When you sell online, great product photography is a crucial step to making a sale. Done right, your product images will grab attention, highlight the impact it will have on their lives, build trust with your brand and confidence in your products. If a customer is confident in your product, they are more likely to buy from you. Sounds great, right?

In this post I’m going to walk you; my fellow do-it-yourselfers, through six different ways you can photograph your products to use in your online shops, social media feeds, email campaigns and all marketing.

But first, it’s important to point out that you don’t need to use all six ideas I have listed here for every product you sell. Use the ones that fit best with your business and remember, you don’t need an expensive camera for this. Sunlight, a decent smartphone and your imagination is all you need.

Isolated.

Also called a studio shot, this one is a clean shot of your product on a white (or light) background that will clearly show the important details like size, colour and materials. These are typically used for online stores and are shot at different angles like front, back, side and inside. Always include details that would be important to a buyer when choosing to purchase something. These images should show EXACTLY what they will get.

Photo’s by Brooklyn Candle | Not an affiliate, just a HUGE fan

Group ‘em.

Grouping products together will easily show the different options you offer (colour, style, pattern, size) or how many products are sold in one listing ( 3 vases in different sizes or 12 pencils in a box). It will also show which products of yours works well together and encourage multiple purchases.

To Scale.

Creating product photos that visually show your buyers what they’re getting is so important. Without this understanding you run the risk of people being disappointed and returning your product. You can do this by including other elements to your shot like a body part (arm for watches, women wearing a bathing suit, a water bottle being held by a person etc.) or everyday items that give a size comparison ( book, computer, lamp, coffee cup, pencil etc.).

The added bonus to this type of shot is that you give a realistic view of how your product works and looks.

Lifestyle Shot.

Lifestyle shots are great for showing how the product is used in real life. You can easily show what purpose it serves, how it can improve the buyers life or how it might look on them. This is a great opportunity for you to use multiple products in one shot which works great to highlight options and encourage more buying . These images can be used on your website, social media and marketing so be sure to style or edit to match your brand identity.

I pulled these images together to show how a company that designs bracelets could use these lifestyle pictures to create a distinctive vibe and show the actual product being worn on people.

Outside The Box.

These types of photographs should be creative and don’t necessarily include your product. The intent or focus is to tell a story, symbolize a moment, show a solution or an idea. A picture of a pretty wrapped gift or two women hugging to remind people your product makes a great gift or a creative shot of a telephone to highlight your great customer service etc.. Below are more examples from my styled stock collection. Get creative and have fun with this one!

Behind The Scenes.

People love seeing the process of how you work. Glimpses of how your product is made, what your studio looks like and how YOU work goes a long way in building trust for your brand. Transparency in business is always a good idea.