It’s no secret that we live in a digital world. More products than ever are being bought and sold online, and, as a result, marketing teams and production pipeline members have had to alter their behavior to reflect their new customer expectations. The following will explore just one aspect of this in detail: product photography.

While product photography might seem like a small part of your overall presentation, it’s one of the most vital elements of a digital sales funnel. People like to see what it is they’re buying. They want the visual experience of picking the item up, holding it next to a person, and envisioning it in their home—product photography can help with this process or harm it.

Your Audience Sees A Crazy Amount Of Images
Every day people are bombarded with videos and images. Most of these are ads selling products, services or lies people want others to believe about their lives. Because of this, people are desensitized to images; they’re numb and bored by things they’ve seen before. To differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd, you need high-quality, eye-catching images. Anything less than your best is going to get buried in the flash flood that is the algorithm today.

Lots Of Good Images Are Informative
You’ve heard the phrase: a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Your product images are no exception. Use this valuable opportunity to give potential clients all the information you can about your product. The size, shape, fit and color are only the beginning. Show people how they can style your product in their homes or as part of an outfit.

If it’s a car accessory, show what it looks like on a sweet car. If it’s a piece of jewelry, show what it looks like on someone having an awesome evening. Humans are fantastic at gleaning information from images and this means your still shots should be just as planned out as your video advertisements. Be sure to include images that illustrate how your product is used.

Natural Lighting And Good Reviews
One common type of poor review that products can get is: not the same shade as the image I ordered from. Scroll through Amazon, and you’ll find tons of products with commentary like this and poor ratings. These bad reviews are scaring people away from products every minute. To avoid this, you need to think about the lighting you use when photographing your
products.

Natural lighting is incredibly important as this is going to relay the most accurate information possible about shade, texture and tone. Natural lighting is the same almost everywhere, and this makes it fantastic at presenting people with the true appearance of something. When you start using artificial lighting, you will quickly find you’re presenting people with an image that cannot be recreated unless they have exactly the same lighting fixtures in their home.

The exception to this rule is if you’re using a professional photographer or photography team. Professional marketers and other great product photographers know how to create optimal lighting scenarios with their gear. If you want to be sure about the lighting you’re getting, you can ask for some test shots or for samples from your photographer’s portfolio of the setup they intend on using.

Branding
Product photography is another wonderful opportunity to communicate your brand to your audience. Taking the time to organize shoots that reflect your values, energy and aesthetics can help your images express who you are to potential customers. Don’t waste this opportunity; make the most of it, as branding is a big part of cultivating a loyal customer base that is willing to follow you from one product to the next.

Show Up Your Competition
No matter what product you make, you can bet that there’s a cheaper version of it somewhere online. Yes, that cheaper version might be fake or made from worse materials or wear out right away, but this might not be immediately apparent to customers unless you take the time to communicate quality with your images.

Most drop shipping or other “cheap” companies use stock images that have been filtered through a digital program to alter color or pattern in order to showcase their products. If you take the time to capture real images of your actual products, you’re ahead of the game. Customers are able to tell the difference.

The above information should have made it clear that product photography can help present your customers with a polished and accurate representation of your product and your company. The images you use to sell products are a wonderful opportunity to give viewers a good impression of you and your products.