Product photography is one of the most important factors of apparel and product creation. The first impression of an image can be the difference between selling a product or losing a potential customer. It’s important to get the product image right, to portray all the finer details in their best light. When you’re starting your brand it may feel like you have to outsource your product photography to a paid professional but we’ve learned through experience that is not the case. Getting the perfect product photos for your brand can be broken down into 5 easy steps.
First Step: Clean Your Set
Before actually taking your product photos, it’s most likely necessary to do some housekeeping. What do I mean by this? Make sure the area you plan to shoot in is clean and it is free from any debris. Here you can see John doing a nice little sweep to get us set up. This will set you up to not have to worry about editing out any imperfections that could have been prevented.
Second Step: Adjust The Lighting
Once your set is clean and all debris is removed from the area you can begin to adjust your lighting. You can see in this video that we just had two key lights angled diagonally down. It’s important to note here that there are alternative, cheaper options when it comes to lights. You could create that same effect with smaller lights if needed. Once you have your lighting set up you’re ready to move onto the next step.
Step 3: Prep Your Product & Lay it Down Flat
You want to make sure that your product is ready to go. For us this meant that our shirt needed to be de-wrinkled and free of lint. In preparation for this video, we steamed the shirt before laying it down. Once you’ve verified that your product is free of wrinkles, it’s time to lay it on your surface area, making sure your product is completely flat. This method is called Flat lay photography.
Step 4: Take Your Product Photos
Now that your area is clean, you’ve got the lighting set up, and your t-shirt is laying flat on your surface, it is time to take the picture. When taking the picture you must have your camera set to the right settings. Adjust your ISO accordingly and make sure the camera is focused on the product itself. You can also take the images with your phone if that’s what you have experience with to accomplish the same image. My suggestion is to take multiple photos so you have options available and can pick out the best one.
Step 5: Edit Your Product Photos Using autoRetouch
After capturing your images your next step is turning to a new editing software that uses AI technology to seamlessly cut out the backgrounds of your photos. This platform is called autoRetouch and has many other features such as removing the background of model photography and creating ghost mannequins. This platform is the newest and most innovative way to edit your product photos and it does all of this in a matter of seconds. It not only saves you time but saves you money. Below you will see our results using some of the tools autoRetouch has to offer. If you’re interested in seeing for yourself, you can check them out right here.
What we want entrepreneurs to get out of this information is that sometimes it’s not about having access to the most expensive equipment or paying thousands to have someone else do the work you feel that you can’t do.
It’s all about doing the most you can with the resources you have at your disposal. - John Santos
If you’re looking for more context or information about taking and editing your product photos, you can find it here in the video below.
