Tag Archive for: Amazon Photo

Mastering e-commerce fashion photography to boost online sales

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When it comes to online shopping, high-quality visuals are a powerful tool for your eCommerce brand. eCommerce fashion photography is a sub-niche of fashion photography that accentuates the attractiveness of clothing, apparel, and accessories to catch the attention of customers and push them towards making a sale. Research indicates that consumers make 90% of their purchase decisions based on images, so alluring product photos are a must-have source of eCommerce success.

From styles and techniques to preparation and important trends, this article will explore everything there is to eCommerce fashion photography. These tips will assist both new brands and experienced online sellers in creating captivating images that effectively promote their products.

What is fashion photography for eCommerce?

In order to use eCommerce fashion photography, you must photograph the products in a way that makes them visible, while also highlighting the unique features of the clothing visually, resulting in functional yet attractive images. It involves skillful manipulation of light, composition, and angles to best showcase each item in all its unique glory to the prospective customer.

The objective is to develop a digital in-store experience that allows customers to better imagine how they would look wearing or otherwise using the item to help close the gap in between the online and offline shopping experiences. Unlike product photography, this type creates a story around the product.

The Different Types of Fashion Photography for eCommerce

There are several styles of fashion photography for eCommerce, each serving a specific purpose for clothing or accessories. Let’s explore these styles to make an eCommerce strategy effective.

Ghost Mannequin Photography

Ghost mannequin (also called invisible mannequin) photography is a style of product photography that involves photographing a garment on a mannequin and then editing out the mannequin in post-production.

The technique emphasizes the shape and fit of the garment, creating a 3D effect that enhances customers’ understanding of the product’s structure. This is particularly true for items such as jackets, shirts, and dresses, among others.

Flat Lay Photography

One of the most popular uses of the flat layout style involves showcasing multiple items in a creative layout. Flat-lay photography presents a visually appealing way for brands to display an outfit or list of specific items by laying products on a flat surface and capturing it from above.

This is a form of artistic layered photography that is ideal for showcasing accessories and bags or a full outfit style.

Catalog Photography

Catalog Photography: A simple technique intended to showcase products as clearly as possible Usually, the product stands in front of a white or solid-colored wall, drawing customers’ attention to the product itself. Catalog images provide precise details about the product, such as its texture, color, and shape, without any distracting elements. It’s the perfect photography style for eCommerce listings where customers want to see what their product really looks like.

Lookbook Photography

Lookbook photography is about the story behind a collection. In contrast to focusing just on a single piece, you can style an entire collection of products together, displaying how items work as a set. The latest style is based on the fact that if you create an emotional bond with the users, they will treat themselves like a part of the lifestyle that the brand is providing.

Advertising Photography

Advertising fashion photography employs a punch line approach. Beautiful pictures with captivating lighting, props, and models create a dramatic image that likely resonates with the target audience.

Advertising photos need to grab the viewer by the collar, shake them free of whatever their brain is currently occupied with, take a look at this amazing product that needs to be in their life (preferably right now), and thus be in alignment with the brand. They are frequently employed in social media and campaigns for building engagement.

High Fashion Photography

Luxury and high-end brands, extravagant setups, models, and complex compositions form the core of high fashion photography. This style needs a big budget, a lot of gear, and a lot of talent, but it yields beautiful results. High-fashion photography works best for brands that need to establish a more luxurious feel with an upscale clientele.

Street Fashion Photography

Street fashion photography captures clothing and accessories in everyday settings. This fashion is more relatable, showing apparel in a stylized way that feels attainable to consumers.

By shooting models in natural urban environments, brands can also highlight how their products seamlessly integrate into everyday life, making them more attractive to customers.

Editorial Photography

When the focus shifts from fashion to a series of images telling a story, that photographer is more likely an editorial fashion photographer, often including lifestyle and artistic elements in their work.

You typically see it in magazines and haute couture books, where fashion meets fiction. Aspirational lifestyle shots inspire customers and create brand appeal in editorial photography.

Runway Photography

Runway photography documents the pictures of clothing as they weave and follow down the runway, creating a dynamic photographic style. This is a wonderful style for showcasing fabrics, textures, and the way garments move. Fashion shows often associate runway photos, yet eCommerce brands can also utilize these images to create anticipation for their product designs.

360-Degree Photography

360-degree photography is a method that enables customers to explore their products in every direction. Brands can also benefit from a product rotator, which showcases all the elements of each item to customers, enabling them to make informed purchasing decisions. It excels in showcasing intricate products or providing customers with a comprehensive overview of the product.

