So you’ve decided to start an online store and you’ve got at least one product you’re excited to start selling. Your product might look great sitting in your bedroom or home office, but how can you make sure it really stands out in the era of Instagram filters?
Don’t sweat it. You don’t have to become a professional photographer to take attention-grabbing photos of your products.
In this article, you’ll learn, step-by-step, how to take beautiful product photography using only YOUR PHONE+SOME NATURAL LIGHT+ A GOOD PRODUCT PHOTO APP.
How to take professional photos at home with your smartphone?
Most ecommerce store owners know the basics of taking product photos with a smartphone: find a white background and some natural light, choose the highest quality setting and resolution possible on your phone—and click! You have a product photo. This is a great start.
But there are a few extra tools and accessories that can greatly enhance your photos and demonstrate the value of your product to let shoppers envision it in their lives.
If you want to become a professional photographer with your smartphone and take amazing product shots, here’s how to build your set up.
1. Use a room with good lighting
First, find a room in your home with a well-lit window. The bigger the window, the more natural light you’ll have for bringing your product to life.
Taking product photos closer to the window creates a softer light with darker shadows. Being farther away from the light source will give you lighter, shaper shadows.
2. Choose your smartphone
Most smartphone cameras these days make great DSLR alternatives for product photography. The higher the megapixel count, the better your product photos will come out.
You can use any smartphone with a good camera, but aim to get your hands on a newer model with a 12 megapixel camera or more, such as:
- Apple iPhone 8 or newer
- Samsung Galaxy S8 or newer
- Huawei P20 Pro or newer
- Google Pixel 2 or newer
3. Get a mini tripod
Mini tripods can range from inexpensive to pricey, but the good news is, no matter your budget, they’re a good investment with high payoff. A mini tripod will reduce camera shake and help standardize photo angles and style for your product line.
If you want a simple mini tripod, consider the Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod kit.
The Manfrotto PIXI is great for beginners. You can manage smartphones up to 3.3 inches wide, securely held in place by the tripod’s gripping clamp. And it can be placed right on your sweep to easily grab nice, high-quality photos of your products. The Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod kit is available on Amazon for a little over $20.
4. Set up your backdrop
Place your white backdrop behind your product to give your photographs a clean and consistent look and to eliminate distractions.
You could use a white paper sweep, or buy poster board from your local drug store or art shop for cheap. You’ll also need a table to place your backdrop on.
You can use Scotch tape to hold your backdrop down or stick your product to the backdrop. Sticky tack is also a great workaround if you don’t have Scotch tape.
Always keep your backdrop white. A white backdrop reflects natural light onto the product and gives you an evenly lit photo. It also makes the editing process easier if you need to remove the background. A cream or off-white color will make editing and lighting difficult. Also, try to position your backdrop not only behind your product but underneath it as well.
5. Use white bounce boards
Controlling the lighting is key when learning how to take product photos with an iPhone or Android. Bounce boards help minimize strong shadows and create a more balanced lighting environment to bring out the finest details of your product. You can buy a white bounce board made of foam on Amazon.
6. Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too bright
When the lighting is too harsh, these sheets will soften the light. You can find diffuser sheets on Amazon or DIY one at home with parchment paper, a frosted shower curtain, or printer paper.
Now that you’ve got your setup ready, let’s talk about how to use natural light when taking product photos with an iPhone or other smartphone.
Best camera angles for product photography
When it comes to taking product photos for your ecommerce website, there are some angles that work better than others. Offering different perspectives of your product to a shopper can also help answer any questions they have that your product descriptions don’t explain.
Give as many different viewpoints as possible to highlight key features of your product. An all-around view is more engaging and can help shoppers envision themselves wearing or using your product, which can lead to more sales in your store.
It’s also important to include close-up shots of your products as well. Close-ups let you capture features that showcase the quality of your product, including print detail, fabric, texture, or product usage, and highlight specific elements of your product that shoppers would want to inspect in a retail store.
Whether you’re shooting clothing photography or footwear, there are the five camera angles you should test in your photo shoot:
- Eye level. This view shows the product as you’d see it looking straight on.
- High angle.This view shows the product as if you’re looking down at it from an angle.
