Are You Making These Common Commercial Photography Mistakes?

Are You Making These Common Commercial Photography Mistakes?

When you’re running a business  – mainly an online store of handmade goods – you’ll find yourself filling various positions in your own company. From manufacturing and accounting to commercial photography in Brisbane as you capture imagery of your products for your websites. Doing this makes it challenging to get everything right, because your time is split between multiple tasks, instead of spending enough time on each job to ensure that it’s perfect. What’s worse is that this could be costing you in sales, especially if your commercial product shots are lacking, and you rely on them for an online store to make money. Here are ten mistakes that you could be making in your commercial photography efforts, which could be costing you potential sales.

Not Enough Exposure

The most important thing about capturing images of your products is that they need clarity. If your pictures are underexposed, they’ll be too dark. Your customers want to see your products clearly, which means that if your photos are too dark, intricate details will be lost in shadow and darkness. If the shape, colour or size of the item cannot be seen, then you need to work on

adding more exposure to your shots.

Too Much Exposure

Not enough exposure, too much exposure – there is a fine line that you’ll either hit or miss. Overexposed photos are the exact opposite of underexposure. When there is too much light, the details will be lost in the brightness, which will again, make your items difficult to see. If you see sales dropping on a previously favourite product, it might be because your visitors don’t know what it looks like.

Poor Lighting

Although exposure does involve an aspect of how much lighting is on the product, you still have to take into consideration how much light is hitting the item –which is different from exposure. Exposure is a general brightness or darkness in the photograph. Lighting refers to how much of the object is lit, and how much is in shadow. If your pictures have stark differences in lighting and shadow, you might have to change the position or shoot from a different angle.

Avoid Colour Casting

Colour casting is when there is coloured lighting, or a reflection in the studio, altering the colour of what you’re photographing. When you’re trying to sell a product online, the image is the only thing that your customers have to go on. They can’t feel it, nor taste, weigh or smell what you’re selling, so your photos have to represent what they’re buying accurately. If they buy a dress that they think is blue from your photograph, but is green in reality, you might lose sales from them in the future.

Your Products Are Too Small

If your photos contain more background than focus on the product, then your patrons won’t be able to see what you’re selling. Besides, site visitors generally don’t want to put the effort in to see a listing. Unless you’re using all the space for written copy that will be used for a more significant digital marketing strategy, try to capture your products so that they’re big enough to see clearly.

Avoid Misrepresenting Your Products

You might be interested in experimenting with commercial photography; however, it doesn’t always work out the way you expect. Remember to look at your photos as if you’ve never seen them before, the same way visitors to your site would look at them. You don’t want your potential customers to look at your images and be unsure of what they’re seeing. Make sure that what you’re displaying is clear, so that there is no room for doubt – if there is doubt, you won’t make the sale.

Your Images Are Blurred

Pixelated images might pass the test for someone who isn’t a professional photographer; however, for the trained eye, it would stick out like a sore thumb. You can still recognise the object in a pixelated image; however, jagged edges on your pictures are unprofessional. Blurry pictures should be avoided entirely because all the detail in the image is lost. Try to improve your skills, or all of your photographs will be out of focus.

Don’t Stretch Your Images

It’s never a good idea to mess with the sizes or dimensions of your photos because it can be seen from a mile away. It also gives your customers the wrong idea about what you’re selling. This is especially important if you sell clothing. Be honest about what you’re selling, and make sure that what you sell is the same as what you upload on your site, or you’ll never receive a repeat customer.

No Distracting Filters, Props Or Backgrounds

The previous mistake mentioned that you should display items that look the same in person as they do on your website. Over editing your images could be the reason why you aren’t making sales or seeing repeated business by the same people. Over edited images that are plastered with filters, effects and colours are distracting and distorting. Your users might not know what they’re looking at because your image has been saturated with unnecessary filters and editing effects. The same goes for using very busy backgrounds. Don’t use backgrounds that look the same as your product, or you won’t see your products. Props can also be very distracting. If you want to use accessories, make sure that they are minimal, in neutral colours, or out of focus so that your product can still steal the show. Make sure your product is the clear hero of the image.

Clean Photos Are A Must

This one must sound strange, but if the camera you’re using is professional photographer-grade equipment, then it will pick up dust mites, dirt particles and other imperfections. You might not be able to edit them out well enough, which means that your customers will see them when they look at your gallery online. Dirty photos are off-putting, so make some extra effort to ensure that your items look crisp and clean.

In summary, the top 5 keys to remember for good commercial product photography are:

  • Good lighting and correct exposure
  • Ensure your product is the clear hero of the image, and image is a true representation of product
  • Simple, clean backdrops work best.
  • When in doubt, invest in a good commercial product photographer
  • Remember Strong Visuals Sell!

When it comes to wearing multiple hats as a business owner, your photography skills will be put to the test. Whether you’re taking corporate headshots of your staff, or performing commercial photography for your website, you should put your best foot forward. Try your best to avoid these commercial photography mistakes, because they might be causing you to lose sales. And if in doubt, find yourself a trustworthy and experienced commercial photographer to outsource to. It may be worth the investment for increased sales!

Ellen Hollington

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