by 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 times of photography have no effect on you anymore. Turning up your product photography game might be the best way to take a leap into the world of freelance photography, and the big gains that come along with it. Here are some tips to improve your Product Photography:
#1: Focus on Lighting –
This is especially true for new photographers, or photographers coming from other disciplines. Remember, with product photography, you have 100% control of the environment, and that includes lighting. This isn’t as simple as making sure your shot is well lit though, you want to use that light to add contrast and depth to your images. Just having a professional studio light shine from above lighting everything a bit too ‘perfectly’ won’t look as good as having the light focused on specific parts of the product. 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: Always Have an Odd Number of Products –
Almost all product photography guides will tell you that an odd number of products will almost always look better than an even number. 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 a product than an even number of them. Why this happens is centred around the human brain and its workings, but using this odd little trick can make your product photography look so much better with almost zero effort.
#3: Test and Experiment:
Always try out different prop and product combinations, different camera angles, and different compositions for your images. Trying out different things before the actual shoot is a great way to get an idea of what exactly you want the day of the shoot. If you’re working for a client, you can send the test shots to the client too, asking for their opinions on the shots, or if they want any changes to be made.
#4: Adding Depth and Dimension in Your Photos:
Adding depth and dimension to your images makes your photos look three-dimensional to the viewer. Add your props and products at 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.
#4: Creating the Perfect Composition:
Composition is one of the most important things for any type of photography, but it especially holds true for product photography. 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.
#5: Pay Attention To Your Backgrounds:
Adding creative backgrounds can add some life to your images and help compliment the product. Either adding natural backgrounds that show how the product is used or maybe having backgrounds that have a similar style and feel to that of the product can help you make the compositions for your product photography a whole lot wholesome. Using colours and patterns in your backgrounds is a great way to capture the viewer’s attention, maybe add elements of the brand’s identity into the photograph.
#6: Editing Your Photos
Learning how to manipulate the photos you must create the best look and feel possible is very important. 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.
Conclusion:
Those were the best tips to take your product photography to the next level. Product Photography is a great skill to learn. It doesn’t require as much effort as you think it does, and you can monetize it pretty easily once you get the hang of it. As long as you keep trying and experimenting with the creative process, you will continue to get better and better. Product Photography is also a great way to learn other types of photography, it helps you learn how to manipulate light and learn how to compose your photos better, and helps you increase your creativity. Don’t forget to comment your favourite tips or any tips we missed down below, and feel free to ask any questions too!
