Hi! Chloe here...
Hi 👋 I’m Chloe here from team LAD, and I do the majority of Laurens photography when she is off designing soft squishy knits for you to create.
So small business owner, its the beginning of the year and if you are anything like me you have started to make an exciting 🎉 (yet daunting) list of things you’d like to achieve this year.
Is improving your product photography one of them? I know investing in a professional photographer can be a big commitment, so until then I have put together a few tips that should help you progress your photography and make your beautiful products shine!
Lighting
Lighting can be complicated and expensive.
Stay away from using your house hold lamps and spotlights, as your photos will end up with funny colours and dark shadows.
Natural light is your best budget friendly option, so pull up a table near a window and set up your products there. To create even light you can grab some white card to help bounce the light on to your products. If you choose to shoot outside a cloudy day is better than a bright sunny one, those lovely fluffy clouds act as a giant soft box.
These images were shot just with natural light!
Background
Remove unrelated clutter!
Grab a sheet, some coloured paper, a photo board, or even create your own using your brand colour palette. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7ZVO7YR8E)
Now you have a background make sure to use this every time for products on your website, or when posting on social media on rotation with another background and lifestyle shots mixed in, this will create brand consistency.
Props
Props can be great to bring across your small biz aesthetic.
Always make sure they are on brand or relevant to your product, if not they may just distract from what you are trying to sell. I like to use dried flowers, foliage, and books.
Consistency
Consistency is key to creating a more professional finish to your photography.
If you have products that are all similar in size mark the centre point on your background and place every product on that spot when you take a photograph. You will also need to keep your camera/phone in the same place using a tripod.
Editing
You will notice that most brand have consistent colour and tone in their photographs.
Depending on how you edit your photographs, consider downloading a preset or filter for all of your images. Do bear in mind that some preset/filters can change the colour of you products drastically, you want to make sure they are still true to colour.
Images show: Original – Filter that changes colour too much – Filter that enhances photo
I hope that has been of some help! Hopefully now you can improve your photography and ultimately give your beautiful products the limelight they deserve!
If not you know where to find me @chloeuptonstudio