- Low angle. This view shows the product as if you’re looking up at it from the floor.
- Bird’s eye. This view shows the product as if you’re standing over it.
- Slanted. This view shows the product from one side.
If you’re new to product photography, it’s recommended you keep your smartphone and tripod in the same spot during the shoot and rotate your product to change the angle you want for your image. When you rotate the product versus the camera, your final shots will all be framed the same, plus, you’ll ensure consistency and reduce image editing after the shoot.
How to shoot photography with a mobile phone
Now that you have all your gear set up and understand the different camera angles and lighting, it’s time to shoot some photos.
Before you start, use the following checklist to make sure your Android or iPhone camera is ready to shoot.
- Prepare your phone. Make sure your phone is charged and you have backup storage for your images.
- Set up your white balance. To set the white balance according to the light temperature in your setup, touch the WB button, then touch the white background.
- Check your exposure. Tap the circular Exposure button, then touch your product so that the camera knows to expose it.
- Keep everything in focus. Touch the circular Focus button, then touch your product so that the camera knows to properly focus on the product.
- Make sure you lock your camera settings. After you’re done adjusting these settings, tap each one again to lock the settings in place. This will stop the camera from automatically adjusting the settings while you are taking shots.
Once you lock your settings, you’re ready to start shooting!
After your first shot, take a look at your image and see if you think it needs to be brightened or darkened in order to achieve a proper exposure. If you think the exposure needs tweaking, touch the +/- button below the circular Focus button and pull the slider up or down to change the exposure.
Remember to avoid the following three things in order to get the best product shots:
- Zoom feature, as this will reduce image quality
- Selfie camera, which isn’t as good as the back camera
- Flash, as this will overexpose the photo and mess up the colors
After you have your shots, it’s time to get to photo editing on your phone!
5 best apps for product photography
Choosing the right editing apps is an important part of mastering product photography with a smartphone. Many come with an in-app editor, but there are plenty of third-party apps that give you everything you need to make your product stand out.
Some of the top-rated product photo app options are:
1. Lightroom
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Some would say Adobe Lightroom is the best app for product photography on the market. It features easy-to-use tools like sliders and presets to create photos that look exactly how you want them. Lightroom is also a good option if you plan to edit photos on your computer. You can start on mobile, web, or desktop, and when you make edits, they will be automatically applied across devices.
If you want to get the most out of Lightroom, you can sign up for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan, which includes the photo editing app for desktop, mobile, and web, plus the latest version of Photoshop for $9.99 per month.
2. Adobe Photoshop Express
Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows
Price: Free
You’ve probably heard of Adobe Photoshop and what it can do. With Photoshop Express, you get all of its great photo editing features right on your smartphone. You can take product photos from your phone or take them inside the app. Then easily adjust the hue, brightness, exposure, and contrast to create amazing photos for your store.
3. Snapseed
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Snapseed is a free photography editing software owned by Google. The app brings the power of a professional computer editor to your phone, with many features to edit images in ways you’ll usually only find in expensive software. Beginner photographers also have more utility with Snapseed using Stacks, which lets you revert your edits to an earlier version and makes it easy to save settings and apply them.
4. VSCO
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
VSCO has all the basic editing tools such as exposure, contract, color balance, and more, letting you create incredible photos on the go. It’s a great product photo app to enhance images rather than overdo them and doubles as an effective Instagram tool with its huge library of filters and endless options to customize your photos.
If you want to share your product photos on social media, you can use VSCO Grid. VSCO Grid is a publishing platform integrated into the app that lets you share your images on social media and email.
5. Camera+
Available for: iOS
Price: $2.99
Camera+ is a great option for both experienced and beginner smartphone photographers. You can use Camera+ not only as an editor but also as a camera for your product shoots. The product photography app lets you set exposure and focus and includes a stabilizer, timer, and more so it feels like you’re shooting with a high-quality DSLR camera lens.
If you’re someone who prefers to edit photos on your computer, you can use Camera+ to capture product photos in RAW. This makes sure no information or data gets compressed and you can produce higher quality product images.
Wrapping Up:
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The article reference: https://www.shopify.com/blog/15163633-how-to-capture-high-quality-product-photos-with-your-smartphone