Offline is dead. Viva online. The days of offline shopping's dominance are long gone. To keep up with the pace of the digital era, players, big and small, have to re-group, re-invent, and re-educate themselves to stay relevant and afloat.

Billions of people are scrolling through online store catalogs right now just to see if anything interesting catches their eye.  According to Statista, in 2023, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a 39 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass eight trillion dollars by 2027.

Product photography has acquired new significance as the easiest way to reach, attract, and engage clients in the e-commerce domain. In this image-saturated era, basic product photography standards have risen due to an abundance of image-editing apps, the affordability of cameras, and, naturally, the popularity of Instagram. The basics of marketing state that Content is King.

Studies show that professional product photography is now impacting conversions at the scale significantly. Visual content is in a position to make it or break it for your sales & marketing.

The overall brand image depends on product shots — crisp and clean images help to create the same vibe for the whole brand. Moreover, product photography can also keep your return rates at the bait.

64% of e-commerce returns occur because the product displayed on the website and the delivered product have differences in appearance. All entrepreneurs know that a returned item is more than just an unsold item; it’s extra delivery expenses, wasted customer service time, and — worst of all — a poor online reputation.

As a team of photography enthusiasts who are religious about product photography, we keep noticing the same mistakes in numerous e-commerce product images. However basic those mistakes may seem, they still impact customers. Ignoring these mistakes may result in your potential customers ignoring your products.

At Squareshot, we love people who create brands. We respect them, and we want them to get the attention they (and their products) deserve. You run the show. The world revolves around great products, and you are their creator.

This 7-minute read will be useful for small businesses on a tight marketing budget trying to DIY all the quality product photos for their collection or for those commissioning this work to professionals but wanting to know what to look for while appreciating the output.

Don’t be content with just 1 image of the item. Shoot for 2-5 shots.

Having 3-5 shots per item is ideal, in fact — as it allows you to turn an e-commerce website user into a client with a much higher probability.

The closer the product is to premium pricing, the more high-quality images per item would be expected. Of course, we are not talking about the overkill of more than a dozen images of one piece, but 3-5 are just a client’s expectation.

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With handmade pieces, you want to make sure to take a couple of close-ups of the details to show product features — like a slight imperfection of the hand-stitched seam of an artisanal blouse. Or maybe catch a close-up on the handyman’s hands in action: be it a potter working on the potter’s wheel or a designer attaching the final piece to a wedding gown.

Differently angled — from the front, back, or side view; full size or close-ups; isolated or against other objects; lay flat or on a ghost mannequin; whatever the concept — don’t be content with 1 image per item.

Once you have done all the preparation, making another shot or two at a different angle is not a big deal after all.

Retouching in product photography: not the time to save budgets.

Retouching is an important stage of the product photography session that may uplift the poorly done images or, vice versa, ruin a great original image by overdoing it. Even the best retouching will not make the poorly done raw images great, but some imperfections may indeed be corrected during the post-processing.

The major 2 mistakes we have witnessed are that pros and amateurs are prone to using too much retouching or doing it poorly. Badly edited and overly retouched images are equally damaging and make the result look unnatural and unattractive, ultimately bringing your sales down.

Don’t underestimate background. It makes your product stand out and your retouching easier.

Ideally, without professional equipment, you will have bought a piece of white vinyl or plastic in your nearest hardware store to use as a background. The thin sheet of flexible yet sturdy white material can be easily fixed to a table with 2 clips, with the other end placed against a wall to create a seamless background.

Check out this video, which provides straightforward and quick guidance regarding setting up the background for product photography.

In most cases all the product shots are taken against the white /and we mean #FFFFFF white/ background - the industry standard, that is a default setting with Amazon & Shopify.

For more creative shootings colored or black backgrounds could be a solution, but those definitely require more skills in terms of lighting set up and retouching, so best left to professionals.

Don’t take light lightly. It’s a shadowy business.

Proper light in product photography is what alcohol is to a successful party: if you provide too little of it - everybody is going to be sulky and dull if you provide too much of it – things may go wrong in an endless array of ways.

When you talk about professional photography – you speak of expensive equipment. When you talk expensive photography equipment – you talk cameras and lenses of course – but you also talk lightning. Like a lot. Of. Expensive lightning. There is front and back lighting, overhead and side lighting as well as a flashlight and fill lights too. And then there are reflectors. And softboxes.

Is this possible to create a decent shot without all that professional equipment? Indeed, it is. But you have to make the best of the natural light and a couple of table lamp stands with adjustable gooseneck – so you can experiment and get the best focus on your photographed object. Getting a DIY softbox created is also a must to diffuse the light.

