Amazon Product Photography: The Secret is in Your Smartphone

Not having an expensive camera cannot be a bar to creating high quality photos to highlight your products for your Amazon store. The smartphone in your hand is enough to be an alternative to a high resolution camera to take good quality product pictures, if you have the right knowledge.

 

The Importance of Amazon Photos

While shopping online, the first thing that catches the eyes of the customers is the product images. In a survey, it was found that product images immensely influence the purchase decisions of the customers. In fact, more that 75% of the shoppers get influenced by the images. To get the online shoppers as engaging as possible in your Amazon store, the product images have a prime role.

 

There are numerous sites to sell the same kind of products and the customers have an abundant scope of choices from them. So, the images should stand out because your products will be listed among thousands of others of the same kind. The images of your products must complement your listing. Mismatch of the pictures and the product description will turn off the buyers. The buyers will expect that the products they ordered must match with the images they saw in your Amazon store. Hence, you have to make sure that your product has an accurate visual of the product. To attract people’s eyes, your main product image has to be polished and all other supporting photos should be equally appealing. It is also important that you appropriately showcase the product and how it is used. For instance, we can take Amazon product Yan Hou Tang tea. This product features a crisp main image with several other lifestyle images. It also includes infographics of the product. So, the images let buyers get a clear idea of what they are ordering, benefits of the products, etc.

 

Shooting for Amazon vs. Your Website

Uploading high-quality images to your website does not mean that the same images can be used for your Amazon store. Amazon maintains specific product image requirements. Images uploaded to Amazon stores must comply with these requirements. Amazon requirements for images are as below.

Technical

  • Only these file types are allowed – TIFF, JPEG, GIF, and PNG.
  • Images have to be at least 1000 pixels or larger, either in height or width.
  • The color mode should be sRGB or CMYK.

 

Naming Convention

  • All file names should consist of the product identifier, followed by a period and the file type.
  • Spaces, dashes or additional characters are not allowed.

 

Main Product Image

  • The hero image must have a white background (RGB 255,255,255).
  • Avoid illustrations, text or other objects in the frame (for example, product dimensions).
  • The color of the product should be realistic, so stay away from extreme filters or editing.

 

Additional Images

  • You can use other objects or people to scale.
  • Lifestyle and other backgrounds are allowed.
  • Text and other graphics can be added.

 

How to Use a Smartphone Camera for Amazon Product Photos

First you need to know your phone and camera settings properly. A smartphone with at least a 12-megapixel camera is ideal. The higher the megapixel count, the better. The image gets sharper with a higher megapixel number. However, resolution can be affected by sensor technology. Nowadays most newer phones have cameras of 12- to 16-megapixels and have proper software to match.

 

Once your camera is ready to shoot, you can start creating product photos for your Amazon store:

  • A tripod, a white backdrop, reflectors, bounce boards, etc. help take quality product photos. So, consider investing in tools like these.
  • If you can’t manage high-quality artificial lighting, then daylight is the best alternative. Proper lighting adds depth and contrast to the photos.
  • The camera angle won’t be the same for every product. You have to find the best angle for each product (e.g., eye-level vs. slanted). If needed, you have to stand on something or crouch down to get a different angle, and every different angle gives a different perspective of a product.
  • It is recommended to include at least one lifestyle photo. It helps buyers better imagine how the product will fit into their own lives.
  • Try to include a photo which shows the product packaging. This helps consumers know what to expect while placing an order.

 

Let’s Take Photos

For shooting photos for the Amazon store, you must use the back camera of your smartphone, because the back camera is always of higher quality than the selfie camera. You will also make sure that you have ample storage room in the phone.

Set Your Smartphone Camera Settings

A smartphone camera is not limited to the automatic mode, rather its certain settings can be adjusted manually. Before shooting, the camera settings should be adjusted as per requirements.

 

White Balance

This setting balances the color temperature. It helps remove color casts so the white we see in person is the same in the photo.

 

Aperture

The aperture is the lens opening. Light passes through it. The larger the aperture, the more light passes in. Aperture also affects the depth of field.

 

ISO

The sensitivity of the camera sensor to light is controlled by it. You can brighten the image by increasing ISO (International Organization of Standardization). But if the ISO increase is too much, then the photo will have noise (or the grainy).

