Why are good product photography services so important?
Today’s high street is an increasingly virtual one. Customers are moving towards online shopping and the ease that it offers. But without the option of picking up and holding the product before purchase, employing product photography services is crucial to converting online sales. Would you buy a product without a photo to show you what you are buying? Or if the photos are poor quality or incomplete, what does that suggest about the product itself?
A good photo conveys the story and character of your product and branding. It shows the size, the colour, the use of the product, as well as allowing the customer to visualise owning it.
Below are some of the types of product photography services that we offer and the purposes of each technique.
White background cut-outs
The aim of this shot is to focus on the product. No distractions, no shadow – just a bold image on a clean white background. The customer gains an immediate understanding of the shape, colour and design of the item. The lighting and camera lens are chosen carefully to best enhance the object, bringing out its truest colours. Once set up for your products, the whole product range can be photographed in one studio shoot. Thus you have a fast, cost effective way to showcase your whole stock range.
After the photos are taken, white backgrounds are easy to edit out completely. You’re left with an image of your product with a pure white background. This then gives you the flexibility to photo-shop the product onto other backgrounds as desired. Or you could create a multi-image layout.
Product and packaging photography
Our product photography services also include photos of your packaging. This type of photography needs to be flawless, professional and maintain a consistency that reflects your brand. The purpose of these photos is to help contextualise individual items within the range and branding as a whole. Packaging images convey the story and character of your product. They can also be used in the wider merchandise of your company.
Attention to detail is key, to ensure sleek, faultless results. They need to stand out and capture attention so that the brand name is memorable.
Lifestyle product photography
If the white-background shot is the functional image, lifestyle photography brings out the heart and soul of your item. It captures how the product will be used, what its purpose is and how it interacts with other elements. It displays the product in its natural setting and enables the customer to imagine themselves owning and using it.
With clothing, for example, customers want to picture what sort of outfit the piece might work with. For household items, the object can be placed within a room design, projecting an ideal home into the viewer’s mind. This type of shot also shows the product size in context, which is helpful for picturing it fitting into the customer’s life or home.
Flat-lay or mannequin product photography
In-studio shots, flat-lay is a popular way to showcase products, since it is fast to set up, keeping costs low. It allows you to photograph many different items in one session and even in one shot. The camera shoots from above and items can either be alone or overlap. You could choose to showcase the full collection together, demonstrating how different products complement each other.
Alternatively, with apparel you may prefer to give a three-dimensional element to the product, to show how the item will look when worn. Mannequins are therefore used to give clothing a more natural shape. To take this effect further, you can even edit out the mannequin, known as ghost mannequin photography. So you maintain the natural shape of the clothing whilst still keeping the focus of the shot solely on the object itself, with a pure white background.
360-degree spin photography
Since online shopping removes the opportunity for the customer to physically interact with the product, 360-degree spin is the closest alternative. Unlike a static photo, this is an interactive experience that showcases the product’s multiple angles and allows the viewer to turn the image in whichever direction they choose. The effect is produced by taking a range of photos from different angles and then amalgamating them in specialised 360-degree viewer software that displays them interactively. This technique gives a very professional edge to your marketing and can increase sales conversion rates.
Gaining your customer’s trust
Whether online, in magazines or on billboards, images of your product need to give your customer confidence in what they are buying. Crisp, professional photographs, demonstrating all the product’s key features, can achieve this. This is why high-quality product photography services have such an impact in boosting sales, both online and offline. Make sure your photographs capture not only your customer’s attention but also their imagination. You can browse some examples of our product photography portfolio here. And for a free consultation, do get in touch.