The intensity of light, color temperature, and tone all contribute to the final result, providing depth and volume to the product while influencing both the color hue and white balance. Given the absence of professional lightning, two major factors should be considered: take lots of test shots with different angles of front light, side light, reflectors, and diffusers; once you find the best combo of artificial light source location and intensity, keep doing entire series with the same outlay for consistency of resulting imagery.

Saving on the tripod may backfire. Ready, steady, shoot.

In most cases, product photography is done for a series of items that are to be displayed on the same e-commerce site. So, consistency in photography from item to item is very important. You want your objects placed in the same spot against the background and your camera at the same distance from your “model.”

Using a tripod gives your session the level of consistency one cannot achieve without it. No unwanted blurring, no jumping around the product from image to image. A new tripod starts at $25 and will serve for years.

Achieving a wide depth of field is crucial for a focused, sharp image, and stabilized cameras, low apertures, and slow shutter speeds are the ways to obtain this result.

Using overpowering models. Stay focused on the product.

Product photography with models is a segment in its own right with a thick manual of its own rules.

The major rules for model photosets are:

• Make sure the model is a good match for your target audience. Don’t choose a model based exclusively on good looks. You don’t want your model to overpower your product; it's vital that the model complements the product.
• A model has to look natural, and you should think twice about whether you need that fixated smile on the face. Akin to stock photography, fake smiles have seen their best times, and a calm, relaxed expression might do more good for your sales.
• “Product first, model second” is the mantra for both the model and the product photographer before and during the photoshoot. Don’t allow the model to dominate the product visually and mood-wise.
• Ensure you shoot at an eye level, as images taken from below or above the model’s eye level appear unnatural and distorted.

Getting too creative with angles and product positioning.

Trying too hard is a bit of a verdict in itself. If your mission is to provide a true-to-life portrayal of an object, make sure you do exactly that. While product photography for social media might involve some creative spicing, images for the online store are best left realistically without much of a creative twist.

A front, back, and 45-degree shot will reveal all the necessary details for a customer to decide. The 45-degree shot is the most appealing, so it might as well be used as a hero image throughout the entire collection.

Close-ups of some design nuances are a perfect bonus, as well as 360-degree product photography. But for an e-commerce business with an average check in the range of up to $50, the classical trio will do just fine. Any extra creativity with funny angles would usually look bizarre and bring inconsistency to the entire series — as hard to copy from one product image to another.

The deadly sin of product photography: too much or too little exposure.

You might be a rookie or a beginner. But if we talk about your brand’s product photos — this one is a must to grasp: how to tame your exposure. Both of the crimes are similarly severe: to have an overexposed image or an under-exposed one. So ignoring this is a red flag that will reflect in the results and, hence, on your sales, too.

The subject matter is rather complex and requires some experimenting. The author of the book Stunning Digital Photography has made great video tutorials on how to use shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to achieve just the right amount of exposure for your image.‍

Too many props steal from your product, not add to it.

In the era of Instagram, we have all seen too many crowded and overcrowded photo compositions, where it is difficult to distinguish between what’s background, what’s in focus, what’s the prop, and what’s the product sold to us.

If the prop removes the focus from the object you are trying to sell — don’t use it. If the prop brings no additional value — don’t use it. If the prop is competing for attending with your product — using it is not a good idea either.

For e-commerce store product photography, a white background and the product are picture-perfect, which lets your customers learn about the product without distractions and make an informed decision while remaining focused on the matter.

Using low-resolution images will lower visual appeal & sales.

High-resolution images are more appealing to the eye. They look more professional compared to low-res. They provide more clarity and detail and are a better, more realistic product depiction. They convert better.

A low-resolution image of a $10K Swiss watch will make it look cheap. A high-resolution image of a $10 watch will make it look times more expensive than it really is.

Make sure your images are professionally shot in high resolution—the recommended minimum is 1200x1200 pixels. Also, remember to optimize photos for file size when you upload them on your website, as loading speed directly impacts user experience and SEO.

Don’t accept the subpar work, even if you created it.

Sounds pretty obvious right? But not too easy to comply with, in fact.

You have put your heart and soul into those images. How could they be bad after all that? Pick a competitor's product pages whose imagery you love before you start. If your DIY product images don’t look close to that, however hard you tried — don’t use them.

After all, if there is one single factor that can negatively impact your sales right away, it is blurry images at wrong angles with long shadows. Professionally done imagery helps capture attention, convey the product's story, and convince and sustain the target audience.

Great product photography is the investment with the highest ROI that no business can afford to save on. Our clients reaffirm this truth every day. We hope that our expert product photography tips will help you understand not only the mistakes themselves but also the cost that those mistakes carry with them.

After all, professionally executed product photography has the power to make even the smallest business look big and solid.