 – Returning back to indoors shooting, try to set up your primary light source above and to the left of your product – this way the shadows will fall to the right and behind your product and can be more easily cropped out of the photo.
Backgrounds
The background your product is placed in front of is also very important – you can use an image editing program like Photoshop after the shoot to crop and remove the background, but you may also like to use a light colored or white background for the shoot and leave the background in the shot. Just remember that the background color can’t clash with the color of your product; particularly with clothing and apparel. There are commercially available free tools to help you match colors or at least avoid putting that fire-truck red tee shirt in front of that chartreuse background!
Tripods to the Rescue
Many digital cameras today, even lower end cameras, come with a tripod screw mount on the base of the camera. Use this for best results for shooting your products – this saves much aggravation with fuzzy images – even a slightly fuzzy image (we’ve all seen them on eBay) can detract from sales, so a tripod is well worth the investment.
Higher End Camera Tips
We won’t get into a discussion here on what the best digital camera is for shooting products – that could be a whole separate article (which is probably covered elsewhere), but one tip we’ve found invaluable is setting your camera’s exposure levels using a ‘grey’ card which is simply a piece of grey cardboard placed in front of your product – you can then use your higher-end camera’s recommended exposure (shutter speed and aperture levels) based on its readout of the image (many cameras will do this today).
Summary of equipment
Budget for beginners – even with a modest budget can take better photos for your eBay store or even just a few important tools. Assuming that you have a digital camera, you probably can only use when the camera is on a tight budget, and wait for a cloudy day turning outwards. Then you just need a fund that could be used as easily as a white cloth on a table. They can not even photo editing software here.Even when they are shareware, freeware and trial programs are available to proceed without costs.
Intermediate / Advanced Budget – Once the hang of it, you can start your camera to a higher end model, normally a SLR camera lens and camera, shutter speed, aperture, etc. Then adjust the update — – a good investment is an indoor facility) with a shop light, at least two lights (on a tripod, and a bulb years is very important.
NoNo matter what your budget, you can make big improvements in their product photos, and to see a big jump in revenue and following some important tips on lighting, backdrops and equipment. You can also experiment with their own ideas and notions about how you think your product should be represented, lit and shot. We wish you good luck with your online business.
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