Everywhere we look and go, we see product photography. When browsing the web or perusing periodicals, brochures, or outdoor ads, we frequently come across things that are for sale along with various kinds of product photography to promote them.
Product sales rely heavily on photography. To support the brand of the business and increase sales, images are essential.
As an illustration, think of internet buying. You’re searching for a new camera bag for your equipment. You go to your favourite internet retailer where you frequently make purchases for cameras.
Would you still purchase from a website if all it offered was a textual explanation of the camera kit without any images?
Most individuals probably wouldn’t. Product images serve as evidence of the features of the item. To determine whether a product is suited for them, most customers initially glance at the product photos before reading the description.
Product photography provides detailed information about the product, including its size, shape, colour, and even intended function.
The varieties of product photography are many. From straightforward studio product shots to the lifestyle approach, items in use, line-wide group shots, product packaging, and more.
Here are nine different categories of product photography along with some advice for each.
1. Basic Studio Product Images
More popular than ever, product photography has a straightforward explanation. There is a huge need for high-quality, spotless product photography in today’s world of online shopping, where millions of things are sold there.
Different kinds of product photography will call for various methods to highlight the specific product. For instance, a perfume bottle will need a different lighting strategy than product packaging.
This occurs as a result of the items’ various surfaces.
When it comes to developing product photos that will sell the product, speed and efficiency are essential for online shops that sell a variety of goods.
This could imply that they have a stationary studio set-up. Every product is photographed using the same static arrangement.
An excellent illustration of a straightforward lighting setup on a white background is this water bottle. It makes the product’s form very obvious. It is possible to see the plastic’s translucency and green colour by using a white background.
The customer can determine from this product image exactly what the product is composed of and how it appears.
Also keep in mind that in today’s retail environments, purchasing from a neighbourhood retailer enables the customer to grip, touch, and feel the goods.
That choice is not available to internet shoppers. For a product to be sold online, a clear product picture is essential.
2. White Background Images
There are various reasons why product shots with a white background are more popular than those with any other background.
First, to make a “knockout” of the product that makes it seem to float over the background.
You may choose the item and take it out of the backdrop using Photoshop or another tool. It may then be placed on a background of only white or floating inside a layout of many images.
Amazon is a terrific site to look at items displayed on white. Their product backgrounds are often white.
An example of a straightforward product photo on a white backdrop is this sneaker.
This kind of product shot is very easy to take and is frequently used in product catalogues and online shops.
These rock climber-specific camping bags were taken on a white background. The white backdrop is not ‘clean,’ as you can see on the left.
Before uploading the photograph to their product catalogue, my client removes the product from the image and cleans up the backdrop.
Check out our article on making a black background for photos for more fantastic picture background advice!
3. Using A Scale To Depict The Product’s Size
A photographic technique called creating scale lets the spectator know how big or little a thing is. It enables the customer to see how the item appears and is utilised.
Wearing a hydration fanny pack is this runner. The viewer has all the information they want about the product’s size from the size of the object in proportion to the size of the runner.
It aids in their ability to imagine how the same thing may function for them.
4. Product Grouping
Using group product photos, you may provide the customer with several possibilities. These can be a selection of women’s cosmetics that may contain different iterations of the same product or different formulations of the same item.
This collection of hats features two different designs and a range of hues. In one product shot, a grouping may be used to show the size, shape, and variety of the items.
5. Lifestyle and Product Action Shots
Product photos taken “in context” display the item being used as intended.
This woman is dressed in yoga gear as she is pictured for a yoga clothes catalogue. I took pictures of her doing yoga in a park to show how the clothing fits her.
Some designers will make a catalogue or website that features the product as well as images of it being used in context.
Here, we took outside photos of the skateboarder and inside pictures against white of the different colours of the shorts.
The shorts were then “knocked out” of the white backdrop and placed next to the skateboarder’s action shot.
This method enables the customer to view both the product and how it appears in use.
In-context action product shots and lifestyle product images are comparable. Although the model is outside in this instance, we don’t know much more about where or why to save that.
She is the centre of attention, along with the outdoor apparel she is sporting. By instructing the viewers to concentrate just on the product, it enables them to determine whether the product is what they desire.
6. Setups For Studios
The main benefit of shooting products in a studio is complete control. You don’t have to worry about the wind blowing your merchandise over when you set it up for a shot.
Alternately, you may design a setting that stays the same while you move items in and out while taking pictures of each configuration.
Making a lighting setup that will require minimal adjustment while you perfect your product is equally vital for shooting mass-produced goods.