How to prepare for eCommerce fashion photography.

If you are shooting inside or outside, preparation is essential in order to capture professional-looking product photos. Here is a plan to provide the best photography:

Essential Equipment

Camera: Use a DSLR camera, for example, a Canon EOS or Nikon D series, to capture images with excellent detail.

Lens: Use wide-angle lenses to achieve blurry backgrounds or use zoom lenses (35mm, 50mm, 85mm) for close-ups that capture details.

Tripod: Stability is important for getting sharp images, and a tripod can reduce camera shake.

Lighting: When it comes to light, you will need reflectors, diffusers, and portable lights for both outside and inside control.

Indoor Photography Setup

For indoor shoots, setting up a simple DIY mini studio is fairly easy. Here’s a quick guide:

Step 1:

Collect the Equipment: A camera, tripod, light source, and white foam board can help you set the base tone for a professional setup.

Prepare the setup: Place the product on a sturdy table, adjust the lighting to eliminate shadows, and ensure the background is clear and uncluttered.

Play around with your lighting and camera settings to ensure that the product is well-lit and that the angles are as flattering as possible.

Outdoor Photography Setup

The lighting tends to change outdoors, making it more challenging if you decide to spend some time outside. Here are a few tips:

Mood Board: Create a mood board that serves as a visual reference and a shot list.

Light: Make the most of daylight whenever possible, utilizing reflectors to prevent shadows. Don’t shoot in direct sunlight where you will create ugly shadows.

Shot List: Create your shot list to ensure that not a single angle or detail goes uncaptured.

Getting professional results with camera settings

Aperture: Use a lower aperture (f/2.8–5.7) for sharper product images.

Shutter Speed: Use a quick shutter speed (approx. 160) to prevent vibrations.

ISO: Use ISO 100-400, depending on light conditions, to find a balance between good exposure and image noise.

Ecommerce Fashion Photography Trends

Tracking trends in fashion photography is crucial for every brand to maintain growth and appeal. Consider the following trends as an example of the present:

Sustainability

Consumers today are more environmentally aware, so brands that align their photography with these values may earn more loyal customers.

Emphasize sustainability using earthy backgrounds and natural tones with a minimalistic composition.

Cinematic Storytelling

When brands incorporate cinematic elements into their product photos, it transforms into a narrative. The use of lighting, props, and composition amplifies the emotion in the photographs, thereby enticing customers to buy products.

Diversity and Inclusivity

Focusing on a representation of people through fashion photography promotes diversity and ensures proper brand exposure.

This trend underscores the importance of incorporating a diverse range of body types, ethnicities, and ages to create a more authentic brand.

Nostalgic Aesthetics

Vintage and retro influences have become popular due to their ability to create a timeless impact. Historic themes enhance the emotional connection between customers and the brand, leading to improved brand loyalty.

Bold Colors

In print media, the use of stark colors attracts customers by making the product stand out among numerous similar products on an online platform.

Bright hues can work together for a fun, utterly modern look that speaks to younger targets.

eCommerce Fashion Photography Best Practices

To improve the quality and appeal of your product photography, consider the following best practices:

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

Always think about what a customer would like to look at. Use close-up photos to reveal every detail, every thread, and every texture—helping customers understand the quality of the product and its fit.

Maintain Consistency

Having consistency among lighting, angles, and backgrounds gives your brand a strong visual identity. A consistent aesthetic makes consumers recognize and trust you, resulting in brand loyalty.

Show multiple angles.

Show the complete look of each product by taking photos from multiple angles. Rather than limiting a customer to just one angle on a product, high and low, as well as eye-level shots, truly highlight the design and fit of an item.

Use props carefully.

Even in a widescreen shot, props should complement the product without overshadowing it. Select props that build upon the product and help tell the story of the brand.

Hire professional editors.

You should professionally edit your images to make them visually appealing and maintain consistency, even if every other image is not. What image editing does is improve colors, plug in holes, and make sure images reflect your brand aesthetic.

Conclusion

eCommerce fashion photography is key to enhancing the shopping experience and boosting sales. Prepare for a variety of photography styles and ensure alignment with them.

Images that enable brands to capture customers and shape an identity are crucial. The competitive nature of eCommerce often forces us to compensate for a shortage of creatives with lower quality images or poor fashion photography. However, investing time and resources into professional shots can only lead to long-term success in this competitive landscape.

 

Amazon Product Photography: The Secret is in Your Smartphone

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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.