Building an online store can be a challenging process, even with the array of easy DIY website builders which have been hitting the market over the last few years. Writing product descriptions, working on SEO, and marketing the site are all hard enough, but this is before you consider the photos you’re going to need to take of all of your products. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring tips to help you to get great photos before you release your online store.
The Camera
While most people already have a capable camera in their pockets, smartphones aren’t good enough for product photography. They don’t give you control when you take the picture or during editing, making a cheap DSLR or mirrorless camera a much better option. Examples like Sony’s A6000 Kit provide you with a great camera, without costing a small fortune in the process.
The Skills
Once you’ve got your hands on a camera, it will be time to start watching YouTube videos and practicing your skills. It will take a little bit of time to improve your photography, but small tips can make a big difference, making it worth working on this area as hard as you can. You should look for guides surrounding product photography, as this will give you the chance to brush up your skills in this area before moving onto things which you find a little more fun.
The Set
When you look at large ecommerce sites, you will often find that they are made using very consistent photography. Each set of images will reflect the others on the pages around them, often with white backgrounds to highlight the product. Greens screens can be used to achieve this, along with props like the mannequins which can be found on sites like https://my-mannequins.co.uk/female-3. Once you have a set built, you will be able to keep all of your snaps looking the same.
The Editing
Finally, as the last part of this, it’s time to think about the time you spend editing your photographs. At the very least, you should spend some time using tools like Lightroom to change the color and sharpness of your shots, but you can take this further with software like Photoshop. It will take a long time to develop the skills to use these applications with ease, but it will be worth getting started to eat up this time.
When you start an online store, it can often be tempting to throw creativity out of the window and use shots which already exist. This will make your site look generic, though, and will make it hard for images to look consistent across the board. To overcome this issue, you need to take your own product photos. It will take time to develop your skills and improve your website, but this will be worth it when you’re struggling with something like this. Of course, as time goes on, it will be worth spending time on looking for ways to make your images stand out even more.
