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The Importance of Having Great Product Photos

June 19, 2009

Many product designers spend hours crafting a written description for their products. In reality, unless a customer already knows they want your product, they probably won’t even read your description…they’ll look at the product photo to see if the product ‘looks’ right for them.

What are your product photos saying about your product?

Whatever you are selling, the product photograph must artfully insert the item into the viewer’s own environment so they can envisage using it, looking at it or replacing something they already own with it.

The old adage “a picture speaks a thousand words” is not so far from the truth…

Take, for example, a typical product shot.

It is reasonable sharp and shows the entire product. But does it make me want to buy it? Can I see myself wearing it? Does it look worth the money?

…probably not…

To be clear, it is not so much the object that’s the problem as the background. The necklace is actually on a sheet of white paper, but artificial lighting has created a not-so-flattering yellow hue.

A crisp, white background is hard to achieve without lighting equipment, but the effect speaks for itself.

The same item now appears entirely different.

Adding a different angle or a close-up/macro shot further helps to ‘describe’ the product for the viewer, and makes an attractive, eye-catching image as well.

These examples present very basically the difference good product photographs can make.

I recently photographed a series of picnic blankets for Jennifer Locke at Zip-n-Go Blanket. “Blankets have been flying out the door! I get a lot of comments about how rich the blankets look now and I believe the pictures have definitely increased sales.

Take a moment to revisit what potential customers see when they visit your website. After all your hard work to bring a product to market, it would be a great shame if the lack of a couple of photographs was holding your business back!

Sue is a self-taught photographer with years of experience. Sue works with businesses of varying sizes across many industries including Etsy and home-based businesses. Sue Bruce Photography is a Mom-owned business, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is a member of the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and the Professional Photographers of Massachusetts (PPAM). Check out Sue’s portfolio online at www.suebrucephotography.com.

Written by mary · Filed Under Startup & Grow 

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