10 Tips to Upgrade Your DIY Product Photography

Rebecca Montag

It’s hard to stand out in the eCommerce industry. Sometimes it feels like there are so many competitors within every niche that there’s nothing you can do to improve your standing. But there are actually plenty of techniques that you can use to make your shop more appealing to potential customers. One of those is upgrading your photos.

Photos are one of the main factors that buyers use when deciding which shop to choose. Making sure your photos are top notch will allow you to close more sales. You don’t need to partner with a professional photographer to make your pics look prettier, though. There are a number of strategies you can use to make your DIY product photos look trustworthy and beautiful.

Here are 10 tips for improving your eCommerce product photography.

Get the Right Gear

1. Camera
2. Tripod
3. Background
4. Bounce cards

Before you start snapping pictures, you need to make sure that you have the right equipment for the job. Modern day smartphones have made it so that taking photos is easier than ever. But if you want your photos to really stand out, you’ll need something more than just an iPhone. There are just a few supplies you need in order to take clear, crisp, impressive photos.

The first thing that you need is a camera. There are countless articles out there about how to choose a camera that works for you. If you aren’t a photo wiz, however, we recommend sticking with something classic and simple. For many eCommerce sellers, a point-and-shoot camera, or compact camera, is the way to go. With a simple, affordable camera, you won’t need to mess around with all of the complicated settings. Simply aim it, and click the button. Don’t be afraid to shop for a used camera, either. It can save you lots of money.

Once you have a camera, you’ll want to get a tripod that fits. And for your background, don’t go overboard. A large piece of white poster board will do the trick. It’s also a good idea to get reflector boards so that you can manipulate the light to your advantage. These are pieces of cardboard or fabric that are typically colored white or silver, and can be used to bounce light at a subject. They can be readily found on Amazon, or you can make one yourself out of white poster board.

Set Everything Up

Now it’s time to set up your photograph. First, you’re going to want to pick a room that is easily available to you. Make sure it has a window and plenty of space to move around. Then, set up a table or a chair near the window so it’s well lit. Place your white background on the table or chair with space in front. The item you are photographing goes in front of the white background.

At this point, it’s important to spend some time arranging the product so that it is perfectly positioned. Go ahead and try out several different positions to find the one that is most flattering for your product. The key is to have it catch the light in a way that illuminates all of the details without creating shadows that darken aspects that customers will want to clearly see. If you’re having trouble getting the product properly lit up, use reflector boards to play around with how the light hits it.

When your products are either very big or very small, it can be a bit more difficult. For a particularly small object, consider gluing it onto the background so that you can photograph it head on.

Prioritize Sharpness

The most important thing to get right when taking your product photos is sharpness. Make sure your item is in focus. For those with no camera experience, however, this is easier said than done. While photo editing software can indeed up the sharpness of a photo, it’s much better to make sure that the original image is as clear as possible.

There are a few ways to make sure that the image is sharp. If your camera has autofocus, it can do the hard work for you. Before taking a photo, press down the shutter button halfway while aiming at your product. This will cause the camera to readjust its focus, bringing your item into focus. If you have more experience with photography, you can use manual focus to get exactly the result that you’re looking for.

Another tip for taking sharp photos is to experiment with your shots. If you find that the first photo you take is blurry, try changing the angle or lighting. Taking multiple photos will also help you pick out which ones are clearest before actually doing any editing.

Consider Displaying Your Items to Scale

If you want to give your buyers a good idea of how big your products are, you can consider scaling them within the context of the product photo. There are a few different ways of doing this.

The first is to place your product alongside other familiar objects when taking the photo. Household items work best for this, as they will give your customers a sense of how your product would look in their home. Anything lying around your house will do, but try to stick to generic and plain items. The last thing you want is for your product to be overshadowed by another branded item.

Another way to show the scale is by adding in an item that is of a known size. This can be a silhouette of a person with an attached measurement, a simplified ruler, or a model with an average height. For smaller items, try using a coin or include a hand in the frame.

If you decide to do this, make sure that your final photograph looks professional and the object you include for scale is understandable. There are many instances of this method being used only to ruin the visual appeal of the original photograph.

Photograph Multiple Angles

This might seem like an obvious note, but it’s something that many store owners neglect to do. In order to properly present your product, it’s important to photograph every angle of the product that you are selling. One photo isn’t enough.

When you walk into a brick-and-mortar store, you’re likely to pick up a product and look at it from all sides before actually purchasing it. That’s because you want to have a thorough understanding of what you are buying. Taking photos of a few extra angles of your products will give potential buyers a better idea of what it is you are selling.

While this process may be slightly tedious, the nice thing about it is that it doesn’t require you to redo your entire setup. All you really need to do is rotate the item and snap another photo. You should be aware that each side of the product may need slightly different lighting, though, so be ready to make small adjustments if it seems necessary. You should also be very mindful that each photo you take includes the entire product. If each side has different proportions, adjust your zoom (or where you’re standing) so that all of the details are visible.

