Product Photography Tips

Who is the buyer?

Target them. Even the photo does not have to be pretty. It needs to be interesting to the audience first.

Eg. Linkedin – it needs to be relevant to your audience

Build your audience according to who you could sell to.

 

You can use typography in your visuals given that it is consistent –

Use same text, same font, same color, same layout.

 

You might need to give credit for photographers.

Put in contract that you can use the photos anywhere, anyway you like.

 

On Instagram, your images need to be beautiful / pretty.

Typography on images is not welcome in Instagram.

 

People should feel better when you look to your content / images. Be positive all the time.

 

Emails – you need offer people something.

Just plain information is never interesting.

 

Images on your website should not be named IMG-5232 .

It should be named like someone put that keyword on Google.

 

Pinterest is used about how to stuff.

 

Aperture

 

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.

 

Shutter Speed

 

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera’s shutter is open when taking a photograph.[1] The amount of light that reaches the film or image sensor is proportional to the exposure time. ​1⁄500 of a second will let half as much light in as ​1⁄250.

 

ISO

 

White Balance

 

A white paper should look white in a correct white balance settings.

 

Camera Presets

 

Use 300 dpi for print images, this is dots per inch

72 dpi – dots per inch for web

 

Websites images needs to be the size that they need to be. No need for uploading massive hires images.

 

Work with RAW formats. You can downsize a RAW format but you can not upsize a lower quality.

 

If you are using it in only social media etc you don’t have to work with RAW

 

16:9 vs 4:3

For Instagram you might want to use 4:3, a more square feel

16:9 is more suitable for desktop / TV type of screens.

 

CMYK vs RGB

 

Get a proof of paint in the post

Printed material shows colors differently

 

Exposure

 

Look for texture.

 

Parts of the photo should not be all white (over exposed) or all black (under exposed)

 

You can correct some shooting errors to a degree in Photoshop

 

Rule of Thirds

 

Professionals do not take flat photos

Amateurs take flat photos

 

Pros want something to be in focus and rest out of focus

 

Depth of Field

 

Be Consistent

 

Use same background, colors, layout etc for branding

 

Uniform the styles

 

Close up

 

Copyright

 

You automatically have copyright of the material / documents / photos that you created.

 

You can search with usage rights on Google Images

 

https://pixabay.com/

Pixabay License

Free for commercial use

No attribution required

 

https://www.pexels.com/

 

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted “work”.[note 1] A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that he or she (that author) has created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, he or she might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of a given work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author’s work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

 

Royalty free does not mean free

 

It means you don’t have to pay commission every time the photo / video is used

 

Advertising standards

 

https://www.asa.org.uk/

 

Shooting photos of people

 

They need to sign if they wanted their photo taken

To edit

To be shared on eg website

To be shared on social media

 

Separately

 

If you are shooting in a crowded place, make sure other people are out of focus and non-recognizable

 

Talent Release Form

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=talent+release+form&oq=talent+release+form&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.4113j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

If under 18, no one can sign for them. So you need parents signatures.

 

Editing Software

 

GIMP https://www.gimp.org/