Product Photography – Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Product Photography is one of the most marketable skills in today’s world. With the advent of freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork, it’s become very easy to market your skills to the hundreds of small businesses that are being created. Product Photography isn’t a very hard skill to learn, and unlike other types of photography, you can work alone most of the time from the comfort of your home (or studio) and distractions like weather that affect many types of photography have no effect on you anymore. Whether you want to learn how to take awesome product photographs for your own business or want to learn a new marketable skill, we have you covered. If you’re learning product photography for the first time, we have an in-depth guide that you can visit here. We also have a list of the best product photography tips, check them out here! Here are some of the most common product photography mistakes and how you can fix them:

#1: Lighting

Photography is all about light, in fact, ‘photo’ in the word ‘photography’ actually means light. Using light to make your images better is a powerful tool, and there are many different ways it can be done and applied to different types of photography. The most common mistake in product photography is actually the easiest one to fix, it’s to focus on lighting. Now, if you’re coming from other types of photography, you’re probably not used to being able to control 100% of the light in your compositions. In product photography, however, you control everything, and remembering that you have that control is very important. However, lighting isn’t as simple as having a studio light shine from above and illuminate your whole composition uniformly. (The uniform illumination is something called direct light, which you want to try to avoid at all costs) Instead, you want to use that light to add depth into your photos, you want your images to look real and not ‘perfect’. For example, maybe use the light source to light up the product from one side; this will add shadows, create more depth, and put the viewers focus on the product. Use a combination of diffused light and focused light and add a mix of different light temperatures to create a better feel. You want the light to contour the product, and having a boring overheard light source makes the image look too dull and boring and uniform.

#2: Complaining About Not Having the Right Gear

Unfortunately, gear doesn’t make you a better photographer. And there are people that will argue that better gear can help them do this or do that, but to be honest, if you don’t know how to take photos, you won’t be able to, and if you do, you will even with the worst camera or even a phone. It’s fine if you’re using a phone, it’s okay if you don’t have a tripod. Phone cameras are becoming much better and more stable and will continue to keep getting better. The worst thing I hate about photography is that people think it has to be expensive, or you have to have the best cameras, and this is true for almost all forms of the art. So, if you are one of those people that complain about not having the best gear, please don’t and try to use what you have to take the best photos you can.

#3: Not Editing the Photos

One of the most common mistakes any photographer can make is not editing their photos. Learning how to manipulate the photos you must create the best look and feel possible is very important. The changes you can make, all from the comfort of your couch, are surprising. Editing isn’t as hard and complex as you might think it is. I usually start with some basic colour correction and retouching in Lightroom, before moving into Photoshop and doing the heavy lifting. You might think of Photoshop as this super hard, super-advanced software, only built for the most ‘pro’ photographers; but Photoshop isn’t as daunting as you think it is, and the amount of post-processing you can do in Photoshop is just crazy to think about. Photoshop can be used to do very simple things, like removing dust particles in the frame, to more advanced things, like combining different photos and adding different graphics. Learning how to edit is so important for all types of photography and I can’t stress how important it is to learn as soon as you can.

#4: Having an Even Number of Products

This one is a little hard to explain. An odd number of products in your composition will look so much better than an even number of products. While this isn’t true 100% of the time, it’s usually accurate and using an odd number of products tends to give a better feel to the photograph than an even number of them. Why this happens is centred around the human brain and its workings, but I’m no psychologist or neurologist so I don’t think I really understand why myself. One thing I do know is that using this odd little trick can make your product photography look so much better with almost zero effort. 

#5: Not Focusing on Composition

Composition is important for all types of photography. Good composition skills are probably one of your greatest selling points for any photographer. Using different props and surfaces and textures is very important to composing your photos. Adding interesting things that you might not even think of that give an added perspective to your image is a great idea. There are no hard and fast rules for composition in photography. But thinking out of the box and trying things out is probably the only thing I can guarantee will help you out, and make your photos look so much better. Try to change the camera angles to add perspective to your shots too, having a wide variety of angles, and maybe even changing up the composition here and there will make for a solid collection of images. We have a full article on the best techniques to create awesome compositions that you can see right here. 

#6: Not Adding Shadows and Depth to Your Photos

Adding depth and dimension to your images makes your photos look three-dimensional to the viewer. If your images lack that depth, they will start to look a little too ‘perfect’ and ‘even’, which is something that starts taking away from the interestingness of the piece. Try adding your props and products are different distances from the camera, or maybe place your props and products are different heights. Try to add different light sources, and maybe unevenly light up the shooting surface. Also, try to avoid lighting up the entire background and instead focus on lighting the product. Adding props with different textures and surfaces will help you focus the light to different places in the image too. Try to experiment with your lights, and camera angles as much as possible and find what works best for the product you’re shooting. We have a full article on using light to create depth and dimension in your photos that you can access here. 

Conclusion:

Those were the top mistakes that beginners make in product photography, and how you can fix them. Don’t hesitate to comment the product photography mistakes you have made in the past, or any comments or suggestions you might have!