Your Professional Product Photography Guide for E-commerce

If you have just launched your online store and are wondering how to capture professional product photos that grab customer attention and highlight intricate…

If you have taken the first steps in creating your own online store and are wondering how you can professionally photograph your products to grab customers' attention and highlight their fine details, this is a comprehensive guide on how to photograph products professionally.

E-commerce accounted for over 14.1% of sales globally in 2020, and that percentage is expected to increase to 22% by 2032, with sales volume exceeding $4 trillion annually. One study predicts that 95% of sales will be through online stores by 2040. Based on these data points, it is clear that online selling is in constant growth.

Table of Contents:

Methods and styles of product photography

P rofessional product photography tools

Photography settings Settings for portable cameras

Smartphone camera settings

The importance of lighting in product photography

Golden tips for product photography

Methods and styles of product photography

There are two basic types that e-commerce store owners rely on when photographing their products. The main difference between them is whether the need is to focus on the product itself or on its use in its natural environment.

Static individual product photography

In static individual product photography, we want the customer to focus on the product and all its fine details; therefore, any other detail in the background will confuse the customer and may distract them. In this type of product photography, you will need a completely white background, and you can include several photos taken of the product from different angles.

Lifestyle product photography

In lifestyle product photography, we must show the customer the practical side of the product. Therefore, the focus will be on the product's function or impact, not just the product itself. For example, with sports equipment, the customer needs to know how the product works and its effectiveness. Thus, photographing the equipment while it is being used by an athlete can be a great way to showcase the product.

Professional product photography tools

Of course, you will need to provide all the necessary tools for photography before you start your first product photography session for your online store. The good news is that all you essentially need is a camera; the rest of the accessories are complementary, but they will help you take professional shots of your products.

1. Digital camera vs. smartphone camera

At this point, you might be wondering whether you should buy a professional camera or if your smartphone camera will suffice. Well, if you are in the process of prioritizing your finances and buying a new camera is a financial burden, do not worry; modern smartphone cameras will be sufficient for product photography tasks.

Do not underestimate the capabilities of modern smartphone cameras, as some of them outperform professional digital cameras. However, if buying a professional digital camera is part of your plans, there is no doubt that it will give you an advantage over smartphone cameras.

If you want to get a clear image while avoiding any blurriness resulting from slight hand movement during photography, the ideal solution is to purchase a tripod. The tripod acts as a stabilization platform for the camera and prevents any vibrations during the shooting process.

If you own a smartphone and want a similar solution to ensure stability while shooting, there are many smartphone stands available; you can choose the one that suits you best. If you do not want to spend money on these accessories, you can simply use a table or a stack of books as a camera base. Of course, it won't be as convenient, but it is certainly a budget-friendly solution.

3. Lighting Accessories

There is a wide range of accessories you can rely on to secure suitable lighting conditions for product photography. Naturally, the type of equipment depends on the nature of the light you choose, whether artificial or natural. However, here are the most prominent tools used to ensure appropriate lighting while shooting products:

White Paper: Yes, very simply, in most cases, all you need is a curved sheet of white paper, where you place the product on top of it, ensuring it surrounds the product within the entire frame.

Portable Photography Light Box: Available in the market, it is sold as a complete unit—essentially an all-white box inside which the product is placed and photographed.

White Backdrop: A white curtain or screen where the product is placed on a table or counter with the white curtain positioned behind it.

Photography Settings

The quality of product photography is linked to the quality of the camera used; this is self-evident. However, what many overlook is how to configure camera settings to utilize the camera's true capabilities. Even expensive professional cameras will not provide satisfactory results if the settings are not properly adjusted.

We will not delve deep into advanced professional photography technicalities, but we will provide a simple four-step guide on how to configure the basic settings for portable cameras and smartphones.

