In ecommerce, images draw attention.
Just like with brick-and-mortar stores, having high-quality and engaging imagery around your online shop is how you attract more customers.
Not only will great pictures of your products attract more visitors – the better the images, the more conversions you can expect.
Let’s take a step back. Why are images so important to make products more appealing to customers?
Our brains have to process a lot of information when we make decisions. Because processing information is difficult, images are one of the shortcuts we use to understand and interact with the world.
Color psychology plays a big role in product design and you can only highlight these effects with great ecommerce product photos. If you want your items to engage your visitors, follow these ecommerce product photography tips for 2022.
Although the exact number varies between agencies, most agree that people see between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every day. Standing out from the crowd is just one way that great product images can help grow your brand.
Great product images hook visitors emotionally and increase trust in your brand. When customers can’t physically interact with a product, photographs are the best means of communicating with them.
Visual communication is important for ecommerce brands because:
Keeping this in mind, here are eight of the top tips for ecommerce product photography.
Louis Vuitton’s Now Yours for Women site uses luxurious images for an entire collection of products. Different size images across a guided buying journey reveal intricate details of an item, and customers get to zoom in closer for a better view.
The image size you’ll need ranges from thumbnails for search results to higher resolutions required on all the product pages that follow. Brands that want to engage customers with visuals will provide high-resolution images that show each item from different angles to increase product appeal using photographs.
Your background will form part of your scene and reinforce your image’s context. The presentation of the product along with the framing may affect the value perception of your customers. If you want to market to the ideal customer, you need to consider their aspirations as your inspiration.
Fender uses feature images as a banner on their site to market different product lines. Each image shows products in use and contextualized by one of the brand’s ideal customers. Visitors can identify with the product and it increases the desirability of items for specific buyers.
Along with background and context, your color choices should invoke emotional reactions. Choosing complementary color schemes depends on the message you want to convey. Brand identity and a desire to increase customer loyalty will need to inform your color section options.
Color can influence as much as 85% of customers purchasing decisions. Look for innovative ways you can incorporate colors that complement your product’s most valuable features.
Shadows will create a contrast between your product and the background. The quality depends on hard or soft lighting when placing the product in a scene. Moving lights closer to an image creates a greater contrast but that depends on your color choices.
Soft light allows for a gradual transition into the background while hard shadows can focus attention on hard differences. The scene selection and shadow composition will influence your product’s overall appeal.
A reflection can help anchor a product in the image. This gives the viewer vital information such as size and helps avoid the object from appearing like it's floating in space. Reflections make products appear more valuable and are common in professional photographs for luxury brands.
A shadow effect could be enough but if you want to make your product appear luxurious, you can get creative with different reflective elements. Images with intriguing reflections can engage customers online just as effectively as those in print magazines.
The more angles of product photographs you have the better but you should cover at least the main four. The front, profile, top, and macro views will give customers a good idea of how it looks in real life.
You can include a 45-degree angle, back, and even a 3D rendering for better effect when presenting products. 3D photorealistic renders increase engagement and you can virtually create different colors, lighting arrangements, shadows, and textures.
Product positioning will influence your light setup, camera viewpoints, and shadow composition. Close-up photos can use focal lengths of 35mm to 100mm. Adjusting your lighting can help find the ideal shadow and contrast, especially when shooting more than one product in the scene.
Your product will have to be the star of the show, meaning you should always compose the scene around its position. You want to position your ecommerce items with props in the photograph in a way that provides additional relative value to your brand.
Models showing off your items give customers loads of visual information about your ecommerce products. It’s also a way you can create a personal connection between the visitor and your items. If the model reflects the aspirations of your ideal customer, the image will create a psychological response that leads to more conversions.
When choosing models for your product photographs, ensure they look and act like your ideal customer, and use the product in a way that makes sense. You can use human-touch photography for your ecommerce product images, lifestyle scenes, or blurred models to highlight your products perfectly.
Product personalization, combined with 3D visualization is the best way to increase the appeal of your products. The visualization of products with 3D rendering allows customers to interact with a product from every angle with the lighting and background scenes you prefer. An immersive, visual experience will draw more visitors to your site, give them engaging experiences, and drive up conversions.
Creating great product photographs for your ecommerce site starts with 3D visualization and personalization from ConfigureID. Book a demo here.
