Hello,
This Wednesday’s advice post from my PR expert friend,
Rachel Burks, is about product photography.
Rachel is Managing Director of Porcupine PR, a local agency I work with
and who I also often commission to take some of my product photography for me –
especially my full greeting card range images as they have an in-house
photography studio in their offices fully equipped to do that job
properly. If you missed the first three
posts in this mini-series of advice from Rachel, you can catch up by clicking
the link here:
This week, let’s hear some great tips about product
photography:
Rachel: “Product photography is vital for any e-commerce site. It needs to be done well in order to show off your products and sway consumers to buy them rather than those of your competitors...
You need the very best images of your
products on your website because customers will only buy items they like the
look of and no matter how brilliant your product is, if it’s not shown in its
best light then it will not sell. After all in a shop a customer can pick up a
product and get a really good look. Online they need to see it in all its
glory.
Here are a few of our agency’s top tips
for taking product shots:
First thing’s first –
background
This needs to be plain and simple – plain
white is best but obviously necessarily if your product is white. You don’t
want a busy background that takes the customer’s eye off the product. We would
advise that you use the same background for all your products so there is some
consistency...
Lighting is important
You do need to think about this carefully
and it is one of the most important things. Sometimes natural light can be the
easiest and most effective. Beware shadows. Poor light will produce grainy
pictures too.
Lifestyle and close-up photos
For some of your products you may want to
feature them in lifestyle settings so people can get a feel for how they would
look and work in real life. Think about your product and where would be the
most natural place for it to be seen and the kind of style vibe you want to
push too.
It is good to have lifestyle photos but
also remember you will need close-up photos of the product so people can see it
clearly and in detail. Publications do often like cut out shots too so if you
want PR coverage be prepared...
Product options
If your product is available in different
colours it is vital that you show consumers the variety of options on offer.
People will want to see the exact colour and not just have a list of them. It
is also handy for people to see the product from different angles and to get an
idea of the scale if applicable.
Product features
If in your product description you talk
about for example, the embellished detail on a dress it is important to make sure
you have a close-up image of this for the customer to see. People like to see
the unique features and finer details.”
Thank you for sharing those useful tips
Rachel. I’m already looking forward to next week’s post – it’ll be the last in
this mini-series for now and will be all about commercial videos, an ever
growing medium for marketing businesses, and an area I must confess I know very
little about. I hope you can join us next
week and lean a few tips with me.
Best wishes
Angie
