Product images don’t only testify the quality of products, but they also serve as a window into your e-commerce platform creating two essential things:

• Trust, and
• Transparency.

To summarize, doing great product photography on a budget is possible. Whether it’s for an online store or business social media account, all you need is some gear and a bit of practice. While the results might not be the same as the ones from a professional product photographer, these tips will definitely improve the quality of your photos.

Consumers seek time-saving shortcuts all the time, and their attention naturally gravitates to the quickest way to gather information: images.Product images not only testify to the quality of your product, but also serve as windows into your ecommerce store, creating 2 very important things: TransparencyTrustImages shape their first impression, creating a tipping point as to whether they will. Product Photography Set-Up on a Tiny Budget Good photographs come at a cost – a pricey photographer who can charge exorbitant amounts per hour. However, if you have basic photography skills and an understanding of technique, you can create attractive product photos that speak to your clientele and help you make more money. Here are our six tips. As a blogger, photos are an important part of the job. I have slowly been upgrading my equipment and recently started getting a lot of questions about the changes. Today, I am going to walk you all through my at home photography studio that I put together over the last year on a budget. From someone who photographs products every day, this tutorial has been specifically crafted for business owners on a budget. It’s designed to be simple while producing excellent, high-quality results for most product types. Shopify Academy Course: Product Photography.

Images help in shaping the first impression, creating some sort of a tipping point as to whether your visitors should continue to browse your store, making a purchase or not. Therefore, the importance of quality product photography can never be ignored, especially if you own an e-commercial store on the World Wide Web.

Here, in this post, we will show you how to take product images that can:

• Convert,
• Engage, and
• Boost the lifetime value of your consumers.

So let’s begin.

Product Photography: A Brief Overview

Product photography is the use of specific techniques to showcase products in an attractive way in order to entice potential buyers to take the leap of faith.

It’s an essential part of both offline and online marketing for successful brochures, catalogs, billboards, magazine ads, specifically when selling products directly to the consumer.

Shooting Equipment

For beginner product photographers, the set-up may seem a bit overwhelming, but with practice, every step will become more natural over time.

The key is to find a process suiting your needs, optimizing it, and creating a series of guidelines to ensure consistency in your images.

You will primarily need only three things for the set-up:

• A shooting table

You can even create this with a table or a chair in your office or home.

• A light tent

It’s a box shaped object with translucent walls designed primarily to help in the even distribution of light around the object of photography.

• A tripod

You may hire one from the nearest studio in your locality to aid in your photo shoot.

Product Photography Tips

• Shoot in the right light

Natural light works the best for any type of photoshoot, and should, therefore, be used whenever possible.

Typically, early evening photographs usually come with the best results. What matters isn’t only the quantity of light, but also the uniformity of its distribution.

• Soft Shadow Versus Hard Shadow: Know The Difference

Hard shadows are typically created when the size of the light source is smaller in comparison to the size of the object.

On the other hand, soft shadows are created when the size of the light source is larger than that of the subject.

For product photography, you should aim for soft shadows. You may also use a flash diffuser to avoid harsh shadows if you want.

• White works, Also Known As The Infinity Curve

A clean and white background often works the best, since it helps the audience focus on the object in itself.

This allows product photographers to shoot against a white background revealing no horizon in the back, thus, giving a clean and pleasant view.

To create a white background (AKA the infinity curve), get a piece of white paper and bend it to create the impression of a curve. Your product will then be at the center of your photograph, and possibly the only item capturing the viewer’s attention.

• Keep your camera steady

As you take photographs, you’ve got to realize that even the slightest movement or vibration can result in the dreaded blur.

And then the closer you get to the object, the more pronounced the blur becomes. A tripod will help in providing you with more stability. You may also use your camera’s in-built timer to maximize accuracy and minimize shake.

• Be As Natural As Possible

Always take product photographs next to an item that people can relate to.

For example, if you’re capturing the photograph of a watch, put it on someone’s wrist. If you’re shooting a coffee table, place a book on the table with a fruit bowl next to it. Potential buyers will thus be able to relate to the item directly, thereby increasing the chances of your conversion.

So that sums up this post for now. Hope you had a great read.

Contributed by: https://www.learnpick.in/

TristanTaylor is author at LeraBlog. The author's views are entirely their own and may not reflect the views and opinions of LeraBlog staff.

You have 2 options when it comes to getting professional product photos created for your website.

1. You employ a product photographer to do the work for you – big budget required.

2. You do the work yourself and take the photos with your own equipment – small budget required.

Product photography equipment can be one of the largest outlays for a new business. If you are just starting out in business then keeping costs to a minimum is essential. Professional product shots from a photographer can be very expensive to produce.

