How can you boost sales with product photos?

Product photos play a key role in consumers’ purchasing decisions, particularly in online retail where the lack of physical contact with products makes images essential.

A high-quality product image can grab attention and spark interest among visitors, who will be more likely to add the product to their shopping basket. These images are the visitor’s first point of contact with a product online and complement the textual descriptions provided throughout the product page, offering an almost tangible dimension.

In this article, we’ll explain how to create attractive images to enhance your product pages, from the right equipment to optimising your images.

The right equipment for product photography

Choosing the right equipment is crucial for producing high-quality images.

The first thing to consider is the choice of camera. You have two options:

• A digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera
• A smartphone

Although DSLRs offer considerable advantages – notably the ability to take high-quality photos in low light – high-end smartphones are sufficient for product photography. You must, however, ensure that the details of your products are clearly visible in the photos.

To ensure your photos are steady and sharp, you can use a tripod, which helps prevent blurred images. Once again, this can be particularly helpful in dimly lit settings. Other accessories can help you achieve better results with your product photos, including spotlights, which will help you highlight the details.

How can you master lighting?

To master lighting when photographing products, it is essential to understand the different options available. The two main sources are natural and artificial lighting.

• Natural light, ideal for outdoor shots or those taken near windows, provides soft, even light
• Artificial lighting, which is more controllable, is suitable when natural light is insufficient

To avoid shadows and reflections, position light sources carefully and use reflectors to soften shadows. Softboxes and diffusers are effective tools for diffusing light evenly and reducing unwanted reflections.

Vary the product shots

Varying the angles of your shots is an essential strategy for fully capturing the essence of a product and attracting the attention of potential customers.

Providing customers with a comprehensive view of the product is crucial to helping them make an informed purchasing decision. This involves capturing the product from different angles: an overview to showcase its general features, close-ups to highlight details and texture, as well as unusual angles that can reveal unique aspects of the product. By showing the product from every angle, customers are able to get a clearer idea of what it actually looks like.

You can also include moving images. Videos are dynamic formats that can capture viewers’ attention in a unique way. They allow you to showcase a product’s features in an interactive and engaging manner. For example, a video can demonstrate how to use a product, its different configurations, or even show how it works.

Editing and optimising product photos

How do you retouch product photos?

Photo editing is a crucial step in ensuring that photos reach their full visual potential.

Among the most highly recommended editing programmes, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are popular choices due to their versatility and power. Photoshop offers complete control over every aspect of the image, whilst Lightroom is particularly effective for batch editing and photo organisation.

Essential adjustments to make during editing include brightness, contrast and colour:

1. By adjusting the brightness, you can balance the dark and light areas of the image for a more uniform look
2. Contrast helps to bring out details and add depth to the photo
3. As for colours, it is essential to correct them so that they are true to life, whilst possibly adding effects to enhance their visual appeal

A key tip for achieving a natural and professional look is not to overdo the retouching. It’s tempting to go too far with the adjustments, but this can make your photos look unrealistic and unattractive. The aim is to enhance the photo whilst preserving its authentic character.

How can you optimise product photos for the web?

Once the photos have been retouched, it is crucial to optimise them for effective online display. Optimisation mainly concerns two aspects: resolution and file size.

Resolution refers to the amount of detail present in an image, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). For web photos, a resolution of 72 ppi is generally sufficient, as computer screens and mobile devices usually cannot display any more detail. Reducing the resolution of photos reduces their file size, which is essential for fast loading times on the web.

Recommended file formats for web photos include JPEG, PNG and WebP. JPEG is ideal for detailed photographs, whilst PNG is preferable for images with solid colour areas or transparency. WebP is a newer format developed by Google, offering more efficient compression without any loss of quality, making it an ideal choice for performance-focused websites.

Finally, file compression is essential for reducing file size without compromising visual quality. Online compression tools or plug-ins available in image-editing software such as Photoshop can reduce file sizes whilst maintaining quality.

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Conclusion

Product photos must therefore be optimised to benefit your conversion strategy. Visitors look for high-quality product photos to gain as much detail as possible about the products before confirming their shopping basket. To achieve this, use the DAM included in Quable’s PIM to centralise media management.