4 Key Product Photography Tips for E-Commerce in 2023

Intro

Are your product photos pulling customers in or driving them away? As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially true when that picture is the only connection your customers have to your products and your brand.

In a brick-and-mortar store, customers can pick up your products, turn them around, read the labels, and sometimes even try the product then and there. But if you want to sell products in an online store, your task is to recreate this experience through e-commerce product photography that connects your customers with an item and helps to build trust in your brand.

There are a few simple ways to ensure that your photos make a rock-solid impression every time.

1. Create a game plan before you start

Product photography might be the most important investment you make when launching your ecommerce business. So it’s worth getting it right from the start. Taking subpar photos of your inventory or failing to keep your parameters consistent could cost you thousands of dollars in lost conversions while also costing you valuable time as you have to retake the bad photos.

How to design a winning strategy

To plan product photography for e-commerce, you’ll need a multichannel visual content marketing strategy that includes five distinct kinds of product photos:

1. Product-only photos
2. Products in context or “lifestyle” photos
3. Homepage and category photos
4. Social media photos
5. PPC photos

Product-only photos

These are the simple, clean-cut photos that allow your customers to examine each product from all angles. Generally, a white background is best so that you can remove the background and shadows later and use the images across several platforms. However, you can also use a plain, colored background as long as this background is used consistently across all of your product photos.

After taking shots of each product from multiple perspectives (and a close-up of any ingredient labels), crop the photos into circles to a consistent size and shape so that some products don’t look larger than others. The dimensions and resolution of each image should meet the requirements of your web hosting and/or sales platform and be minified for faster loading (more on that later).

Products in context

Product-only photos let your customer imagine the product in their hand. Contextual or lifestyle photos help your customers visualize themselves using the product in their everyday lives. The kinds of lifestyle photos you’ll need for your website must be well-thought-out to match the kinds of products you’re selling.

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For example, a lifestyle photo of an aluminum step ladder could depict an electrician using the step ladder in a building project. A lifestyle photo of a pair of sunglasses could show a woman sunbathing by a pool. These photos should be clean and simple and keep the product as the focal point of the image.

Homepage and category photos

To complete your visual campaign on your website, you will also need photos for the homepage and product categories. Homepage images are often playful and creative, consisting of a mixture of lifestyle photos and product collections. Category photos should show all of the products in the category together—surrounded by individual ingredients (if relevant) or complementary accessories that you also sell.

Social media photos

Images for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter—when used for paid marketing campaigns—must conform to specific pixel requirements that vary according to the platform. For instance, your optimal Instagram dimensions are 1080px by 1350px while your optimal Facebook dimensions are 1200px by 1500px (4:5 ratio). Go for bright colorful, high-quality images that tell a story and engage your viewers.

Pay per click (PPC) photos

If you’re running a Google PPC campaign, you will need to take shots specifically for this purpose that match the dimensions specified by Google. You have numerous choices when choosing your dimensions for Google Display Ads, including 300x100, 750x300, 980x90, and 468x60. There are more than 50 options to choose from altogether. For both Google Display Ads and Google Shopping, make sure you meet the exact requirements to enjoy the best return-on-investment (ROI) for your ads.

2. Shoot like a pro or hire a professional

(https://www.pixpa.com/blog/product-photography)

As you can see, there is a lot of detailed planning involved in ecommerce photography, and we haven’t even touched on the technical aspects of the process.

If you would like to take the photos yourself, it’s essential to invest in a professional DSLR camera, a tripod, a backdrop, reflectors, lights, lenses, and filters. Apart from the costs of purchasing this equipment, you will also need to factor in the time spent learning to use the equipment and resources lost on trial and error.

If photography really isn’t your passion, it could prove more cost-effective in the long run to hire a professional product photographer who will get each shot right from the start. Whichever professional you choose for your photos, you will need to agree on a photography style guide to ensure consistency and suitability for the web.

3. Edit for the web without over-editing

You have your top-notch product photos. Now they need a little editing. Whether you edit your photos yourself or hire a professional to complete this step, make sure that the final product images provide a true and honest representation of each product.

When editing your photos, consider the following steps:

• Remove the background for a uniform look.
• Correct the coloring to match the real products as closely as possible.
• Save copies with the correct dimensions for desktop and mobile devices.
• Choose the file type (JPEG, GIF, PGN) that each platform requires.

Also, you’ll want to invest in a professional photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop if you decide to do the work yourself.

4. Optimize on-site images for SEO

The final stage of product photography for e-commerce is making your images readable by Google. By making image optimization part of your SEO checklist, you can ensure greater visibility in search engines and potentially increase conversions as well.

Filename

When saving your images for use online, use a short chain of descriptive words separated by hyphens for the filename rather than a long string of numbers. This will not only help you locate the images later but will help Google identify the images as well.

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For example, the filename for a photo depicting a terrier running through a field of long grass could be:

Filename: terrier-running-long-grass

Filenames also offer an opportunity to use the keywords that you’re hoping to rank for on that particular page. While you shouldn’t use keywords where they’re not relevant, you could easily include one in the following example:

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Filename: sealed-packet-CBD-dog-treats

In this example, “CBD dog treats” is the target keyword.

Alt-text

In addition to the filename, you need to add a line of alt-text to every image used on your site. This text is used to communicate the contents of the image to the visually impaired and also helps your images to rank higher in search engines.

The alt-text for each image should be worded in simple language, be as complete as possible, and only include the target keyword if it fits easily into the visual description.

Here are examples for the two file images mentioned above:

Alt-text: A small white terrier running through a field of long grass in the daytime.

Alt-text: A sealed packet of Dad Grass CBD dog treats on a wooden table.

Alt-text is one of the most important ecommerce accessibility features, so don’t neglect it when uploading your images. By optimizing your images with accessibility in mind, you’re likewise ensuring a better user experience for visitors who are visually impaired or who have other sensory challenges.

Minify

The final step you’ll need to complete is to minify your images for use on the web. This process ensures that the photos load quickly without compromising on size or image quality. More specifically, minifying works by removing unnecessary data or formatting without actually hurting how the image looks on the screen. If you want to successfully sell products online, fast load times are a must.

Many shopping cart platforms will complete this process for you as you upload your images. You can also do it yourself using an online tool like HTMLMinifier or CSSNano. Just submit your HTML, CSS or JavaScript, and the minifier tool takes care of the rest.

Don’t compromise on your ecommerce product photography

High-quality product photography is the lifeblood of your ecommerce store and should be treated as such. Create a comprehensive plan for your shots, set up your studio (or hire a professional who specializes in commercial photography), and top it all off with image optimization for SEO.

Your customers will feel more connected to your brand and trust your professionalism and the quality of your goods. A small investment in photography now will bring you rewards long into the future!