How to take product pictures of your items for online sales
Here I am going to give you some handy hints and tips of how to best take product pictures. This will help your items to sell. Especially as pictures of products online can be the make or break of selling your items.
Already purchases online are rapidly increasing, most people prefer to shop online. As a crafter it is relatively easy to tap into this market and have your items available online for customers
Scale of product pictures
Pictures of products can be very deceiving! I know that I have often ordered; only for it to arrive and be a different size to what I had pictured. Although in product descriptions you will write the dimensions of an item, many customers will not fully comprehend the size.
It is a good idea to take a picture of your product that gives a visual demonstration of the size. This can be done with the use of common props. A coffee mug or a pen can be used in a flat lay picture to give an idea of scale. Other useful pictures could demonstrate the size through measurements. Some pictures include a ruler or tape measure to clearly display the dimensions of the item. Use a common sizing reference. For example a coin is photographed along with buttons. This demonstrates the size of the product in a way the customer will be familiar with.
Use
It is important to demonstrate to the customer what your product is and how it can be used. Particularly if your item is unusual or multi-functional. Use a prop to demonstrate use; photograph a tea cosy with a tea pot and tea cup to demonstrate it’s use. Similarly a picture of your item in use would also benefit the customer. Demonstrate a scalf would be by using pictures of the different ways in which the scalf could be worn. This does not need to be in just one picture. Often a range of pictures can really demonstrate this to the customer.
Range
If your product is available in a number of sizes, colours or designs demonstrate the alternatives available. Simply demonstrating all the different colour combinations will give the customer a better idea of the choices available. However, be careful not to make a picture of the full range your main product picture. For example if you make a hat don’t make the main picture an image of all six variations. This can prove confusing to the customer. They may expect to receive all six hats as part of their purchase. The main picture needs to be clear as to what the customer will receive.
Viewing Angle
When you purchase online you are not able to physically pick up the item and look at it. Therefore it is important through pictures that you can show the customer the product from several angles. This will simulate the experience of picking the product up and perhaps turning it over to look at the back. Similarly if you sell a handbag; make sure the customer gets a good idea of how the bag looks open and closed. They would also want to know what the lining and inside of the bag looked like. The better the customer can understand how the product looks overall the more likely they are to make a purchase.
White background for product pictures
Technology advances mean that people in the future are going to use picture searches more frequently. To ensure that your products feature in these searches one of the pictures should be a plain white background. The white background makes it easier for the search engines to pinpoint your product in the image. Also to compare it easily to what the user is searching for. As much as possible these picture should be as bright and clear. There are a number of apps or programs available that will be able to create this effect on your pictures.
As an online retailer you need to convey to the customer all the information that they would want to gather. As if they actually had the product on hand to touch. Pictures are a very easy medium for making information available particularly as customers tend not to read the descriptions fully.
For how to physically take product pictures and the equipment that I use please see my blog post. https://claireyatfairycrafters.com/product-photography-your-biggest-seller/
Etsy also offer some information on how best to take pictures to improve your sales. Find their blog on product photography at https://blog.etsy.com/en/etsy-success-product-photography-for-beginners/
