You have decided to start an online store and you have at least one product you are excited to sell. Your product may look great in your bedroom or home office, but how can you ensure it truly stands out in the age of Instagram apps?
Don’t worry. You don’t need to become a professional photographer to take attractive pictures of your products. In this article, you will learn step by step how to take pictures of your products using your smartphone with natural light and a good photo editing app.
6 Steps to Master Smartphone Product Photography
Use a room with good lighting
Choose your smartphone
Get a small tripod
Set up a background
Use white reflection boards
Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too bright
Most e-commerce store owners know the basics of smartphone product photography: find a white background and some natural light, choose the highest setting and quality resolution on your phone, and click! You have a product image. That’s a great start.
But there are some additional tools and accessories that can greatly enhance your photos and showcase your product’s value, enabling shoppers to envision it in their lives.
If you want to become a professional photographer using your smartphone and take stunning product photos, here’s how to set up your equipment.
Use a room with good lighting
First, find a room in your home with a well-lit window. The larger the window, the more natural light you will have to bring your product to life.
Shooting products near the window creates soft lighting with darker shadows. When you’re far from the light source, you will get lighter and clearer shadows.
Choose your smartphone
Most smartphone cameras nowadays are a great alternative to DSLR cameras for product photography. The more pixels the camera has, the better your smartphone product photography will be.
You can use any smartphone with a good camera, but try to get a newer model with a camera of 12 megapixels or more.
Get a small tripod
Prices for small phone tripods can range from cheap to expensive, but the good news is that regardless of your budget, it’s a worthwhile investment with a high return. A small phone tripod will reduce camera shake and help unify your shooting angles and style for your product line.
If you want a simple small phone tripod, consider the Manfrotto Pixi Mini Tripod. It’s great for beginners, holding your phone securely in place with a strong clamp, and can be placed directly on your background for beautiful, high-quality pictures of your products. The Manfrotto Pixi tripod is a beginner-friendly tool for smartphone photography.
Set up a background
Place a white background behind your product to give your photos a clean, consistent look and eliminate distractions. You can use a piece of white paper or purchase a simple board from a local pharmacy or art supply store. You will also need a table to put your background on.
You can use tape or Sticky Tack to secure your background or stick your product to the background.
Always keep your background white. A white background reflects natural light onto the product and gives you an evenly lit image. It also makes the editing process easier if you need to remove the background. Cream or off-white colors can make editing and lighting more difficult. Also, try to position your background not just behind your product but also underneath it. Your background should be a stark white.
Use white reflection boards
Controlling lighting is important when learning how to take product photos using an iPhone or Android device. White reflection boards help reduce harsh shadows and create a more balanced lighting environment to highlight the finer details of your product. You can purchase a white foam reflection board on Amazon.
Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too bright
With a Diffuser Sheet if the Sun is Very Bright
When the lighting is too harsh, these sheets will soften the light. You can find diffuser sheets on Amazon or make one at home using parchment paper, a sheer shower curtain, or printer paper.
Now that you have your equipment set up, let’s talk about how to use natural light when photographing products with a smartphone.
How to Use Natural Light for Product Photography
Lighting in photography can be a good friend or a bad enemy when you’re learning to photograph products with your phone. If used correctly, you’ll get amazing product photos. If used incorrectly, no amount of photo editing will save them.
There are three crucial key tips for getting the best photos from your photoshoot.
1. Take Photos in a Well-Lit Room
Natural light through a window is a great option compared to the artificial light of a photography studio. First, you probably have access to a window (which is free). Second, it comes from one direction, creating natural shadows and adding texture to your products.
Consider the weather: Is it sunny or cloudy? You might prefer slightly cloudy weather instead of direct sunlight to achieve the look you want. As you’ll see in the example below, it can make a significant difference in the shadows and light effects on your photo. Can you see the difference between shooting on a slightly cloudy day compared to direct sunlight through the window?
2. Position Your Setup Near the Window
Try to position your setup close to the window. Aim to be at a 90-degree angle to the right or left of your setup. Plan to start your shoot at the brightest times of the day. If the sun is too bright, you can always use a diffuser sheet to soften the light. Experiment with different locations and times of day to find the perfect setup.
No matter what you do, avoid harsh light at all costs, as it can make colors look oversaturated and highlight every imperfection in your product – things that people can’t see with the naked eye.
3. Control Natural Light Using Reflectors and Reflectance
Sometimes, the sun may suddenly hide behind clouds during your shoot. If this happens, don’t worry; use white reflectors to bounce and enhance the light to fill in shadows.
If you’re using a reflector, you can manipulate the reflected light on your product by moving the reflector closer or further away. This will help direct the natural sunlight back onto the product.
Remember to experiment with different angles with the reflector to find the right balance between shadows and lighting.
Best Camera Angles for Product Photography
When it comes to taking product photos for your e-commerce site, certain angles work better than others. Providing different perspectives of your product to shoppers can also help answer any questions they have that your product description doesn’t cover.
Offer as many different viewpoints as possible to highlight the key features of the product. Seeing from all angles is more engaging and can help shoppers visualize themselves wearing or using your product, leading to more sales in your store.
It’s also important to include close-up images of your products. Close-up photos allow you to capture features that showcase the quality of your product, including print details, texture, and finish, or how the product is used, emphasizing specific elements of your product that shoppers want to inspect in a retail setting.
Whether you’re photographing clothing or shoes, here are five angles to try during your photoshoot:
- Eye Level. This angle presents the product as you would see it when looking directly at it.
