Trying to come up with the ideal advice on e-commerce product photography for 2020? Welcome to the top page of Google, where competition is fiercest for the tightest 8 inches on the planet. You are now here.
Once you are bold and fearless enough to participate in this unfair war of e-commerce advertising, we'll reveal the most useful advice we've learned over the years in the business. This comprehensive, 9-minute read on ecommerce product photography has all the dirty little secrets and insider tips.
HOW DO YOU DO PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY?
For individuals who have never ever heard of eCom product photographs, the following paragraph is provided. For those who are more experienced, please skip this section and get to the more challenging ecommerce product photography.
The production of high quality, economically viable product images for online product representation and sale is the focus of the ecommerce product photography sector.
Get this to add some color to the discussion: [Exciting statistics about the US commercial photography market in 2021.
With an average growth of 1,9% over the preceding three years, the Commercial Photography industry generated $1,8 billion in revenue in 2021.
The average yearly compensation for employees in 2021 was $42.5K, but California alone must have significantly increased that amount, as the state's average annual payroll was a staggering $61.1K.
The industry had 3803 firms registered in the USA, and for the reporting period of 2021, the average revenues were $.5 million.
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY? THEREIN, THE IMPORTANCE
It is safe to infer that it is pretty significant because there are approximately 4,000 businesses that generate an average of $500,000 in annual sales in commercial photography in the USA alone.
The rules of the informational domain are being dictated by social media's dominance.
Did you realize?
Humans now have an attention span of 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. Yes, goldfish have a 9-second attention span, and the year is already 2020.
How therefore does it happen that the human ATTENTION SPAN is decreasing so quickly?
- 50% of respondents said they would grab for a phone if it wasn't in use.
- 2/3 of people use social media for news.
- Two-thirds of those surveyed acknowledged to toggling between different screens, such TV and cellphone.
This is one of the motives behind the development of bumper advertisements. the almost impossible to skip advertisements on YouTube that last for almost 6 seconds. to capture that focus while it's still there.
Now that we know all the facts regarding how attractive attention-getting imagery rules our lives, let's simply come clean about it:
Product photography of the highest caliber is expected. a really simple one as well. It has been boiled down to the bare necessities for an online store. It is comparable to giving an automobile wheels. It's not the portion that can be improved to or is negotiable.
HOW PROFESSIONAL IMAGERY BOOSTS CONVERSIONS IN THE ECOMMERCE DOMAIN
High-quality product photography can improve conversions, lower return rates, reduce cart abandonment rates, increase time spent on page, raise CTR, and even immediately move you higher in Google search results.
FOR TOP-SHELF RESULTS, PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES
Well, one of those areas where ecommerce companies are inclined to DIY in order to save money is photography. Please feel free to pick our photo-savvy staff members' brains below if your starting business is one of those with a very limited budget.
But we must issue a formal disclaimer:
One of the biggest returns on investment (ROI) in digital marketing may be found with properly done product photography. No reputable company can afford photos that appear amateurish. In this industry, there are countless potential pitfalls, and experience is gained over years rather than months.
THE BEST CAMERAS FOR PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY
Smartphone photography of DIY products is acceptable. There are variations, and we do refer to the patronizing "OK" rather than the OK "OK." Compromises must be made because you won't be able to scale this type of image to the billboard size and the focus may leave some pixels unusable.
Use a tripod and lighting tools when using it to replicate the professional quality as closely as you can. Of course, use the most recent models from the best smartphone manufacturers; every new model has one significant camera enhancement. Thus, the better the smartphone, the newer it is.
DSLR vs. mirrorless comparison: the differences are becoming less distinct by the second.
DSLR benefits and drawbacks:
Yes, the downside with DSLRs is that they are larger and noisier.
On the plus side, they are quicker to shoot, more durable, and there is a huge market for used accessories and lenses. This makes it possible to capture fleeting emotions at crucial moments.
The Coca-Cola and Pepsi of the DSLR camera business are Canon and Nikon.
Both of the shots below were taken with a DSLR camera, and we professionally altered the right one to demonstrate what the final product would resemble.
Benefits and downsides of mirrorless cameras:
With every innovation and patent, the mirrorless cameras get better and better, reducing the difference between the images they produce.
- because of size restrictions, the battery lasts half as long as a DSLR battery.
- plus, they are ideal for videos, include a built-in stabilizer, are more computational, and offer a lot of promise for face recognition functions.
Along with the DSLR industry behemoths Nikon and Canon, who successfully divide their focus between the two competing camera brands, Sony and Fuji are also significantly investing in the mirrorless camera business.
According to common wisdom, a DSLR camera will generally produce photographs of higher quality than a tiny mirrorless camera for less money
- roughly $500. Therefore, the choice is very clear if size and noise are not concerns or if you have large hands. It's time to start looking at mirrorless photography equipment more if you intend to diversify your portfolio by adding additional video production.
The best lenses for product images that convert well
Let's get right to the point and say it. Lenses only have a very small part to play in product photography. Why?
Nothing changes. They are fairly motionless. They are there, waiting for a photographer to press that button, whether they are dangling or lying flat on a ghost mannequin.
Neither does the camera move. For capturing pictures of stationary objects, a tripod is required. This means that no high-end, complex lens with a stabilizer is needed in this situation.
High apertures are what you typically shoot objects at, therefore most lenses have them set to their most default of settings.
So the answer is yes, provided that it meets the following criteria:
- the ideal focal length for your subject,
- sharp in the F8“F11 range.
Ironically, the still life is not difficult to photograph in this fashion; in fact, the ideal lens is a quite commonplace one.
THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR PERFECT PRODUCT PHOTOS IS A TRIPOD.
Make sure you get the tripod right because it is much more important for the process than a lens is.
Why is a tripod a bare minimum requirement for getting professionally produced photos of your e-commerce products?
- in order to prevent having to re-adjust your settings after making a small hand motion, such as changing the depth of field or aperture.
- to make it possible for repeated photos of the same product or a collection of similar products to be taken while maintaining consistency in the placement of photographed objects relative to the center, the direction of light, and props.
Anything about $30 should serve you for years if we are not talking about an industrial capacity photography studio because a functional tripod is not too much of an engineering miracle and has rather simple parts.
The novelty of flexible tripods is more suited to social media blogging, but because of their portability, they may also be utilized in daily life. As a result of their physical height and lack of physical limitations, classic tripods are bulkier but offer better stability and a wider range of angles.