Product Images for Your Online Store | Tips and Tricks
With the retail world rapidly shifting towards e-commerce, selling your products online is now a necessity for any brand. Online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay are also becoming increasingly popular among buyers. In this post, we will go through some of the best practices for creating product images for your online store. While most of these tips may seem intuitive and second nature to photographers or creatives, they are often overlooked when trying to sell products online. If you’re just getting started with your e-commerce venture or looking to improve your existing product images, keep reading to learn more.
Know your audience
Who will be browsing and purchasing products from your online store? Knowing your audience is crucial in creating product images that will resonate with your target market. One of the ways you can do this is by researching your competitors’ websites and product images. For example, let’s say you are selling men’s shoes. If you notice that the majority of your competitors’ product images show the shoes being worn by a model, you might consider adjusting your product photos so that they are similarly photographed
Utilize high-resolution imagery
High-resolution images are crucial in creating product images that are high quality and crisp for your customers to see. If you’re using a smartphone or point-and-shoot camera to take product images, you may be disappointed with the end result. These types of cameras often have lower-quality sensors that are great for everyday photos, but struggle in low lighting conditions. Most smartphones will produce images with a file size of between 1-2 MB, whereas a DSLR can create a much higher-resolution file of up to 50 MB. The higher the file size, the clearer and more visually appealing your product images will be. However, you should use the correct balance of image quality versus file size to avoid slow loading pages.
Show, don’t tell
One of the most important things to remember when creating product images is to show, not tell. This means that rather than using a product description to describe the product, you use the images to visually show the product in action. This will be especially important if you’re selling products that may have a more complex or technical use. For example, if you’re selling lighting equipment, you may have a hard time explaining the differences between various products in your product descriptions. This is where product images can come into play. If you take images of various lighting set-ups, you can use them to visually explain how each type of light will look on your subject.
Don’t rely on stock photos
Stock photos, or pre-existing images that are licensed to be reused by publishers, are often used in e-commerce product images to save time and money. While using stock photos may seem like the quick and easy way to create product images, this is not the case. Stock photos may appear unoriginal and uninspired to your customers, making them less likely to purchase your products. Even worse, using stock images in your product images may actually be a violation of copyright, depending on the terms of the license. Therefore, it’s best to avoid using stock photos altogether. Instead, create your own unique images using the tips we’ve outlined in this post.
Show product usage
Another way you can show, rather than tell, in your product images is by visually demonstrating the product in use. For example, if you are selling a fitness tracker, you could take an image of someone wearing the fitness tracker while exercising. This type of product image will be useful for your customers who may be curious about how the fitness tracker looks or functions during use.
Darken the background
Another important tip when creating product images is to darken the background. This will help to remove distractions from the background of the image, providing a cleaner and more visually appealing product image for your customers. When it comes to choosing a background, you have a few options. You could use a plain wall or a retrofitted wall. Or, you could use a solid-colored sheet of fabric. Using a colored sheet of fabric is a great way to add a splash of color to your images, while still managing to keep the background dark. It’s also a cheap and easy way to create high-quality product images without investing in special camera equipment.
Avoid using pure white backgrounds
Another thing to avoid when creating product images is using an entirely white background. While a pure white background may be aesthetically pleasing to the viewer, it is also distracting. A pure white background is often seen in stock photos, and your customers may be able to tell that you didn’t create the image from scratch.
Conclusion
In the end, creating product images can be a challenging task. But, with the right approach, it doesn’t have to be a daunting one. For any e-commerce business owner, product images are crucial to getting sales and retaining customers. Furthermore, a high-quality product image can help to increase your organic ranking in Google search. Therefore, it is important to invest time and effort into creating product images that will resonate with your customers. And with the tips outlined in this post, you can create product images that will help your business to thrive.