- Angle
- High angle. This angle shows the product as if you are looking at it from above.
- Low angle. This angle shows the product as if you are looking at it from below.
- Plane angle. This angle shows the product as if you are standing over it.
- Tilted angle. This angle shows the product from one side.
It is important to display all angles of the product so that customers can get a suitable view.
If you are new to phone product photography, it is advisable to keep your smartphone and its holder in the same place while shooting, and rotate the product to change the angle you want for your shot. When you rotate the product in front of the camera, all final images will be framed the same way, in addition to ensuring consistency and reducing image adjustments after the shooting session.
How to Take Phone Product Photos
Now that you have set up all your equipment and understood the different camera angles and lighting, it’s time to take some pictures.
Before you start, use the following checklist to ensure that your smartphone camera is ready for shooting:
- Make sure your phone is charged and you have backup storage for your photos.
- Adjust your white balance. To set the white balance according to the light temperature in your setup, press the WB button, then click on the white background.
- Check your exposure. Press the circular exposure button, then click on your product so the camera knows it should expose for it.
- Keep everything in focus. Press the circular focus button, then click on your product so the camera knows it should focus correctly on the product.
- Make sure to lock your camera settings. After you finish adjusting these settings, press each one again to lock the settings in place. This will prevent the camera from automatically adjusting the settings while taking pictures.
Once you lock your settings, you are ready to start shooting!
After taking your first picture, look at your photo and see if you think it needs more or less lighting for proper exposure. If you believe the exposure needs adjustment, press the +/- button below the circular focus button and slide the slider up or down to change the exposure.
Common Mistakes in Phone Product Photography
As many people have smartphones, taking product photos using them is more possible than ever. This also means that there are plenty of common mistakes. Recognizing these mistakes can help you avoid them.
Remember to avoid the following common mistakes in phone product photography to get the best shots:
- Zooming in on the image. The zoom function on your phone is not a great tool to use for taking product photos. It greatly reduces the image quality. If you need a closer shot, it is better to crop the image during editing.
- Using the front camera. The front camera, often referred to as the “selfie camera,” is usually not as good as the rear camera. This may vary slightly depending on your phone’s specifications. But in general, the rear camera has more pixels, resulting in higher image quality.
- Using the flash. Using the phone’s flash will overexpose the image and distort colors. It is better to use natural light and consider the tips mentioned above.
Trends in Phone Product Photography
E-commerce is constantly evolving, and this affects the way you approach product photography. It’s good to stay updated on current trends to know what customers are looking for and what makes sense for your brand.
Here are three general trends in phone product photography to keep in mind while shooting:
- Images
At a 360-degree angle. Advanced technology offers the ability to display full 360-degree images of products. Although these images may look like videos, they are actually a series of multiple still images. - Image editing using artificial intelligence. AI technologies have helped companies become more efficient in many areas, including product photography. You can use AI to remove backgrounds from your product images, but it’s important to carefully check the quality, as these tools can lead to numerous defects.
- Product videos. This is not necessarily a new trend, but rather a trend that continues to grow, with more brands using product videos. In fact, 89% of people say that watching a video convinced them to make a purchase. Videos give shoppers a more complete view of the product. They can also see it in action, literally.
How to Edit Product Photos
Editing photos may seem daunting, but it’s actually very easy using your smartphone.
Choose a product photo editing app. Go to the app store on your phone and download a product photo editing app. Some professional smartphone photographers prefer mobile apps like Lightroom or Snapseed, while others prefer photo-editing software for their computers.
Open your editing app. Select the photo you want to prepare for your online store. Most images need a little tweaking to really shine.
Use the app to make some basic adjustments. These include brightness, contrast, sharpness, lighting, shadows, and white balance. Don’t be tempted by filters, edges, colors, and saturation. Your goal is to make your product look amazing and stand out. Try to make it look like what it would in real life.
Save the settings as presets. After editing the first image, save the settings as presets so you can apply the same adjustments to other images from the photoshoot. While presets help save time, it’s important to check each image after applying the preset to see if any additional adjustments need to be made.
Apply a white background. Remove any imperfections or wrinkles from the background of your image by replacing the background with a white layer. Since you took the photos against a white background, it will be easy to isolate the product and add a layer.
Once your product image looks clean, clear, and beautiful, add it to your Shopify store and benefit from your hard work!
Best Apps for Product Photography
Choosing the right apps for editing is an important part of mastering product photography using a smartphone. Many apps come with an in-app editor, but there are plenty of third-party apps that give you everything you need to make your product stand out.
Some of the top-rated product photography app options are:
- Lightroom
- Photoshop Express
- Snapseed
- VSCO
- Photon
If you prefer to edit photos on your computer, you can use Photon to capture product images in RAW format. This ensures that no information or data is compressed, and you can produce high-quality product images.
Shopify Compass Course: Product Photography
Photographer Jeff Delacruz shares how you can create your own photography studio and capture beautiful product images for less than $50. Sign up for free.
Make the Most of Your Product Photography
Learning how to take pictures on an iPhone or Android may seem challenging at first, but after a few times behind the camera, you’ll become a pro. With all the information outlined above, you’re on the right track to mastering product photography and selling more images in your store. At some point, you might even consider selling your photos online.
Do you
Have you come across any product photo applications or tips for smartphone product photography in addition to these strategies? Share them in the comments below.
Product Photography Using Smartphones: How to Take Photos with Your Smartphone
By: Michael Keenan
Brand: August 16, 2023
Reading the article takes 16 minutes
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