Lay-downs are a widely used staging technique for clothing. Because they can be set up quickly, they are a typical photographic method that works well.
The view is gazing down from above. We may arrange the products anyway we like or overlap them like in this picture. The lay-down method is deficient in the 3-dimensional look of the clothing itself.
Mannequins give clothing a more three-dimensional look when they are used as displays. The diverse sizes and body forms of mannequins allow for various stances that best display the clothing.
To further improve the 3-dimensional appearance in this example, the shorts were positioned on the mannequin and lighted using studio lighting.
The shorts were then cut out and inserted into the catalogue arrangement by the designer.
Another method to make the product appear to be in a certain setting, in this example the outdoors, is to stage little sets in the studio.
The fall leaves came from an art supply store, while the stone slabs were purchased from a firm that sells beautiful rocks. These things are still present in our studio’s prop area. They may be utilised as needed on various shoots.
For this photoshoot, I procured the ferns and cedar branches from a nearby park. The final image is a crisp product photo taken in a studio that has an outside aesthetic.
7. Innovative Product Photos
There are times when you need to use product photographs that don’t depict the product. Although there isn’t a specific product in the shot, these are put up, lighted, and staged precisely like a product photo that features a product.
These kinds of product photography promote a concept rather than a commodity.
The concept of a gift or gift wrapping is represented by these wrapped goods. Even though there isn’t a specific product being sold, retailers might use this image to advertise their holiday deals and gift-wrapping services.
This product graphic doesn’t exactly advertise anything for sale, yet it exudes joy. Customers may use it for any occasion that includes cake and gifts.
This shot is a part of a collection for a golf course in another product image that does not advertise a product.
Each advertisement had a reference to time and followed the advertising concept of TIME.
8. Hanging Products
You can hang some things to give them a more 3-dimensional appearance, similar to the mannequin used for clothing.
I used a fishing line to hang these harnesses for rock climbing from various poles. The harness seems more three-dimensional when the poles are spaced farther apart.
The graphic designer then uses Photoshop to erase the backdrop and fishing line to create the 3-dimensional, floating appearance you see on the right.
9. Large Products
Depending on their size, weight, and intended use for the product picture, large items may provide various difficulties.
The setting, the lighting, and the photography technique may be identical to smaller items but on a larger scale depending on the product.
Climbing chalk bags were photographed in a group for this product image. Even though it would have been simpler to set up a tiny setup and take separate photos of the bags, the creative director wanted a single image that included all of the bags.
The first is the extra work required to integrate each bag’s photo one at a time into the arrangement as opposed to using a single photo that includes all the bags.
The premise of the advertisement, which showed all bags leading away, was another factor. It would have been necessary to make an adjustment or a guess as to how to duplicate the viewpoint for each bag while photographing them separately.
Since doing so was impractical, the bags were instead placed on a white seamless floor. I then climbed up on an extension ladder to a height that allowed me to fit all of my baggage within the camera’s frame.
This industrial casting is “a tonne” in weight. It was not possible to get it to the studio. Instead, we set up our blue backdrop and lighting at the facility.
The operator used a ceiling crane to raise the casting above our background and lower it to the ground.
This is the image we sent the designer, who removed the strap holding the casting and increased the left and right edges of the blue backdrop.
As I previously stated, these enormous product shots frequently employ the same lighting techniques as the majority of items, only on a larger scale.
For instance, this item’s size necessitates a strategy using more powerful light sources. While many smaller goods work well with light boxes, the size of this object necessitates a bigger soft-light source.
If you look at the casting, you can see that all of the highlights are present. For instance, if you utilised a tiny lightbox, the highlight would only completely enclose the casting.
Instead, we made use of a transparent 6′ by 6′ light panel. The highlight is evenly distributed throughout the casting by moving that panel very near to the product and then placing a strobe light behind it. The size of the product and the light source are now equal.
The important thing to remember with this kind of product is that for consistent highlights, the size of the light source should equal the size of the product.
Conclusion
Last but not least, the professional product photography is essential to the success of your business, your client’s business, and you personally. The choice of the appropriate approach for each product is the most crucial concept to comprehend.
Every product requires a strategy that best displays it. Simply stated, lighting typically involves producing surfaces of the product reflections.
More conventional lighting techniques that produce highlights and shadows are required for packaging made of cardboard. Additionally, providing additional light to highlight the design and textures of outdoor clothes may be beneficial.
Remember to take enough pictures for the intended usage depending on where and how the product shots will be utilised. For example, each product listing on Amazon is allowed to have many images taken from various perspectives.