Product Photography Mistakes
In today’s online world, long gone are the days of dominant mail order shopping. Instead, companies big and small have had to re-group and reinvent themselves to keep up with the ever-changing, fast-paced digital era. That’s why it’s important to understand some of the costly product photography mistakes your brand may be making in order to remain relevant and afloat in a vast sea of online competitors.
Product Photography Mistakes To Avoid
Coming from our team of professional photographers at Thrive Product Studio, we often notice the same mistakes companies make in numerous ecommerce product photographs. However, basic some of these mistakes may seem, eliminating them will make all the difference when it comes to quality results and ROI.
Only Having One Product Image Instead Of Multiple
One of the biggest mistakes in product photography is having only one image for each product. Instead, it’s ideal to have multiple images per product as it is more likely to turn an online visitor into a purchasing customer. Potential customers want to see things like close up shots of important details and images taken at different angles. Of course, it’s important not to go overboard with a dozen images per product. Instead, a potential buyer would like to view 3-5 images in total.
Skimping Or Going Overboard On The Retouching Process
Retouching is an important step in the product photography process. However, retouching can either boost an image or ruin it by overdoing it. Keep in mind, that even the best retouching techniques will not make a low-quality image look great.
At Thrive Product Studio, the two biggest mistakes we often view online are too much retouching or too little. Badly edited images, as well as overly-retouched images, are equally damaging to a brand by making the products they offer look unnatural and unattractive thus affecting their overall sales.
Underestimating The Background Of An Image
The background of an image makes your product stand out while making the retouching process easier. In most cases, product shots are taken against a pure white background – an industry standard when it comes to major selling platforms like Amazon. Why? A white background provides a sense of clear uniformity which is pleasing to a viewer’s eye. It also doesn’t distract potential buyers and keeps them focused on your product. While creative shots with colored backgrounds are something you may want to include, it’s important to leave this process to the professionals in terms of lighting set up and retouching.
Inadequate Lighting
In product photography, proper lighting is essential. If you provide too little of it, your products are going to appear cheerless and dull. If you provide too much of it, things can go wrong in a wide variety of ways. When it comes to high-quality images – front, back, overhead, side, reflectors, and softbox lighting equipment are important. Why? The intensity, temperature, and tone of lighting all contribute to the final result of your product images which provide depth, volume, and color hues.
Inconsistent Images
Taking product images without a tripod can backfire when it comes to brand image. In most cases, product photography is done for a series of items that are to be displayed on the same e-commerce platform or website. That’s why consistency is key when it comes to photographing every item. You want your items to be placed in the same spot against a background with your camera at the same distance from your product.
The use of a tripod will provide your session with a level of consistency one cannot achieve without it. This means no unwanted blurring or bouncing around of the product from image to image. Furthermore, a tripod is one of the cheaper, more affordable things you can purchase when it comes to professional product photography and it will last you many years.
Going Overboard With Angles & Product Positioning
Getting overly creative with your product images can ultimately hurt your product sales. If your mission is to provide a true-to-life picture of a product, you need to make sure you do exactly that. While product photography often involves certain levels of creativity, it’s important to provide realistic images without too much of an inventive twist. Going overboard with angles and product positioning often result in bizarre, inconsistent images which are hard to replicate from one product image to another.
Using Too Many Product Props
In the world of social media, we’ve all seen crowded product photographs where it’s hard to distinguish the background with what’s in focus. If the props you are using take away the focus of a product you are trying to sell, don’t use it. Furthermore, if the props you are using don’t add additional value, don’t use them. It’s also not a good idea to use a prop that competes for attention with your product. That’s why the use of a pure, white background is so popular. Without any additional prop distractions, it allows potential customers to learn more about your product without all the noise.
Thrive Product Studio
Professional product photography is an investment with the highest ROI that no business can ignore. At Thrive Product Studio, we hope that our expert tips mentioned above will help you understand what mistakes to avoid with your brand. With high-quality images of your products, your ROI will soar and fewer items will be returned. After all, professional product photography has the power of making even the smallest business look big.
Want to learn more? Contact us by filling out our online form or give us a call at 1.877.681.0980. We look forward to working with you and getting started on your next project!