Product Photography On A Budget Plan

This quick guide will show you how to set up a low cost but effective photo studio, that will produce great looking shots for your site. You will need a bit of space to set up your mini studio, but you can easily use a spare room or garage in your home.

The budget will vary for this setup depending on whether you already have certain items already available. The idea is to create a setup that is capable of shooting a variety of products.

So, what is the key equipment for a simple product photography setup? You can consider the following equipment as essential parts to create a simple low-cost product photography setup –

Camera/Camera Phone
Memory Card
Tripod
White Backdrop
Table or flat surface
Tape
Window (Natural light)

There are other equipment items that may be important such as lights but they are not essential.

The Equipment

You may think that you need a huge amount of equipment ranging from lighting rigs, too expensive cameras in order to produce effective product photographs.
This is not an option for most business start-ups, we want to produce great-looking images whilst remaining within our budget and be able to set up our studio in just a few minutes.

Obviously, using a professional product photographer produces the best results, but you can easily do it yourself in order to create effective looking product shots.
So what is it that we need:

Camera ($200)

Almost everybody has a camera at their disposal. With the advances in modern technology, most smartphones have very capable cameras on board. It is important not to worry about the camera you use. Test the equipment that you already have weather that is using a smartphone or a point and Click camera that you already own.

If you can afford a more professional camera then it is an option worth considering. If you are going for a more professional option then as a bare minimum it should have manual exposure and aperture settings.

Memory Card ($10)

Your memory card will be essential for storing your shots. Increases in memory capacity mean you can pick up a fairly substantial card for around $10.

Tripod ($15)

Stability of your shorts is essential to avoid any blurring. You want clean and precise shots so a tripod is very important.

Product Photography On A Budget Spreadsheet

Tripods come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit most cameras and even smartphones.

White Backdrop ($15)

You can choose from white paper or white material to create your white backdrop. Paper is usually slightly more expensive.
You must use one continuous sheet to prevent any creases or seams.

The background should be continuous, to achieve this you should curve the material as in the image below. This will avoid you using an image editing service for background removal.
Obviously, the sheet should be big enough to cater for the product you are shooting. Whilst it still needs to fit within your studio setting.

Tape ($5)

The purpose of the tape is to be able to fix your white paper or sheet in place, ensuring that nothing moves when you are taking your shots.

White Foam boards ($10)

White foam boards can be used to reflect light. It is an effective technique to bounce light from a window back onto the product. You need to place the white foam board on the opposite side of the product to the window.

We do this so that the product is completely filled with light, from all sides

A Window (for natural light)

To take full advantage of natural light, you will need to place your photography setup near a window with a generous amount of light.

Based on your product size the window you used should be quite a bit bigger than the product. The larger the window the more even the light will be.

A Table ($30)

You will need a table big enough to cater for your products.

How To Master Product Photography On A Tight Budget

You may already have one available in your home, but you can easily pick up a low-cost folding as an alternative.

A folding table also gives you the option of setting up your studio anywhere you like.

Cheap & Simple Product Photography Setup – What Are The Costs?

So, how much does a simple product photography setup cost?

The costs for creating professional looking product photography vary depending on the equipment you already own and the stuff you need to purchase. Also, do you need that high key lighting or professional studio?

Creating your mini studio on a budget may seem as the best option initially. After some careful consideration we estimate the setup will cost around $285 in total! Even if you need to buy everything from scratch. If you already have a decent camera then the costs could be below $50!

Getting Image Created Professionally – What Are The Costs?

The costs for creating product images using a professional photographer vary greatly but fit mainly within the following two ranges –

Employing a professional product photographer – From $10-$30 per image

Employing a photographer, buying the photography equipment yourself and shooting the images in-house – $5,000 -10,000 (One off cost)

Traditionally these ball-park figures are fairly accurate. You need to ask yourself how many images you actually need? Do you run a business that constantly updates it’s images or will you just shoot one batch of images in total? These questions will play an important role in deciding the option that is best for you.

What Are The Essential Product Photography Basics?

Setting Up Your Stage

Get the right background, setup your product right on a flat stable surface.

Get your lighting right

Getting this part correct is probably the most important aspect. It can be annoying trying to get it right but worth all the effort.

Using A Tripod

Tripods allow for consistency. They also provide stability and focus.

Get To Know You Camera

Whether you use an expensive DSLR or a simple Smartphone it’s important to understand how to get the best out of your device.

Post Production

Touching up your product shots after the shoot is vital. Editing your images can be the difference between average and professional looking shots

About Pixelbyhand

We are a professional product photo editing service. We work with businesses across the globe perfecting their images for eCommerce websites.

If you run an online business and would like to improve on your current product images then complete the simple form below. (We will only use your email to contact you directly regarding any inquiry you make. We promise to never send you spam or any unwanted mail).

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Product Photography On A Budget

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