Growing Your Brand in a Digital World - Photos

Operating a successful business in the 21st Century requires that you remain ever vigilant regarding the promotion and branding of your company. In addition to having a welcoming, well-designed website, your product photography needs to be amazing as well. Highly professional and intriguing photos can work wonders in helping your customers go one step further than just looking, to actually purchasing products. After all, if you step back and think about your own online shopping experiences, you will realize that you are far more likely to buy something if the photo looks compelling.

Below are some tips and tricks aimed at helping you improve your photography skills, display amazing product photos, and increase your overall online sales.

1. Remove any items in the background so viewers will be able to focus solely on your products. This will draw the customer's attention to the products themselves, and it will also provide your company's website with a professional, clean look. In addition, you should use a plain backdrop when shooting each product. A plain white backdrop is probably the most common (and the most useful), as the white background can reflect light onto your product, which provides a brightly colored, well-lit image. On some occasions, such as jewelry or other shiny, reflective objects, a black backdrop will work much better.
2. Be sure to shoot your photos near a window if possible, as this will provide plenty of natural lighting, which is not only affordable (read: free!), but also easy to use. The best way to incorporate natural lighting is through indirect use, which means that you should set up your products to the right or left of the window, rather than right in front of it.
3. Note of caution: Because you will have light coming in from only one side (due to the window), you are going to have to even out the lighting in each of your shots so you won't have shadows, etc. This can be achieved through the use of a reflector. If it does not seem to be working, you might need to try a few different angles to determine the best position.
4. Tripods are very effective in preventing blurry photos, and you should definitely try to use one. The majority of people suffer from hands that shake every so slightly, and this will show up in your photos. A tripod will be very useful in helping you to achieve sharp, clear photos. If you do not have access to a tripod, you can always set your camera on a surface that is flat and sturdy and use the shutter feature in order to eliminate any blurriness.
5. Make sure to fill each frame with your product. The item you are focusing on should be centered within the shot, and it should take up approximately 80-90% of the frame. After all, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to see all of the details your products have to offer.
6. Try to capture as many of the product's details as possible. Be certain to take photos of the products from a variety of angles, i.e. from the top, sides, and bottom of each item. Prospective customers are far more likely to actually purchase your products if they can clearly see them from all angles, not to mention the fact that this is an easy way to improve all of your customers' online shopping experiences. Even if you do have a "zoom" function on your set up on your website, you should still feature a few close-up shots of any special textures or patterns in your products.
7. Before you start cleaning up and putting all of your equipment away for the day, make sure to upload the photos onto your computer and review them. It's always wise to make sure that you have captured the shots that you were hoping for, so it won't be too much of a hassle if you have to capture a few more shots. Make sure you check for brightness, sharpness, color, etc.

Bottom Line: Using the skills mentioned above to capture fantastic photos of your products can potentially increase your online sales, thus furthering the growth of your company. Say cheese!

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