 

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed controls the duration of exposure to light. It can be defined as the length of time the film or the digital sensor inside a camera is exposed to light when a photograph is taken. Shutter speed varies depending on what kind of photo you want to take. For instance, a faster shutter speed is used to avoid blurriness for action photos.

 

Edit Your Smartphone Product Photos

After shooting the photos with your smartphone, you will probably need to do some post-processing to bring them to desired standard. So, it is always recommended to go for photo editing after each shoot.

 

Some photos can be edited in-house. But some photos may need expert hands. For example, you might be confused whether the background of the photos is a perfect color white. In cases like this, it is preferable to outsource the photo editing.

 

Smartphone Photography Tips

A noted photographer, Morgan German, who shoots usually with an iPhone gives some tips to help perfect smartphone photography:

  • Natural light is very important, assuming that you wouldn’t use the flash on your phone. If natural light is not attainable, then you can adopt other measures to make the light perfect.
  • It is better to move around at different angles. It is easier to take cool photos with a smartphone in hand. On the contrary, digital cameras can be cumbersome.
  • Product photos taken by a smartphone should be stored in an organized way. You can create an album and keep the photos for a certain product in that album. Otherwise, you possibly mix up the photos of different products.
  • Your smartphone should be kept charged. For this, a portable charger is the best option for outdoor shooting.
  • Get the product in focus. You can do this by touching on most phones.
  • Dust and smudges affect the image quality. So, the phone camera must be clean.
  • To help you center the product, use the grid setting. Amazon requires the product to fill up 85% of the frame.
  • For more crist macro shots or a wide-angle image, you can use an external lens. The lens must comply with your needs and can easily be attached or detached.

 

Things to Avoid when Shooting Smartphone Product Photos

  • Zoom: Don’t use the zoom feature because it is not a true zoom. Smartphones basically crop the image. The image gets worse the more zoom is done. If zooming is needed, just move closer to the product.
  • Flash: Keep the flash off. The big burst of light will overexpose the image and make it look horrible. Photo editing can do little with a washed-out image.
  • Filters: For Amazon product photos, camera filters must be kept off because Amazon demands authentic product images.

 

Learn More on Smartphone Photography

If you want to improve your skills on smartphone photography, there are numerous ways to do that online. You will find tons of virtual classes, courses, and guides on the subject. Here are some resource for your reference:

  • Photographer and teacher Sean Dalton focuses on virtual storytelling, fashion photography on your phone, and many more in his online course ‘Smartphone Photography for Instagram Success: Capturing Stunning Lifestyle Photos With Your Phone’ on Skillshare.
  • In Udemy’s course ‘Mobile Photography iPhone and Android Complete Masterclass’, you’ll learn about lens distortion, photographing people, and night photography – all on your phone.
  • One of the best online guides on smartphone photography is Smartphone Photography. You will get all the basics here.

 

If you prefer books, you can consider these

  • Smart Phone, Smart Photography: For photography fundamentals and smartphone-specific techniques for capturing great photos, this book is very preferable.
  • The Smartphone Photography Guide: This book covers the definitions of technical terms. Besides photographer and author Peter Cope gives pro tips.

 

Or, go with a Pro:

If all these things make you overwhelmed, you can go for a professional photographer. You have to invest a certain amount of money. As the product photos make impacts on the purchase decisions of the online buyers, so this investment is worthy to have quality photos.

Before selecting a professional photographer, consider a few things:

  • Experience of the photographer in the industry
  • If the photographer has a portfolio of Amazon-ready product photography
  • If they have plenty of time for your project, or they will haste
  • Their average turn-around time

 

Put Your Best Foot and Photos Forward

When you use your smartphone to supplement other product images or until you can manage a pro, it is very get everything right because product photos are the first impression of your product for the buyers, and better photos mean better sales.

 

FAQs on Amazon Smartphone Photography

Which smartphones are preferable for taking the best pictures?

The following are preferable for the best pictures:

  • iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
  • Google Pixel 5
  • iPhone 12 Pro
  • Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • Huawei P40 Pro
  • Huawei Mate 40 Pro

 

How can I take good pictures with my smartphone camera?

First you have to adjust the camera settings and make sure the lighting is right. Then follow the tips elaborated in the article above.

