Common mistakes people make with product photography

If you’re selling online, you’re images are one of the most important features on your website. Nobody wants to buy a product if it looks poor in photos, so it’s vital you have amazing product photography that really sells your product! 

No matter what your product may be, you need to make your products shows off how good you and your brand actually are. It’s important you don’t allow yourself to make any of these simple mistakes which could ultimately effect your sales. 

Poor lighting 

Don’t let your lighting let you down, you don’t want your products to look too flat or dull, neither do you want them to look too harsh, dark or have high contrast. When taking photos of your products try and use natural light where you can and if you really need to use artificial lighting, then make sure you’re using white light over yellow so that your products aren’t left with a yellow hue. 

Busy background 

Your background should never have to compete with your product. Whilst it’s good to have a fun background in some cases, you don’t want to get carried away and feature a distracting background that obscures your product. Your product needs to be the star of the shot, so it’s important not to include anything else that could confuse your customers.

Dirty products 

Nobody wants to buy a dirty product, whether it’s smudges or smears or even the faintest speckle of dust, if your product looks dirty then nobody will want to buy them. Clean your products before you photo them, even if they don’t look dirty you never know how they’ll look once the camera is on them.   

Harsh shadows 

Strong shadows can make a product look hard and uninviting. Obviously in some circumstance you can’t help shadows in your photography and whilst sometimes they can be effective, as a general rule it’s a good idea to not use shadows where possible. 

Poor focus

The only photos your customers want to see are sharp, clear and detailed, if your photos are out of focus, grainy and don’t give you a good view of what the product is then the likelihood is your customers aren’t going to want to buy from you. If your photos aren’t a high standard then it’s possible potential customers will believe your business isn’t either, leading them to go elsewhere. 

Only having one photo

It’s a good idea to have a few photos of your products from different angles to give your customers a more accurate view of what your products looks. Not only does this give your customers more of an insight but it’s also looks more credible to have more than just one photo of your product available.