Settings for Portable Cameras

Choose the Correct ISO Settings

The ISO option indicates the camera's sensitivity to light. The ISO standard is expressed by a specific number ranging in cameras from 25 up to a sensitivity of 12,800. Knowing the precise details of how ISO works is not essential; all you need to know and remember is that the lower the number, the lower the camera's light sensitivity, which requires more time for product shooting.

Based on the above, you should set your camera's ISO to the lowest possible number depending on lighting conditions. If you are taking a photo outdoors under sunlight (natural light), you can set the ISO between 200 and 800. However, if you are working in an environment with low artificial light, you should set the ISO to more than 800.

Adjusting the Aperture Setting

The aperture is the small opening inside the lens that determines the amount of light entering the camera. The aperture size is closely related to what is known as the "depth-of-field" in the captured image. The technical details of depth-of-field and its relationship to camera settings are not our current focus; all you need to know is that the aperture is determined by units called "f-stops," and the lower the number, the wider the aperture.

If you are not a photography expert and do not want to go too deep, simply choose "f-stops" ranging between (f/4.5) and (f/7.1). This choice will ensure you isolate the product from its surroundings and give it wonderful clarity and sharpness of detail.

In some cases, when you want to photograph a product in wide environments—such as shooting a remote-controlled drone flying in nature, for example—you need to focus on the drone and isolate the surrounding elements that are very distant. In this case, choosing "f-stops" of f/2.8 or lower would be a better choice to focus solely on the drone.

Adjusting the Shutter Speed Option

Shutter speed determines how quickly the camera lens opens and closes the moment a photo is taken. If you are using a tripod, you should choose a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster, whereas if you want to use a flash during the shoot, you should select a shutter speed of at least 1/60.

Smartphone Camera Settings

Smartphone cameras have evolved significantly in recent times, and you can rely on them for product photography until you have access to professional digital cameras. However, you should learn all the details needed if you wish to unlock the full potential of your smartphone camera. Here are the most prominent settings you should know and adjust to get professional shots with your phone's camera:

Manual Camera Settings Adjustment

Most smartphones allow you to manually adjust shooting options, such as exposure controls, white balance, and post-processing. Try to familiarize yourself with the options available on your phone and how you can use them to improve captured images.

If manual adjustment of shooting settings is not available on your phone, you can download some excellent apps that offer a long list of camera setting options, in addition to the ability to edit, publish, and share photos. Examples of these apps include Camera+, Camera ZOOM FX, and VSCOCam.

Here are the most important settings you should adjust to suit your desired product photography style:

Brightness: Increasing the camera's brightness helps hide subtle product flaws and adds a certain radiance to the image in general.

Contrast: The amount of contrast plays a major role in highlighting the product and distinguishing it from the surrounding environment.

White balance: In most phones, camera sensors determine the required white balance in the image, but if you notice white dominating other colors, you can adjust this option manually to achieve the desired balance.

Sharpness: This option is essential when photographing products with fine details.

Choosing Image Resolution

All phones come with a specific shooting resolution, such as 8 megapixels or 12 megapixels. Choose the highest resolution available on your phone; this will naturally increase the file size, but that is fine—the priority is for the image to be as professional as possible. You can always reduce the image dimensions later during the editing stage as you see fit.

Do Not Use the Zoom Feature

Many may think that zooming in is a good option to show fine details while photographing products, but in reality, this is not true. Smartphone zoom is digital zoom, which leads to a cloudy or blurry image. Therefore, if you want to highlight small details in your product, all you have to do is move the phone camera closer to the product; this way, you will get a clear and sharp image.

Ensure the Lens is Clean

Smartphones are an essential part of our daily lives, and we use them constantly. As a result, the phone lens may be exposed to scratches, dirt buildup, dust, and the like. Therefore, you must take care of the safety and cleanliness of the camera lens, as this plays a role in image clarity.

