You don't have to be a fast fashion merchant to appreciate their quickness and efficiency. It's incredible how rapidly designs go from the runway to the market, both online and in stores.
The best thing is that rapid fashion can teach you how to optimize your product photography workflow. Streamlining your photographic process is critical in today's ecommerce-dominated market for delivering your items to your clients as fast as feasible.
You, too, can shoot like fast fashion if you follow this six-step method to enhance your product photography. Here are some of the top product photography techniques to help you get started.
1. Plan your shoot
Before you ever step foot in the studio, you should have a general concept of how the shoot day will go. Be prepared. Make sure everyone is on the same page by gathering any supplies you'll need for your product photography session, looking up any lingering queries, coordinating with photographers and models, and generally speaking.
You don't need any complicated project management tools or expensive photo editing software (yet).
What do you need? You need a call sheet and a shot list.
Your shot list is a living document that lists the products you're shooting, features that need to be highlighted (such as embroidery or other details your photographer may not recognize), and how your product will be worn (such as whether it's a laydown or on-body, and what model or mannequin will be used), and practical details, such as whether you have the product on hand.
You should keep the shot list handy during the shoot and update it as the day goes on to avoid missing a crucial shot.
A call sheet is a written description of the staff, setting, and general schedule of the shoot. Its name is derived from the “call times” for each crew member, or the hour at which they must report for duty.
You don't want to pay a model to wait around while you finish creating the set for hours. To verify everyone's itinerary, try to distribute your call sheet one week beforehand. Take the greatest product photography pictures you can, but don't even consider retouching them just yet. Editing happens after.
2. Prep your studio
In product photography, consistency is crucial. Document your setup carefully since you want to keep your appearance constant from shot to shot and shoot to shoot. Utilizing natural light What kind of weather can you expect if you're shooting outside or close to windows? All of these should be addressed at the planning stage.
To reproduce your setup at a later time, note where your lights, camera, and items are located.
You'll need a DSLR camera, tripod, white background, foam board reflector, and light source if you're starting from scratch with your studio.
Prevent accidents in your studio. For safety, coil, and tape down any cables. To avoid pricey mishaps, use inexpensive alternatives like gaffer tape, Velcro, zip ties, sandbags, and clamps.
3. Style your product
Prepare your items in advance of the shoot, then style them individually between photos to make them seem their best. Yes, picture editing is crucial to creating the greatest product photography, but by properly styling your items during the shoot, you may cut down on time and hassle.
Remove any visible labels, tags, and stickers. Examine the samples for any possible transit-related damage; samples might travel long distances and through rugged terrain. If you find any damage, fix it.
On the day of the shoot, iron or steam your merchandise to avoid unwanted creases. Dust, thread, and other unwanted stragglers may be easily removed using lint rollers.
Styling is much more than just coming up with appealing outfit combinations or imaginative accessories.
Ahmed Samir Founder as-educate
To get a pleasing fit while photographing clothing on a model or mannequin, utilise clips, pins, and garment tape. A professional stylist may oversee more complex parts of the session and will arrive at the location with their tools and ideas.
You can utilize a 3D post-production method called “ghosting” or the “invisible mannequin” if you don't have the money for a model and don't want mannequins to detract from your product photographs.
You must prepare ahead of time to shoot the right pictures if you want invisible mannequin photographs. You'll later use post-production to mix various photos.
4. Capture your shot
Once you've finished with the setup and preparation, taking the picture itself should be quite easy. You can appreciate the occasion if you have done your homework. Later, we'll care about image optimization.
Test photos and changing your camera's settings should take some time. Review this DIY camera settings tutorial if you're not familiar with aperture, ISO, white balance, or any of the other icons and acronyms on your camera.
Utilize an image capture program. Two strong and well-liked tools, Capture One Pro and Adobe Lightroom can speed up your workflow and enhance the quality of your images. Both allow you to quickly see, categorize, and edit your photographs and connect directly to the majority of cameras.
