Product Photography :

Your product photos are extremely important. Good quality product photographs can sometimes mean the difference between an acceptance offer and a rejection notice, sale or no sale, etc...

Your best solution is to have professional photos taken of your products. This can get expensive if you offer several items. There are several online photographers that specialize in product photography. I've seen product photo prices that range from $10 per item to $70 per item. Check them out and compare prices to see if this is something you can swing right now.

If professional product photography is out of the question, we've got a few guidelines that we hope will help you make the most of your product photography.

The first step to taking product photos is to set up a small tabletop studio where you plan to take the photos. A small card size table should work fine.

The next step in product photography is to set up your background. You do not want anything that is "busy". Solid white, black, grey all work well. You can use cloth tacked to the wall and draped over the table.

A better option is to use an oversized poster board or matte board that you can find at hobby stores. To set up my background using poster board, I attach the poster board to a clothes rack. The clothes rack is just an inexpensive one from my local discount store. I think I purchased it for around $20. I just used clamps to attach the poster board - they also came from Wal-Mart. See Picture of background Set-Up

I then take my table and place it under my rack so that the poster board is lying partially on the table. See Picture of table and background

The next step is key to your successful product photos. Lighting is king! The wrong lighting can result in product photos that are washed out or have harsh shadows. You have two choices: Natural light or Artificial light. Natural light will be better and easier for you and will result in better product photography.

The best natural lighting is to set up your tabletop studio outside on a slightly overcast day. You can use white poster boards to reflect sunlight into any dark spots in your product photos.

If you must use artificial lighting, it is best to use two adjustable lights that can be angled in different directions. You are also going to need to use some reflective or diffuser materials or techniques.

You do not want a harsh light that creates hard shadows in your product photo. Your goal is to have soft lighting when taking product photos.

You can tell how soft the lighting is by the shadow the products cast. A dark, distinct shadow indicates that your lighting is too harsh. You can correct this by placing some sort of diffuser between your light and your product.

In a tight, you can make your own diffuser by stretching very thin material or tissue in a cheap frame. Now angle your light so that it shines through the frame. The material or tissue paper should diffuse the light.

You can also angle one of the lights towards something reflective, such as a piece of white poster board, that will bounce the light back on to the product. Once again, it's much easier to use natural lighting for your product photography if possible.

Once your tabletop studio is set up and your lighting is correct, you'll need to set up the photo. Disable the flash on your camera and mount the camera to a tripod. ALWAYS use a tripod. Even an inexpensive tripod from your local discount store will make a huge difference.

Place your product on the tabletop. Look for interesting photography angles. You can shoot from above or maybe angle in from the side or corner.

One additional tip: when shooting with a white or light background, cameras tend to underexpose the product photograph. You can compensate for this by adjusting the "Exposure Value" in the manual settings of your camera. The camera is normally set to "0". Start by adjusting to +1.0 and go from there.

Take lots of pictures. Experiment. Fill your photos with the product. Use different angles and play with the lighting. You're creative. You'll do fine. Take a look at a Photo I snapped outside while taking the example setup photos.

A compromise between a homemade setup and having professional photos is to use some inexpensive tools that can help you out tremendously. Take a moment to browse through these Photo Tools and Accessories so that you will be aware of your options.

These tips are not meant to replace professional product photography. Having the right tools for the job really will make a difference. You've spent a lot of time getting your handcrafted item perfect. As soon as you are able to do so, I would recommend having your products professionally photographed.

In the meantime, I hope that these product photo tips and tools will help tide you over.