The Importance of Lighting in Product Photography

It is worth mentioning that choosing the right lighting for photography plays a significant, perhaps essential, role in many cases. We should not forget that the only thing connecting your product to the customer is the photo; the customer cannot touch, inspect, or try your product. Therefore, they must make a decision based on the image you present, and good lighting will be the key to success and persuading the customer of the product's quality.

Often, customers look for a specific feature or appearance in a product and base their purchasing decision on the presence of that feature. Therefore, having the right lighting will help them examine the details they are looking for. You must know that there are no lighting conditions suitable for photographing all types of products; what may be appropriate for photographing metal products, for example, will not suit organic products or those with non-reflective surfaces.

Therefore, you must understand the characteristics of lighting conditions and the types of products suitable for shooting in them. Generally, there are two types of lighting that act as the primary light source in the photography process: natural lighting and artificial lighting.

This is sunlight, often called "soft light," because the sun's light spectrum is broad and diffused, unlike artificial light such as lamps or flashlights. It can be said that natural light is a successful choice, and it is even preferred to photograph the product outdoors in the following cases:

If the product is designed or intended for outdoor use in daylight, such as a travel bag. Natural lighting leaves a very vibrant impression of the product.

If the product is intended to be used or worn by a person, as shots of individuals are more vibrant and professional in natural lighting conditions, where natural light reveals the vitality of both the product and the user at the same time.

If you want to show the surrounding environment while using the product, rather than the features of the product itself. Cleaning products might be a good example of this; car cleaning and polishing products, for example, will look their marketing best in an outdoor environment under sunlight.

Artificial Light

Artificial light is called "hard light" and includes all forms of light sources except sunlight, including candlelight, artificial lamps, and even firelight.

Artificial light has a narrow scope and concentrated intensity, making it very suitable for products that need to highlight fine details to impress the customer. Perhaps wristwatches are the best example of this, as customers interested in wristwatches pay close attention to the fine details of the watch frame and how it is designed.

The basic rule in choosing between natural and artificial light is to know the appropriate lighting environment for photographing each product. Because photographing products that need a soft touch under artificial lighting will give them a very sharp appearance; conversely, products that require focus in lighting and are shot under natural light will lose their fine details.

The Factor of Shadow and its Importance in Photography

Whether you decide to use natural or artificial lighting, you need to eliminate all forms of shadows that leave a dark impression on the product being photographed. This will give the product a vibrant character and help display it in the finest detail. You can address the problem of shadows during shooting in three ways:

This method involves using a soft light source to support and enhance the primary light source. The main goal of fill lighting is to counteract the shadow cast by the primary light source on and behind the product. All you have to do is place the fill light source behind the product, opposite the primary light source; in other words, place the product to be photographed between the primary and secondary light sources.

Reflectors or bounce boards refer to sheets made of a specialized material that reflects light, causing it to bounce and scatter in all directions. The primary function of reflectors is to reflect and diffuse the main light across all parts of the product being photographed, thereby reducing the amount of shadows formed by the main light source.

These panels are typically found in professional cameras as part of the camera flash, where they work to reflect and diffuse the flash light in all directions, turning the harsh flash light into soft, diffused light that helps reduce the amount of shadows behind the product being photographed.

Individual Reflector Panels

If you want to photograph products using your smartphone, using traditional reflector panels may not be an option for you because smartphones usually do not include an independent flash. Instead, you can use independent reflector panels and place them opposite the main light source.

In this way, you can dispense with fill lighting that opposes the main light source, as the reflector panels here work to spread the main light source itself across all parts and details of the product being photographed. By doing so, you achieve the main goal of the entire lighting process, which is to minimize shadows as much as possible while maintaining the clarity and definition of all product details.

If you succeed in securing an ideal lighting source that meets these specifications, you will get a professional and clear image that satisfies your clients' needs. Here are these two images as evidence of the importance of the shadow factor in the photography process.

