As the days are progressing, photography is becoming increasingly inclined towards the corporate sector. Similarly, we live in a period where online businesses are booming more than ever. The higher the number of online businesses, the greater the competition. So, amidst all this, perhaps a question arises. How can one achieve a competitive advantage over others? Well, the answer lies in the photos. Yes, a higher-quality photo of items on the shelves can help you get more attention from your customers. Moreover, it allows you to highlight the details to your audience. In our article, we will discuss how to do retail photography in a manner so you can achieve high-quality images.
We will discuss the benefits the photos can get you in terms of competition and creativity. Additionally, we would also discuss how you can create your brand image through a well-done retail photography shoot. So, without further ado, let’s see how to do retail photography and capture images of your inventory brilliantly.
Lighting Matters - How to do Retail Photography
Firstly, in how to do retail photography, we discuss lighting. While shooting a product, may it be a ring or a chain, position your product around the light. This means that you need to use natural lighting to your advantage. Now, one might wonder, how does it benefit the overall picture since the photo looks overexposed. Well, the key is avoiding overexposure. For this reason, always shoot in low iso mode. In numbers, don’t tweak it more than 400. Once, the object is perfectly lit, make sure to highlight the details of the object. As an example, if you are shooting a chain, make sure you get all the details in the image.
Now, window lighting is a good way to illuminate your product and capture the details. However, having studio lighting can help you achieve a final image that looks perfect in every way. So, make sure to do a little research on which studio lights to buy for retail photography before buying them.
Photo edited in Lightroom.
Lighting Gels
Next, you can perhaps also use some light gels to create a theme for your product line. For instance, if you have a huge portfolio, you can creatively use lighting gels to distinguish between them. Such as red for product a, blue for product b, etc. Furthermore, you can use lighting gels to create a brand association with your product and logo. Now, color matters in creating a brand logo. Therefore, shooting products with similar lighting aesthetic as that of your logo can aim for a one-of-a-kind brand image.
You can also achieve the effect of lighting gel after product shoot using gradients in post-processing.
Post Processing - How to do Retail Photography
Second, on our list of how to do retail photography comes post-processing. With this, you can dig even a little deeper into highlighting the details of your products. Various aspects of the products that might have been missed in the original shoot can now be retrieved in post-processing. This helps you in fine-tuning the whole image to suit the aesthetic that you would want your brand to associate with. Additionally, as we mentioned in the previous point, you can achieve the effect of lighting gels in post-processing. Simply use the gradient tool and place it around the photo in such a way that it looks nice. Remember, that don’t use it excessively. Since doing so might ruin the effect you are aiming to achieve with your retail photography shoot.
The applications that we recommend in our list of how to do retail photography editing would be Adobe Photoshop cc and Adobe Lightroom cc. In fact, you can narrow it down just to Adobe Photoshop CC, since it has the adobe camera raw built-in. This allows you to edit like how you would in adobe Lightroom cc.
Using Environment to Advantage
After that, we would mention that if you are learning how to do retail photography shoots, do use the environment to your advantage. When you are shooting the product, it is not just the product that needs to be in the image. You can bring in any sort of props that associate with that product. Similarly, bring in books and pencils or perhaps an old antique camera to make up for a creative retail photography shoot. Always add in some props around the product. And, if the props happen to be associated with the product in some way or another, even better.
Moreover, try to place the product on a nice sheet or perhaps an etched wooden board. This would do wonders once you open the final image on your desktop for editing.
Conclusion - How to do Retail Photography
To simply conclude everything, these were some of our top tips on how to do retail photography. So, apply all these and check for yourselves how your next retail photography shoot turns out to be. Additionally, a word about mobile photography that we forgot to mention. Yes, you can follow all these steps for mobile photography too. Nowadays, especially with the new smartphone cameras, it’s even better to shoot retail photography on mobile. Furthermore, there are applications such as Snapseed and lightroom cc mobile on smartphones that help you in achieving a great photo. So, do what suits you best and make your products stand out the next time you post on your socials.
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