The Complete Guide to Ecommerce Photography (Updated May 2022)
If you are launching a new product, you have to decide what type of images you want to use to market it. You may be overwhelmed by the amount of different product images and product videos your competitors have and want to outdo them and put all the best product photos from your competitors in one photo shoot and create a great listing.
In this guide, we list all the main product photo and product video types and their uses to help you organize your thoughts, marketing plan, and better brief your photographer.
1. Product on White Images
Product on white images are essential, if you sell on marketplaces like Amazon, white background images are a requirement.
Characteristics: These product photos are photos of your products, as they are, perfectly lit, on a white background.
Uses: The product on white images are there to show your product to the buyers, they answer questions like what is it? what are the dimensions of the product? What features does it have？Basically, product on white photography is ecommerce's equivalent to a customer picking up a produce in a store and looking at it. There product photos are very important, you get them done once and they will help sell your product for as long as you are selling it, so make an effort to get them in high quality.
Best practices: Show the product from 2-3 different angles. Depending on the product these can be straight on, 45 degrees to the right, 45 degrees to the left, left side, right side, back, and top view. You don't need to show all these photo angles. Additionally, also include detail product photos to highlight materials the product is made from and special features.
2. Product in Use Images
While product on white images are strictly photos of your product on itself, product in use images show the product in use, these images bring life to your products and help show the function of your product. Take for example this photo. It is a very useful addition in an infographic, as it shows the toilet seat has a quick release button, without the hand photo this functions wouldn't have been so apparent. Online buyers are visually motivated and usually scroll through listings in search of photos that answer their questions. If the don't see a photo answering a specific question, they move to another product listing that does, so if your product has any special features that buyers are looking for, be sure to highlight them. Particularly the use of hand model in product photos is very beneficial, and immediately helps buyers relate to the product and use situations.
Characteristics: Show how the product is used, often include a hand to make this more clear.
Uses: Product in use photo are used to help to highlight the features of your particular product and explain in simple images what benefits the buyer will enjoy when using your product.
3. Product Lifestyle Images
Lifestyle photography is a very wide category of photos, these are all sorts of creative product photos that show your product in an aesthetically appealing setting that does much more than showing what the product is and how it is used.
Characteristics: Creative photos that are stylized and arranged on various background. These can be flat lay photos, table top photos, photos with live model, outdoor photos, in-studio photos on model, etc. There are no strict parameters since the purpose of the photo is to excite, not explain, and this is the realm of imagination.
Uses: Product lifestyle images exist with the goal of creating a mood, excite the buyers imagination, entice their curiosity, and establish an association with a certain lifestyle.
Best Practices: Always, always, always have a concept. A good lifestyle photo does not happen by accident. It doesn't have to be a complex concept, but you need a concept. Unlike product on white photos that are pretty much straight forward and if you get them right you are set, there is no such thing as the perfect lifestyle photo. If your brand has a social media presence, you will need a constant flow of new photos for your feed. You may be interested in our Social Media Photography Service, where we will create a customized package for your brand that includes your desired number of photos per month, and you get fresh content for your social media every week.
4. Product Only Videos
Like product photos, product videos also come in a few different varieties. The simplest form of product video is the product only video. Like this one..
5. Product in Use Videos
Products in use videos are usually fairly simple from a creative standpoint, their aim is to strictly show all the features your product has and ways to use them. They have become indispensable for product categories like kitchen product photography and home improvement products photography. Instead of having your customer read through your listing trying to find out whether the product can do what the customer wants it to do, answer all questions in a short informative video. For some categories, these videos can significantly improve the conversion rates of your products..
6. Lifestyle Videos
Lifestyle videos are product videos that feature the product for sale, but the focus is definitely not on the product itself, lifestyle video focuses on how the product may make the user feel rather than on what the product does. Think parfume advertisements that show beautiful women in whimsical scenarios, energy drink advertisements showing extreme sports, etc.
These type of videos are very important for Brand Building, they are also the most expensive to create, mostly because you need a creative director to create a concept and then making this concept come to reality is also a complex thing to complete. However, the results are beautiful, and if you have a solid budget and your brand is at the stage of growth where is can benefit from lifestyle videos, definitely do them.
Of course, you can create a video that combined all three types of videos, there are no limits as far as editing videos goes.
