5 MISTAKES MOST BUSINESSES MAKE REPRESENTING THEIR PRODUCTS ONLINE
Maybe a lot of people think that product photography for catalogues and e-shops is something simple and everyone can do it with ease. Today I will explain to you why its not like this and also I will give you some real examples to prove it.
I wrote these 5 common mistakes I’ve seen as a product photographer on websites and e-shops. And I truly believe that this info will help you to avoid them in your business.
#1 Product photography for e-shops - THE IMAGES ON YOUR E-SHOP ARE WITH NO UNIFORM BACKGROND
Each product on your website and more specifically on the e-shop is represented by a few images, right? Sometimes we also use videos to give more details and a good customer experience. All of that is correct and mandatory if we are serious about our businesses and we want to grow. But here is one of the mistakes I’ve seen relatively often on websites with products especially when the brand is new.
The front e-commerce images are not with uniform backgrounds! I will explain what I mean but first of all, there is no rule on what colour backgrounds you should use for your catalogue product photos.
The most common colour is white because it gives brightness to the product and usually good contrast too. There are exceptions to this when the brand wants to be unique and prefers to use its own colour/s for branding purposes. Also, you might see e-shops with black backgrounds for their product images. The reasons can be again-branding, or all of their products are white and they prefer the opposite black for a good contrast. Another reason can be – they would like to position their brand as posh and luxury.
However, as we mentioned already there is no right or wrong here.
The problem comes when the front images are not with uniform backgrounds!
What do I mean? I mean that some images are with completely white backgrounds, and others are grey, even though I’ve seen images with creative style as a front image on the e-shop.
Why this is a problem? If your e-shop doesn’t have uniform catalogue style images you might like it and you might think its all right. But let’s think from the customer’s point of view.
Imagine you are visiting a physical shop for shoes for example. And you are on the front of the shelves but all you are seeing is the boxes of those shoes behind the shoes on the display and on top of everything those boxes are different colours. Therefore as a result we can’t focus on any pair of shoes because these random backgrounds are distractive.
Also subconsciously we will compare this shop with another similar shop but tidy and uniform where we can see everything easily and it’s pleasing for our senses.
In conclusion, we will not build trust with the first shop we used as an example. And without trust, the chances to shop from this place are decreasing drastically.
I hope you understood this example with the physical shop and how this applies to the e-shops. Do not forget that the same customers shop from both places with the same mentality and we need to ensure that they will build trust in our brand and we will provide a superb customer experience.
#2 Product photography for e-shops - The photos on the e-shop photos are not well lit
It’s equally important for the item on the image to be well lit but also not over lit. Firstly I will explain why this is important for the item to be well lit. When we watch an image (this rule applies to all types of images) our human eyes go firstly on the lightest parts. If the product is not very well lit, we are not that attracted to this image. And here is how this rule is important for our products- do we want our prospects not to be attracted to the products we are trying to sell? The answer is obvious…
On the other side, the product can be over lit too, which also leads to poor results. Here I’m showing you some examples with a pet tag I photographed a while ago. During my lights setting process, I thought that many photographers with little experience make the mistake of keeping the product too close to the light source. As a result, the light spills on the edges of the product. And this is giving the illusion of blurry edges.
Lack of experience as a product photographer can also underestimate the histogram of the image. The histogram gives us all of the information about the colours, dark, light and mid tones.
Overlit items can be made by too much light from the front side. The result will be an overexposed product. What does this mean? It means that some information from the image as texture and colours will be lost by too much light, which will be visible on the image.
In general, if the photographer doesn’t know enough about using light in the product photography genre, it can contribute to unpleasant results. On the other side, this can lead to unattractive product images which are not what the brands need for competitive purposes.
#3 Product photography for e-shops - E-COMMERCE IMAGES WITH RANDOM POSITIONS
Right, you might think that it is obvious that if the products on their images are not aligned is not attractive and pretty. It’s obvious but it’s a common mistake. I think the reasons are 2:
When the brand already has some catalogue style images and they release a new product so they need to add some new photos.
Then what happens – the photographer will use different angles of the camera, different distances and maybe even different lenses. You can’t avoid this problem unless you reshoot all items from the range again. But this happens very rarely mainly for budget reasons.
My suggestion here is if you have very few new images with different angles and distances from the rest of the photos of this product range – just use the new ones at the beginning or at the end of the product page. Do not mix them with the previous photos because you will create not a uniform appearance. Do you remember the example I gave you above with the shoe shop? The same rule applies here. We will compare this shop with other pretty and uniform E-shops where we can see everything easily and it’s pleasing for our senses. Without trust, the chances to shop from the 1st place are decreasing of course.
The product photographer is not experienced. Maybe he/she never had a project for an e-shop with many products. And maybe is shooting every product in different positions.
As a result, the final images will be in completely different positions. And even if the difference is minimal when those images are aligned on your e-shop this will be super visible and of course not professional. My advice is- always check the skills and the portfolio of the photographer you have chosen.
#4 Product photography for e-shops - BLURRY OR IMAGES WITH DISTORTION
By blurry images I mean the whole image of course. But please pay special attention to the label of your product.
The label represents at least half of your product and brand. I can’t stress enough how important is this. Here in this example with the Prosecco, I wanted to show you that the sharp and nicely lit label also shows the texture. Do not forget the details separate the professionals from everyone else. Here I have to mention the distortions too. Ive seen plenty of examples like that. This happens mainly by choosing the incorrect angle of shooting and sometimes is a combination of not correct angles and lenses. The result is not very appealing shapes of the products.
Mainly I’ve seen this with some jars, small bottles and other similar items. If you see your product with distortion on the final product image, pls do not except this work from the photographer. Ask them to reshoot it or even the whole session if needed. Because this is essential for your brand’s success and business growth. At the end of the day you are paying and you want nothing but the best quality for your brand, products and website.
” On-line shopper wouldn’t buy anything online without seeing high- resolution images !”
–Sabri Subi, international marketing expert
#5 Product photography for e-shops - INCORRECT COLOURS OR STOCK PHOTOS
Right, I will tell you a short story from my professional experience not long ago. I was contacted by a marketing agency for a product photography quotation for a bakery. The surprise for me came when the lady on the phone said: “We could use stock images, for this customer (the bakery) but we thought it will be better if we can photograph the real products.”
Wow! Seriously?! I couldn’t believe what I’m hearing, especially since this lady was a marketing expert. I mean she should know how important is to use real photos and not just this… she should know the power and influence of an attractive product image.
Another mistake is when the colours of the product are punched so much for eye-catching purposes. Then the problem comes when the customers order those items and when the product arrives, instead of feeling excited, the customer is disappointed. Because the real product looks different than the ad or the e-shop page. This could especially create big disappointments with items like make-up, clothes, accessories, shoes, decorations and others.
Basically -punching hue, saturation, and vibrance on your product images is not a solution. In fact it could work negatively for your brand.
” 22% of products that are sold online are returned because the items look different than the photos!”
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