Of course, in most cases, some final adjustments to the image are necessary before you release it to your clients. Despite all the previous preparations and settings, you may need to make some changes to the captured image. Therefore, you need a photo editing program that gives you great flexibility in making adjustments and adding some—let's call them artistic touches—to the image details. Below, we review the most prominent programs used for editing images on both personal computers and smartphones:

Best Programs for PC

Who hasn't heard of this famous program, which has become the golden standard for giant editing software? Photoshop includes an almost endless list of image editing options, opening up a wide field for user creativity.

You can edit the basic settings of the image, such as adjusting colors, brightness filtering, and more. You can also move on to professional options that include background removal and improving contour lines around the photographed product, among others.

If you do not intend to spend money on purchasing the full version of Photoshop, then Gimp will be the best choice for you. You can perform most of the adjustments you need on the image; of course, the program does not include the huge amount of options that Photoshop does, but it is still sufficient for most users.

Gimp is a free, open-source program that works on various desktop operating systems, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux. Through the program, you can edit image layers and filter many elements, such as colors, lighting, saturation levels, white balance, and more.

Best Smartphone Applications

The smartphone application market has become a huge market that includes all kinds of applications for various uses, and photo editing has had a generous share of smartphone apps. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of photo editing apps, so which is the best? We have chosen the most prominent of these applications below.

Many photographers rely on this application for most of their work on the smartphone. The application offers many editing and filtering features in its free version, in addition to a large number of options available if you want a larger editing area and are willing to pay for the paid version.

Through the VSCO Cam application, you can set a group of automatic settings to be applied to all the photos you shoot and publish in your store; this will give your store products a unified character. This application is available on both Android and Apple phones.

Adobe Lightroom App

This application is a miniature version of the Adobe Lightroom software for personal computers. The app is similar to its counterpart, though it lacks many of the free filters and settings; however, the precision it offers in photo editing is very satisfying. This application is available on Android, Apple, and Windows Phone devices.

4 Golden Tips for Product Photography

1. Include Every Explanatory Detail in Your Gallery

If your product includes fine details that could attract customer interest, you must include them. For example, consider bedding products for bedrooms. If you offer a mattress with multiple layers that provide maximum comfort to the customer while sleeping, you might consider photographing one of these products after breaking it down into its component parts, with labels for each layer on the image.

Make sure to showcase your variety. If you provide a wide range of product categories to your customers, you must demonstrate this to them by enriching the photo gallery with them. If you are selling clothing in your store and have many options for a particular item, you should photograph those variations and include them in the photo gallery as well.

2. Take Multiple Shots from Different Angles

Do not forget that images are two-dimensional elements, so you cannot show all the product details to the customer in a single photo. The solution is to take professional shots from different angles. Consider how a customer would inspect the product if they were holding it in their hands in reality.

If customers need to see internal details, you must capture them and include them in the photo gallery. Take cars, for example: would it be sufficient for customers to only receive various photos of the car from the outside? Of course not; they need detailed photos of the car's interior contents and design.

3. Ensure a Good Background

Whether you want to photograph products in a static or lifestyle manner, choosing the right background is essential. For static photos, the color of the background and its details depend on the nature of the target audience and the nature of the product itself. For example, if you are showcasing women's cosmetics, you might lean toward using a pink background.

If you choose to photograph products in a lifestyle style, you must understand the conditions under which customers use those products. For example, take raincoats: naturally, the use of these products is focused on rainy weather, so you might want to photograph these products in a rainy environment.

4. Product Photo Editing Services

If you do not have sufficient experience in photo editing and retouching, and you do not wish to allocate significant money, effort, and time to mastering the skills in this field, you can utilize professional photo editing services from designers specialized in product editing and photography for online stores.

If you would like to enlist the help of any digital marketing and professional social media advertising agencies, you can contact the venets team.

We offer you a group of specialists in professional web design services, social media services, SEO, and many various digital marketing services.

Hurry to contact us through our various digital platforms, or visit the official venets website.

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Muhammad Ghanem Al-Sawas

Marketing Department Manager

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