Product photography is becoming more and more essential in today’s age of eCommerce. With everything available online it becomes all the more a necessity to get good quality product photographs. Consumers, after all, will trust the brand or company which provides great quality visuals of its products. Online shopping mania has made product photography, a booming industry for photographers to make the most of with their amazing work. Moreover, every kind of media requires a visual presentation of the product, be it a television advertisement, a print media advertisement, posters, etc. Companies need their product to be photographed perfectly to project an image of their brand through that product. They need the perfect setting to show the exact mood the product is intended for. For instance, new kids fruity drink advertisement would need a pop of colours portraying a playful mood, the backdrop should also be lively and colorful to show the essence of childhood. This would make their product appealing to the right kind of audience, in this case, the children. Targeting the desired audience segment, maintaining the brand image, portraying the right mood are some of the essential traits requested by companies when they decide to go ahead with product photography. Thus it is highly recommended to know the different types of product photography. You need to clearly understand the nuances of each and every kind of photography to cash in on a whole lot of opportunities. The more versatile you are, the more job opportunities will open for you. Let us look at some basic types of product photography with their varied purposes.
- Shop: White – photography with white backgrounds, basically meant for an online shop or nowadays, mainly, e-commerce. However you need to make sure of certain things before going ahead with the process of photography in this case. You need to use good light settings in here to maximise the overall appeal of the product. So, some things need to be taken care of before starting,
- Clean the product properly for a neat effect. Getting out fingerprints and smudges really brings out the shine. Use a long free cloth to wipe the item and make sure that you don’t leave any fingerprints in this process.
- Keep the piece on a flat surface and keep the light source just at the edge of the camera line. Observe and set the light source accordingly so as to not create any shadows or reflections in the foreground. You can use reflectors to maximise the light effect. Even clean, plain white paper cutouts can be used as reflectors.
- Be prepared to spend some time in experimentation. Digital tools really allow you to do that without a lot of money. So, take lots of shots,experiment with all those different factors and you’ll achieve great results.
2. Marketing: branded – here you need to incorporate some additional elements to portray the features of a product or convey the brand image through those elements. For instance, an Amazonia skincare products feature can have elements signifying its Amazonian roots, like a tropical Amazonian plant used as an ingredient in the product. It will convey the brand’s heritage and the legacy it inherits from its place of origin. It thus helps probable users to have an overall view of the values associated with the brand. It gives a holistic view of the product as well as its essential qualities. These additional elements and their placement is also critical. The photograph should visually allow the viewer to focus on the product. In some disastrous results, the product has been observed to be lost in the background scenery used for the shoot. Hence the location, the lighting, the external elements have to be cleverly incorporated and strategically placed in order to guide the viewer to focus on the product in a subtle way.
3. Social: lifestyle – this is a really dynamic photography style as it involves social elements i.e. humans. Here, the engagement of people introduces a personal touch to the product. It is all about portraying lifestyle and strategically placing your product and signifying its value or importance. For instance, an affluent businessman is shown using a high-end luxury smartphone to show its varied uses in his plush and busy lifestyle. This portrays a certain kind of image in the minds of the viewer. It lets them have a lasting impression regarding the use and purpose of the product along with its price range and the kind of lifestyle it is meant for. Such notions can easily be fed into society using deliberate visuals to give out a certain social image. The attributes of the product and the belief system of the company seem clear in such photographs. They tend to last longer than the other two categories. This is possible because of the inclusion of human elements in the shoot.
These are the three main and broad categories of product photography. Numerous other versions of these categories can be devised depending upon varied factors. These factors could be the kind of target audience for a product, the purpose of the product, the values associated with the brand or company, the notion of the mood it wants to project. All of these factors can evolve into different categories. Each and every category has to be dealt with with a different approach. You need to pay attention to details and the quality of the photograph. These two factors provide the viewer with an appealing visual and hence help drive the conversion rates. After all, having great quality product photographs is integral to making a sale and garnering a wide base of loyal customers out of your viewers. A great professional quality shoot implies that the company pays attention to the needs of their customers and offers a signature style of photos or a certain kind of approach towards its products. The presentation eventually comes out as a major factor to boost your sales and help you achieve an outstanding result regarding the number of satisfied customers.