5 Steps to Building Your Own Product Photography for E-Commerce Business

Visuals are everything in today’s e-commerce market. Now, more than ever, consumers like to see the product from all angles and compare the images and information before choosing a company to buy from. It’s more than just taking an image with your iPhone and posting it. Most e-commerce platforms like Etsy or even Ebay, have strict guidelines for images. Most people don’t know where to begin, and that’s where you and your product photography e-commerce business comes in to save the day and make money doing it.

Step One: Choose your Niche then your Shoot Style

Your shoot style is important and so is your niche. Don’t get caught up in the myth that in order to make money doing product photography that you have to appeal to everyone. You’re going to spread yourself too thin. Choose a niche you love. For example: Fashion or food? This opens up an entire world for you to be the expert in. The key in this step is to choose a niche and brand yourself. For example: The best Foodie Photog in Toronto! Then find out where those clients are and target the market for them after you finish the next 4 steps.

Your Shoot Style:

So, what is a shoot style? This means the way you shoot the product line in your niche. You can choose a few styles, but they should all be similar. For example: some choose to photograph products against a white background. Maybe you could do that for more ornate products in your niche and then a white background with a pattern for planer products.

The key takeaway in this step is that when people see products photographed by you, they’ll recognize your work. This is something that many product photographers don’t work on that deeply. If you do this, you’ll reap great benefits!

Step Two: Invest in Quality Equipment

The most important part of your business is your equipment. The best suggestion to make is to find a way to fulfil the maximum requirement that your craft needs to provide top-quality work. Here’s a short list of equipment and tech you may not have thought about.

1. Camera
2. Lighting and Associated Equipment
3. Dedicated studio
4. Backgrounds
5. Editing Software

These are the top five areas not to skimp on. To be the best in your niche, the first impression must be the best you can do, and that means bringing your A-game to your field. Every niche is different so be sure to do your homework and research your niche and what the top-dogs in your field are using for those top five and secondary things not listed that are specific to you.

Step 3: Know your Subtypes of Photography

There are subtypes that should at least funnel down to what you want to do or not. There are certain types you won’t be interested in and those are the types to avoid otherwise, it will show in your work. What you are passionate about will show in your work likewise.

For example, do you like taking group product shots or do you prefer leaving each product individual? Sometimes the product or company you’re shooting for will require one or the other, but what do you want to be known for? It always goes back to that because as an artist, that’s part of your brand.

Do you like doing large images or are you a stickler for scale? In this case, you may want to research what’s most popularly required for your niche. Are you adept at close up or detail and do you want to be? More about why later. What about promo or package shots? Do you use a mannequin or hanging mediums {If it applies? This is only an example}.

Do you want to specialize in social media images? We suggest you add some of that to your product photography repertoire. It’s great to be able to do all social media but be known for being a product photography expert in one like Instagram, for example.

Step Four: Top 2021 Trends for Product Photography

1. DSLR Cameras. These cameras have grown over the past couple of years to rise to the challenge of the Smartphone competition.
2. Video Trumps Still Images: Yes, back in the 80’s, like that song “Video Killed the Radio Star” There’s truth to that and now it’s softened the popularity of still images.
3. Optimize Images for Mobile: This may sound like common sense, but you may keep in mind as you’re creating your product photography style to fit mobile users.
4. Unedited Product Photography: Yes! It’s a thing and growing in popularity. Due to the overuse of Photoshop and other top editing programs people are looking for product photography that’s raw. This doesn’t mean you take sloppy images. On the contrary, you need to learn to take better images because you won’t enhance them digitally beyond little cleanups here and there.
5. 3D Photography: This one is still relatively new and you won’t use it for every type of product but it’s worth a course so you can get ahead of the game and practice your craft!

Step Five

The final step is to hone your skills. Always be researching and learning. Seek knowledge as much when you’re a pro as when you’re a novice. This will put you ahead of your game every time. There are great resources that are free, subscription and paid. The best suggestion we have is to create a schedule. We know, you’re creative and schedules may not be your favourite thing but in this case, having one will advance you. Create a learning schedule and a list of these things.

1. What are you weakest in product photography?
2. What can I sharpen that I’m already good at?
3. What new product photography skill do I want or should learn?

A product photography for E-commerce business is a trending and exciting creative endeavour. You can grow for years to come as video and image photography grow and become more in demand by the masses.