 

How do I take a photoshoot at home with my phone?

First you need a dedicated space to stage your products and shots. Set up the camera properly, adjust the lighting, find the suitable angles, and start shooting.

 

Amazon Product Photography: Guide for Ecommerce Brands

Having an Amazon store of your own products is a great way to reach a global audience of prospective customers, to spread your brand name worldwide, and have an advantage of the  existing channel. But it’s so crowded with more than two million sellers. So, to grip the market of your products, you need to make your own market strategy.

One of the best ways to drive more sales of your products is to put deep thought into the product photography. In this article we’ll discuss how to shoot and reach the optimum level of  Amazon product photos to achieve this target.

 

The Importance of Photos to Sell Products

The audience reacts to the visual first or more immediately and the effect retains. It was found in research that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Hence, it is vital that the photos can render the benefits and all the features of the product. The presentation of the photos should be such that it helps buyers make purchase decisions without going through the text part of your listing. If the product photos fail to do this, it means that the buyers are knowing about your products 60,000 times slower, and eventually will shift to a competitor’s products.

 

Images Communicate Faster and more Details than Text

Say, you are looking at a picture of a boy carrying a basket of apples, and instantly you gather the information of:

  • How big the basket is
  • Approximate weight of the basket
  • The color
  • The material of the basket
  • How many books can be held in the basket, etc.

 

To explain all these in words will take much more time, effort and elaboration in a few sentences. So, images communicate better with the buyers than text.

Amazon Mobile App is Optimized for Images

According to statistics, almost half of the ecommerce sales are made by mobile shopping. But long texts are difficult to read on mobile screens, images are small and it requires more scrolling. Moreover, Amazon makes many text fields short on mobile that can be available in full form on the desktop version. Bullets points can’t be read at a time. Details of images are not clear enough to see and needs cropping to see the product benefits, etc. But text of icons are large enough to be easily read on a mobile screen.

 

Many Buyers Avoid the Text

Every seller has the bitter experience that sometimes customers return the products because it wasn’t what they wanted, though the photo and the text clearly showed that it may not meet their requirements. Then many of the customers leave  negative reviews on the review section. This might lead a seller to believe that buyers don’t read the description of the product.

 

For example, we can consider accessories for smartphones. The accessories will be compatible with specific models of smartphones and the sellers of these items clearly state that. In Spite of this, many buyers make online purchases and get disappointed when they receive the products at home. They blame the sellers for deceiving them with different products, leave a 1-star review.

 

To get rid of this awkward situation is to have a dedicated image as the second image. The image will have clear, large and readable text. The shoppers who usually avoid the product description will also be compelled to see your essential message. Here’s a unique example.

 

How You can Create High-Converting Amazon Product Photography

It is worth learning how to create photos that will convert shoppers into buyers. These techniques come from study, practice, and mostly experience.

First you should make a list of shots that will properly showcase your product including the key information and benefits of the product. This step is usually overlooked by the sellers. Taking some nice random pictures of the product might lack the key features buyers care about. Product photos must present the essential pieces of information to the customers, looking great comes next.

A deep research on customer psychology and demand needed to identify what customers look for in the images of the products while they make online purchases. You are expected to highlight each of these key pieces of information in at least one image.

For a ready example of this, we can take a picture of a set of plastic cups that shows the versatility of multiple uses of the cups.

 

The Triple Optimization Technique

There are three key optimization techniques that lead to fully optimized Amazon listing when applied together:

  1. Keyword Optimization
  2. Key Information Optimization
  3. Persuasive Design Optimization

 

Keyword Optimization

Most of the sellers lack the knowledge of the necessity of right keywords in their listings. Presence of the right keywords in the product listing helps Amazon to identify what your product is, and for what searches your product shows up. It is important to put the right keywords in the image file names and metadata for the optimization. By right clicking on the image we can rename it with keywords, but optimization of metadata with keywords is trickier.

 

Key Information Optimization:

Identifying the key information about what customers want to see when they decide to make an online purchase is the most important to create great product images. Great product images show this information.

