A visual world
Being that we now live in a digital world, it only makes sense that much of that world has a visual aspect to it. If you are going to try and promote your product, it is crucial to have an amazing photo that aids a sale.
While there are many talented folks out there, most of us cannot identify as a creative “Jack of All Trades”. As a result, we often have to outsource different tasks or take a crash course on how to do it ourselves.
The 4 P’s
This applies to promoting your product through use of photography. Even though Instagram might have us all fooled into thinking that we’re the next Annie Leibovitz, there is a lot that goes into photographing your product in a professional way.
A blog on Shopify has provided a detailed run-down of how to approach the task as a beginner.
The best approach to take is the utilization of the four P’s of product photography: planning, photographing, post-production, and publishing.
Planning
Planning is the stage in which you determine what you want your end result to be, and the steps you need to take in order to achieve that result. First, ask yourself where your photos are going to end up. The answer to this question may help answer how to design the shoot (for example, if it should be themed).
After doing this, make sure you determine your budget. While everyone knows you have to spend money to make money, it can be easy to go over budget on something like this if you’re not paying close attention (for example, is it necessary to hire a makeup artist? Maybe first see if there’s a friend you could ask).
Shots, shots, shots
Once these two items are figured out, create a shot list that expresses everything you’re looking for from your photos. The more detailed you are with this list, the more likely everyone involved will be helpful in aiding your achievement.
Finally, ask yourself – where and what? Figure out where you should shoot and what equipment you need. These two components may be determined depending on what your budget is.
Photography time
Next, you get to the actual photography portion of the process. This first thing you want to do here is prepare your product. Make sure all items are clean and look their best; this will make the editing process that much smoother.
The next step piggybacks off of preparation and is coined as “styling.” This is where you want to show your product at its very best, which helps give the customer an idea of what it will look like upon use.
Really make your product shine
And, while on the subject of making your product look its best, ask yourself if you should natural or artificial lighting.
This can make or break the look of the product.
Finally, with photographing, you want to familiarize yourself with the camera settings so that you can try a variety of things. These settings may include (but are not limited to) ISO (which deals with light sensitivity,) aperture, and shutter speed.
Post-production
The next phase in the product photography process is post-production. This is where you use different software to make your photos look the best they possibly can.
During this phase, you will want to remove distracting items from the background, use batch processing to fix errors on multiple photos, and retouch any impurities. The blog notes that if you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself (or do not have the time) it is normal to outsource this step to professionals.
Publish it!
Now, it’s time to debut your product to the world through publishing. Simply upload the images to wherever you want to show off your product.
The steps of product photography will have a lot of trial and error, so don’t get discouraged. Using this guide will help you get off on the right foot.
