How to excel at product photos – even if you just have a phone handy

The first thing that catches the eye of your customer is the photo of the product – thus, it is crucial to make them look their best. Just as we like taking care of ourselves by  going for photoshoots -our business products deserve the same 

Most people are held back by the thought of needing an expensive phone or a professional camera to showcase products in the best way possible. BUT: There is more to good product images than just a good phone camera. 

Below are some tips that Del from our Soko Marketing team learned over time and which have proven to work well:

Background is key 

Background plays a big role in our product images. You need to use a background that makes your image pop and stand out from the rest because images with a less disturbing background are easier to notice and understand. 

What is essential to choosing a good background?

  • Match the colour
    Select a background color that is complementary to the color of your product. If your product is e.g. white, you could have a background in blue, green, or peach.
  • Context matters
    The kind of product you are shooting too affects what makes the best background. For a luxury product like jewelry, using silk cloth can further transport the feeling of luxury.

Light it up!

Lighting speaks and adds volumes to the final images that are taken. Most people assume you need to buy expensive LEDs, but there are in fact other cheaper options to light up your photos.

  • Let the sunshine in
    The sun is the best – and cheapest- light that we can use for our photography. 
    All you need is to adjust a window to let in the light when taking product images indoors. However, this might require you to plan your schedule according to the daylight hours.
  • Ring lights
    Ring lights are a powerful artificial source of light when doing product photography. You don’t need to have big expensive ring lights unless the products cover a large surface area. All it takes is proper angle setting to reduce shadows in the final image and finally adjust the temperatures of the lights to get either a warmer or cooler look and create the ideal feel of the image.

Make the most out of your settings

Many mobile phones have good cameras- but the camera setting is what makes your pictures good pictures. These three tips are simple to switch and make a huge difference with the final product images:

  • Locking camera exposure
    It can be tiring to adjust the camera exposure every single time because it always sets it back to the automatic settings. 
    Lucky for you, that can be fixed! You just press long on the camera screen and later adjust your phone exposure to what you need it to be – just like that you have a stable exposure throughout your shoot.
  • Focus
    You can use the automatic focus and don’t have to use manual focus unless using third-party apps like Cam Pro by Moment.
    Always ensure that the image and key parts of the product you are trying to capture are in the focus as this draws the attention of the client to what exactly you want them to see.
  • Portrait Mode
    Some phones like  Samsung, iPhone, or Huawei have a portrait feature on them and this can easily be used for products as well. This feature shows the product in a lot more clarity and emphasizes the product colors. 

The right set-up

You have to assess what the best set-up is for your phone to ensure the stability of the phone and to avoid shaky images at an angle that is disturbing to the eyes. To achieve stable phone photography images, you place the phone on a stable base – ideally a phone tripod stand. The cheapest way is to pile a bunch of books or boxes to provide a stable high-ground from which images can be taken.

Editing your images

After taking different angles and images of our product, the photos need to be edited to match what you want the consumer to see – in terms of theme, aesthetics, look, and feel. 

  • Don’t do too much
    When editing is done to the extreme, it usually doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would and often becomes terrible in the eyes of the viewer. Fine-tune the picture to an extent that it will be aesthetically pleasing to your customers at first sight. 
  • Use presets
    If you need some support for good aesthetics, a preset can be an easy way to brush up your images without a lot of skills.
    Getting to the best editing results for your images will take some time and practice. It will be a learning experience each and every time because different images call for different effects.

3 mobile application recommendations

In a world where third-party apps are making life easy, why not have apps to help us with our photography and editing? Here are 3 free apps that can be downloaded on both Android and iOs.

Now that your product photos are ready, you can easily add them to your SokoApp shop: Just click Add product on your start screen, upload the photos, and off you go! You haven’t set up your Soko shop yet? Just download the SokoApp and after setting up your shop in 30 seconds, you can already upload your new product shots