We can do this by following process:

  • Do a vast customer research on Amazon reviews of the competitors, how they highlight the benefits of their products, record potential benefits of the products, likes, and dislikes, etc. in a list.
  • Keep an eye on the trend of what customers frequently like or dislike, what customers say about the product, and cross check everything on the list.
  • Highlight the benefits that come up often and matter to the customers. Other benefits should be discarded.
  • Make a list of the most benefits of the product and plan the photo shot list on it.

 

Persuasive Desire Optimization:

The third and final of the triple optimization technique is all about creating persuasion and desire. This technique uses the sales psychology and portrays the product as the bridge from the customer’s painful current situation to a better future situation. We can do this by writing excellent sales copy and boost the conversion rates.

 

Use the Three Essential Image Types:

On Amazon stores, the seller should take advantage of posting images on all available slots. Customers usually can see seven images, and two more images are kept hidden. If the shoppers press the +2 button, then they can view the remaining two images. Sellers should focus on the first seven but must use the other two slots unless the photos are of low-quality.

 

Product on White Background:

According to Amazon’s guidelines, the main image of the product on Amazon stores must be of pure white background. Text, logos, or any other things are not allowed but the image.

 

The Amazon website has the white background web pages. If the background of the image is not pure white, it will look poor. The platform can even reject the image. To ensure  a pure white background, it is better to utilize Photoshop’s clipping path background removal technique and add a new pure white background instead.

 

Lifestyle Images Featuring Models:

To present a product with a real human interacting with it is a very effective way to show the product in action. For this reason, most of the top fashion houses feature people in their product images. This helps the shoppers to grasp an idea how the product would look like when they wear it or use it.

 

Properly shot images have the power to invoke emotion in the shoppers minds. If you showcase party dresses, and take photos of some ladies wearing those dresses in a real party and having conversations with laughing faces, the photos will create the same feeling in the shoppers minds and create a strong desire in them to have those dresses so that they can have the same experience. But be careful about one important thing. When you use a model, you must be aware of the age, gender, locality, country, etc of the target audience. Selecting the wrong models might distract the buyers and reverse the sales.

 

Lifestyle images with models should portray the models in such a way that the model is really enjoying the main benefits of the product. The model’s positive reaction will also drive the potential buyers to have that product. What the product does must be shown as clearly as possible.

 

Infographic Images:

Sometimes it so happens that some of the features of the products can’t be shown without text or graphics. For example we can consider the size of a product. The product has to be kept somewhere. So, the size of the product matters to the customers. if the product doesn’t fit the place where the customer decided to keep it will throw him in an awkward situation. If the actual dimensions of the product are shown both with some texts and with numbers on the product, the customer will have a clear view and won’t be disappointed with the product being smaller or bigger than he thought. It’s a common mistake that infographics are clumsy with too much information. The font size of the text must be large enough for clear readability on mobile screens. But larger font size also limits the scope of information you can squeeze into one image. So, the balance is crucial.

 

Basic graphic elements and icons should match your branding colors and style. Intelligent utilization of them will make the brand look higher quality.

 

Order Your Images Effectively:

How you order your images is essential. The images with key information of the product must be ordered first.

Image numbers 2, 3 and 4 must have the three most essential information about your product the buyers should know before they make their decision. Image number 1 will always be your main white background image as per the Amazon guidelines.

 

If you are callous to the ordering of the product images, you’re certainly going to lose potential customers. The image that relates to the customers best may seldom be seen by the customers. With faulty image ordering, a potential customer loses interest to scroll to the next image, and your sales rate goes down. So, the second and third image slots must contain the best images that express the most key information of the product.

 

You can fill you image slots with the following order:

  1. Main image (white background)
  2. Infographic showing product size and most key information
  3. Lifestyle image with model showing the main benefit of the product
  4. White background image showing the back side of the product
  5. Infographic highlighting less important benefits
  6. Lifestyle image with model using the product in secondary benefit
  7. Image stating guarantee or special bulk discount code

 

The Final Litmus Test:

Before you post your images on Amazon store, the images should go through a final test with real customer experience.

 

Send the images and other information to a group of people, ask them to look at the images, and interview them about the images. If they can gather all the key information about your product regarding the benefits, size, price, packaging, etc. and ordering of the images, you pass the test. If you don’t pass the test, you will know where the drawbacks are and can fix them. Through this process, you will have key insights about the customer reactions about your product, image ordering, photo quality, etc.