10 essential DIY product photography TIPS
that will make you money
Use this helpful guide to show your audience just how unique
your product really is, and gain better photos that will make your brand stand out in the crowd.
Photos are powerful marketing tools.
They have the power to convert an interested visitor into a loyal paying customer which I think is pretty cool! They are quite literally eye candy that attract and engage your visitors with your offering.
The quality of a product photo reflects your brand image, creating an important first impression. The key to making the most of their first impression is to present polished, professional images that evokes maximum engagement.
In this article you’ll learn photography tips and ideas to try, which will instantly turn your product from dull to inspiring, and lead your potential customer into making a purchase.
1. Let's start with the camera.
Yes, you absolutely can use your smartphone for day to day activity based photography and some lifestyle product photography can look awesome too. I’ve seen a ton of superb looking photos taken with the smartphone.
However for quality photography, I would recommend investing in an SLR camera. They have countless features and the lenses give you diversity for example, close ups show finer detail. Remember that when customers view a product page, they are looking for proof of quality and value.
That said, if you don’t have a budget for a pro camera then I’d recommend investing in a tripod to hold your smarphone firmly. A tripod will give you consistent and sharp results (eliminate shaky hand syndrome!) even in low level light situations.
Make sure to get a mobile grip adaptor to hold your smartphone and screw into your tripod.
2. Your product on white background
Yep, it might be boring but nothing beats the simplicity of a plain white background. I would always advise having your product photographed on plain white (alongside other more interesting set ups) as it gives the customer an accurate representation of what your offer is.
Use a white backdrop (paper or sheet will be fine) as it’s easy to remove when retouching your image
To achieve this you will need:
A table
At least an A1 piece of white paper/thin card or white sheet
Roll of tape
Small piece of white card
Push the table to a wall and sweep the paper to create a curve, then tape it to the wall. This allows the paper to naturally fall to the table giving a seamless transition between the vertical and horizontal plane.
When you’re on a budget, you should use natural light. It’s much easier to manipulate than studio lighting and it can save you time and lots of hassle
Place your shoot table near a large window, ideally one that allows lots of light into the room. If it’s a sunny day and the light too harsh, you can diffuse it by placing a cloth or white paper over the window
Use white card on the side that casts a shadow to soften it and to also bounce light back into your product.
Retouching your image after the shoot is vital to achieving a polished look. Using photo editing software like Photoshop to remove the background will make all the difference. There are also free image editing tools like Pixlr, Canva and Fotor.
3. Use a bokeh background for Lifestyle product photos
To create more interesting backgrounds for your products, bokeh is an example of simple but effective styling.
Bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas of an image, which in digital photography is caused by the shape of the camera lens. Whilst achieving this is easy with pro lenses, it is now possible to mimic the effect on a smartphone.
The smartphone needs to recognise the foreground and background of a photo, and then blur the background, while keeping the foreground in focus. With a dual-lens camera. The smartphone will shoot two pictures at once and then combine them to get that depth of field and bokeh effect.
While newer smartphones have dual lens cameras, it’s possible to get bokeh with only one lens by downloading a third party app that will give you the tools to create the effect. AfterFocus, Bokeh Lens and DOF Simulator are available to name a few.
If you have a dual lens, you can get bokeh without an app. When you take a photo, you should be able to choose what to focus on and what to blur.
4. Use colour to capture the right emotions
Colour is an important tool to convey the right mood, emotion, warmth, coldness and much more for your image. It can be used to create a narrative for the image and show authenticity for your brand.
Here is a basic colour guide to help you create the right impact
BLACK - sophistication, power, mystery, evil, death
GRAY - stability, security, authority
PURPLE - royalty, luxury, spirituality, passion
YELLOW - cheerfulness, energy, caution
WHITE - freshness, purity, cleanliness, simplicity
PINK - romance, compassion, beauty, love
RED - danger, daring, style, urgency
BLUE - peace, calmness, tranquility, integrity
GREEN - life, growth, environment, healing
5. Get up close to your product
If you sell something like jewellery or a product with fine detail getting up close will really help build trust with your customer. Obviously a macro lens would be ideal for this, but if you don’t have this just get as close as you can before the lens goes out of focus.
6. Get creative with backgrounds and props
A really simple but effective way of marketing your product is to get creative with different backgrounds and a variety of props.
Use them to ‘set the scene’ creating an environment that places your product in its intended setting. This goes a really long way in helping potential customers imagine the product for their own use. Cardboard, wood, marble, fabric, wallpaper and much more are just a few examples that make great backdrops.
Although, these photos can take longer to prepare, they are worth it as it shows your audience that your product is unique. Think about the style of your product and whether you want to convey that it's rustic and handmade or sleek and sophisticated. An old beaten up wooden panel can give great texture and authenticity to a product whilst marble works well with jewellery and sharp stationary.
7. Product suspension
Hanging products is a great concept for showcasing their strengths or actions. A mid air positioning can dramatise a photo and create a lasting, imaginative impression on your audience. It works really well on floaty light materials that you might want to show some movement, as if the wind was catching it.
You can use fishing wire, which is very strong and can easily be retouched out.
8. Products in a group setting
Sounds obvious but if your business has many customisable iterations of the same product, show them all. Rather than simply saying you offer different styles or size, emphasise the scope of your full offering by capturing them all in your product photography.
9. Freeze frame photography
The motion captured in a freeze frame shot can show a product in its most important moment of use for customers. If you’re looking to demonstrate that your product was designed with a specific use in mind, this is a perfect idea for your products photo.
10. Create a video
Not as difficult as it seems. Creating a miniature clip is pretty simple simple these days. Compile your content and start your production on one of the many simple to use platforms or smartphone apps like Magisto and iMovie. This image below was created by sewing together still images and using Timeline on Photoshop to transform it into a movie.