Theatrium Design has two new employees we’d like to introduce! Meet George and Gracie, our new studio mannequins. We’ve been doing digital product photography for ecommerce sites for several years, and Gracie and George will be very welcome additions to our studio.
We’ve learned several very important lessons when doing product photography for the web. In order for your store to look consistent and professional, your photos must look their best. Here are a few tips we can share if you are looking to take your own photos:
- 1. Good lighting is critical. Product shots can make or break a purchasing decision, and the most important factor in getting good product shots is decent lighting. In our studio we use two strobe lights on the products, and a strobe to light the background. The product lights are set at approximately 45 degrees from the product in order to give the product texture and a 3 dimensional feel. The background strobe is flat onto the background to make a wash, making it easy to separate the background into transparency.
- The camera equipment used is also key… several clients have started their new product websites by taking photos on their own… if the image quality is poor, or anything less than professional looking, then their entire branding suffers. It is much more cost effective in the long run to get the product shots done right the first time, and not leave your web visitors doubting your business based on photo quality!
- Image size. It is important to resize your photos for each use… for example, create separate images for your thumbnail shot, product detail shot and a large pop-up zoom shot. If you only use one size file and code your image size through html, you will significantly degrade your image quality.
- Eliminate busy backgrounds. As tempting as it might be to take product photos and slap them up onto your site, having multiple backgrounds makes your site busy as your backgrounds compete with your site design and your products themselves. We like to isolate products onto white or simple color gradiated backgrounds so the site maintains a consistent look and feel. The extra work makes a huge difference in the overall look and feel of your online store.
- Shoot products in all colors available. People like to see what they are getting. Text descriptions of colors just don’t do it, especially with today’s trend of creative color naming for products. By having a separate product shot for each color or pattern in stock, you will make your site a much friendlier (and more successful!) shopping experience.
- Clothing fit is critical and mannequins make a huge difference! We’ve tried doing clothing shots using several types of mannequins, and have realized that if clothing fits well, it looks terrific in the shot, but if the clothes don’t fit, it’s going to be a struggle to get a decent shot. Unfortunately, mannequins come in sizes that are not “normal human” sizes… both George and Gracie could really stand to put on a few pounds, so I usually request the smallest sizes available for the best product fit.
Click here for more information on Theatrium Design’s product photography services.
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