Creating Inspiring Product Photos

If you want to sell physical products online at all, it’s essential to learn how to create photos that inspire the shopper to actually buy the item. Taking photos that get results requires practice, education, a little imagination and time.

You can do it yourself, or you can hire someone. Probably at first you’re going to want to do it yourself to save some money. But, remember that you need to factor in your time. If you can make more money making more products while paying a professional to take the photos, you should at least consider it.

In order to create inspiring product photos you’re going to need the following:

Camera

The type of camera you get today isn’t really as important as you might think. You can take excellent product images with an inexpensive camera, even with your phone. Try what you have and see how it works out. If it doesn’t work, move up to a more powerful camera, but you do not need to break the bank to take excellent, inspiring, product pictures.

Tripod

You think you can hold the camera steady but you can’t. Using a tripod to hold the camera extra steady while you take your product pictures will ensure that you get the best image for your products.

White Background

Use white poster board or mat board. You can get large, seamless background paper that photographers like to use from most photo supply stores, or craft stores. It comes in muslin, too. The important thing is that it should be very bright white.

White Foamcore

Purchase this at a frame shop or art store like Michaels; you just need various sizes that are about the same size as your product. This will be used to bounce light onto your product.

A Standard Table

A nice card table that you can cover with a white sheet or paper that is large enough for your products is all you need.

Tape

You’re going to need to tape down your board so that it stays where you want it to stay. You don’t want to set it up just right, and then have something cause it to move during the photo session.

Well-Lighted Room

The more natural light you can get in the room, the better. If you have a low wind day, you can even move everything outside to get the very best light nature has to offer.

Lighting

You can get the lighting you need from any home store like Home Depot or Lowes. Just buy three floodlights with reflectors, daylight 30-W fluorescent bulbs from them, and don’t forget stands for the lights. This type of lighting will best light your products so that just the product shows and not the background.

Finally, set up your product to be the center of attention. It can also be a good idea to put something for a size reference near the product for one of the pictures at least, so that the audience knows how big your product is by sight. Even though you will put the measurements of all your products in the descriptions, seeing is believing.

In case you're curious, I started working online in 1997 - in the dinosaur days of the internet. My purpose here at HomeFreeMedia is to help YOU build the business of your dreams by developing and recommending top quality products and tools. This will also result in profit and affiliate commissions for me, so we both win!
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