Although Adobe's $10 per month Creative Cloud Photography plan (which includes Photoshop and Lightroom) is far less expensive than Capture One Pro's $300 yearly pricing, both products provide 30-day free trials so you may assess their worth. Owners of Sony cameras can benefit for 30 days for free from a lighter-weight Capture One Express option.
If you're photographing flat lays or stationary objects, you might want to take your picture by using the laptop spacebar rather than the shutter button. Get behind the camera while photographing moving objects, such as clothing on a model, to make sure you catch the moment in full. Take as many pictures as necessary to produce a final image that you are happy with.
5. Process your images
After you've taken your photos, it's time to prepare them for the web. Your primary post-production goal is to improve browsing and conversion rates by using high-quality, low-bandwidth pictures. You need your pages to load quickly without sacrificing resolution.
When it comes to the quality of product photographs, consistency counts. Use the same backdrop, borders, alignment, shadowing, and other common attributes consistently across your artwork. Consistency prevents customers from being distracted by unrelated factors like shifting backdrops and keeps them focused on the items. Additionally, being consistent demonstrates that you pay attention to the little things, which makes you appear more professional to your clients.
Batch processing and individual processing are the two divisions of the post-production process. It is possible to batch process all of your photographs at once using your image-capturing program. Lightroom allows you to make mass color adjustments for your photographs, avoiding tedious and time-consuming alterations.
While you may edit photos for free, Adobe Photoshop's Photoshop Actions feature enables you to execute more complex batch processing. Using actions, you may automate a series of manual tasks so that they can be applied to all related photographs at once. It works well for making tweaks to things like exposure, contrast, color, and size. The more efficiently you can edit photos, the better. Editing a few images individually isn't a huge issue, but if you have to edit hundreds, the cost will mount up.
Each image requires some manual processing. For instance, you could wish to remove the image's original backdrop and replace it with a blank white space.
Because white backgrounds have less detail to retain, they need less storage space and remove distractions. To remove the backdrop from an image while preserving professional quality, even the most experienced image editor could take a few minutes.
Think about contracting out post-production. Because there's no physical handoff necessary, there's a worldwide pool of trained labor, and rapid turnaround times are frequently available, digital operations are among the best to outsource. In terms of outsourcing, management, communication, and ensuring that your quality requirements are met are the major hurdles.
If you locate the perfect partner, outsourcing post-production may save you time and money.
When looking for an outsourced image editing partner, you need to think about more than simply price. Check their evaluations and prior work to ensure they can deliver the quality you want. Examine whether they are socially responsible, simple to communicate with (language, time zone, support hours, phone availability, etc.), and scalable to your needs.
6. Review and Publish
Whether you outsource or modify your photographs in-house, they should be examined by another individual for content and technical compliance. Creating high-quality pictures requires a truly collaborative effort.
You may see what you expect to see if you are both the editor and the reviewer. A new set of eyes in the review process might save you humiliation and time-consuming rollbacks later on.
When you're convinced that your product photographs are ready for your online business, upload them to Shopify.
If you use your Shopify account directly, you may upload product photos while adding a product and then add variation images.
Predictable workflow, predictable quality
Repeat the process once you've designed, documented, and tested your workflow. You'll get quicker and faster if you tweak it as needed. You'll soon be a finely tuned machine buzzing along.
Running an effective photography process isn't about money; it's about preparation and awareness. You may streamline and optimize your process by following the product photography recommendations listed above.
Pay close attention to industry trends and leaders. Keep an eye out for new ways and try new technologies. You can create as quickly as anyone in the company if you are informed and organised.
Product photography workflow FAQ
1. Plan your shoot.
2. Prep your studio.
3. Style your product.
4. Capture your shot.
5. Process your images.
6. Review and publish.
The key to successful product photography is to have a strategy and try your best to follow it. This requires extensive planning ahead of time, maintaining organization, understanding the kinds of photos you want to take, and employing the appropriate equipment before, during, and after a shoot.
Product photography is the practice of capturing, styling, editing, and photographing goods for in-person or online sales. In ecommerce, product photography is crucial.
