How to take professional photos with a phone?
When people shop online they miss out on touching the product and interacting with it. To make up for this, you need great photographs of the product from different angles and well-written product descriptions. Not everyone with an online business has the resources to work with studios that offer professional photography services. The good news is today’s smartphones have very good camera lenses that are more than sufficient for eCommerce photography. Anyone can photograph a product. Here are a few tips to help you take photographs with a professional look.
Use A Tripod
Whether you’re using your phone or a DSLR, avoid taking product photographs while you’re holding the camera in your hands. There’s a reason professional photography for products always involves a tripod. Using a tripod ensures that the camera stays stable and minimizes the risk of the slightest shake in the photograph. When you shoot without a tripod, you may not notice blurred edges on your camera screen but they will become more apparent on a larger screen.
Use The Grid Lines
You need two types of photographs for your website – product shots against a white background and styled shots of the product in use, when you’re shooting the latter, switch on the gridlines option from the camera settings. 2 horizontal and 2 vertical grid lines will divide the frame into 9 blocks. Frame your photograph such that the product is centred along with one of the lines. Try and place the most interesting details at the intersection points. This will make your photograph appear balanced and ensures that your horizons are parallel to the edge of the frame.
Don’t Zoom, Get Closer
Product photography is all about capturing the details. The product page of the website you created with Is Going Online must show the complete product as well as close-ups of details such as buttons, straps, tabs, seams, etc. It may seem tempting to zoom in with the lens to take these photographs without changing your setup, however, when you use the zoom feature, the resolution drops. What you should do is move your camera closer to the product. This lets you maintain high image quality.
Shoot In Natural Light
For a product to look good in a photograph, it must be well-lit. Natural lighting is the best form of lighting. Smartphones have a flash but this light is usually too bright. This can make your product look flat and washed out. Instead of relying on the flash, time, your photo shoots to make the most of the natural light available to you. Move your set up beside the window where your product is lit with natural light. If you’re shooting outdoors, schedule your shoots in the early mornings when the sun is not too strong.
Use The Highest Resolution Settings
If you’re going to be using your smartphone for eCommerce photography, buy a memory card that will store your product photography shots. This ensures that you do not have issues with space to save your photographs. Now that you’re assured of this, go through your camera settings and choose the highest resolution. You can always compress photographs later to reduce the file size if needed.
Conclusion
Is Going Online makes it easy for you to create an eCommerce website. The website lets you reach out to a wider audience but it is the quality of your product photographs that will determine how successful the online business will be. Taking a good photograph isn’t rocket science. All you need to do is adjust a few settings, make sure your product is well lit and fits the frame, and ‘click’.