Take a Picture of Each Product Variation

Many eCommerce shops sell slight variants of each of their products. Clothing shops, for instance, will have different sizes and colors for many of their pieces of apparel. To give your customers a good understanding of what each variation looks like, it’s a smart idea to photograph each variation that you have.

Of course, you can go overboard with this. If you have four sizes and four colors, that’s sixteen variations. Realistically, you don’t need to take a photo of each. Use your best judgment here and think about what the customer would like to see to understand what they’re buying. Most customers can imagine what the different sizes of a shirt would look like, for instance, so you probably don’t need a photo of all of those.

If you’re particularly tech savvy, you don’t even need to take a photo for each color variation of the products that you’re selling. Photo editing software can be used to make accurate mock-ups of what different colors of products look like. Many large clothing brands do this so that each picture looks the same aside from the shade of the garment.

Try Photographing the Product In Action

Sometimes it makes sense to take a picture of your item in front of a white background. Other times, though, that’s not the best way to sell something. Some products are more suited toward action shots. If that’s the case for what you’re selling, don’t be afraid to abandon the white background formula.

Think about camping gear, for instance. While a photo of a tent or backpack in front of a white background might be totally fine, camping fanatics are probably much more likely to want to buy gear if they can see it actually being used on an adventure. The same could be true for sports gear. If consumers see an athlete putting a piece of gear to the test, they’ll be excited to try it out for themselves.

Action photos definitely take more time to set up, but they can be quite rewarding. You’ll need to think through some logistics, though. Do you need to hire models? Will you shoot the photos inside or outside? How will you get your product to the photoshoot destination? Make a plan by answering questions like these and then go for it.

When deciding how to photograph your product, think about how it will look best. Remember, if you’re selling a household item or clothing, for instance, a white background will probably do just fine.

Edit Out the Background

Once you’ve taken all of your photographs, the next step is to import those photos onto your computer so that you can edit them. One of the most important edits that you should make is to remove the background. This is because the background can have distracting inconsistencies. Removing it allows the customer to focus completely on the object they are thinking about buying.

This might sound like a complex process only suited for Photoshop experts, but it’s actually very easy. Most photo editing software includes a magic eraser tool that will make this simple to do. Use the magic eraser to select all of the white background. Then, it’s as simple as pressing delete.

You’ll then have your product image on top of a transparent background. If you want to put a solid color behind it, you can make a new layer, fill it with a color, and place it underneath the layer containing the object. If you want to keep it transparent, just save it as a .png and the photo will remain transparent when uploaded to your website. At that point, it will take on whatever color the background of your website is.

You can even get creative once you edit out the white background. If you have a fun image that suits your product, feel free to put that in the place of the previous background. Just make sure the background isn’t too distracting.

Make Your Product Photos the Same Size

Having a consistent visual theme across your entire shop is incredibly important. It adds an air of sleekness and professionalism that you may not have had before. One way to do this is by making all of your images the same size.

Resizing images in a photo editing app or software should be really easy. Most of them have a resize option under the “Edit” bar on the top. Be careful to make sure that both the vertical and horizontal heights resize at the same time, though. If you do one at a time, your proportions can end up getting warped. There are even free photo resizing programs available on the internet that make the process a breeze. Just make sure that the photo resolution isn’t ruined if using one of these.

Of course, this is a bit of a challenge if your products are all different sizes and proportions. If you sell both candles and balls, for instance, you are going to have some photos that are very tall while others are more square-shaped.

A good trick to get around this is to place all of your images onto a square canvas of the same size. This makes it so that all of your images will have the same dimensions despite the products being different sizes. Then, they will all look visually consistent when your site is loaded.

Compress Images to Save On Loading Time

No matter whether you run your own website or use a service like Shopify or Amazon, the file size of your image matters. Large image files take a few seconds to load, and that time is crucial in keeping customer interest. Today’s internet users are used to instant gratification, so they are likely to navigate away from your shop if the load times are too long.

To reduce loading times, you need to compress your images, but be careful when doing so. Image compression is a balancing act. Your website will be slow and laggy if you don’t compress them enough, but the images will look grainy and unclear if they are compressed too much.

Compressing your images the perfect amount will take some practice, but most modern editing software has tools to help you do so. Photoshop, for instance, has a “Save for Web” tool that lets you see how much you are sacrificing image quality with different compression. There are also third party image compression programs out there that can do all the hard work for you. If you’re having trouble figuring compression out, trying out software like that can help.

Now that you know how to take beautiful DIY product photos, it’s time to update your eCommerce store! Upgrading your product listings and marketing photos can work wonders when you’re trying to sell more and scale your business.

8fig offers eCommerce sellers a free suite of innovative planning tools to help you visualize your expenses, including marketing. Then, we provide you with continuous capital at every stage of your supply chain so you can scale to new heights. Sign up for a free Growth Plan and see how 8fig can fund your growth!

Rebecca Montag

Rebecca Montag

Rebecca is an eCommerce writer at 8fig. She strives to provide sellers with the information and support they need to succeed in the ever changing eCommerce space.