How to plan a product photoshoot for your website and social media
Having great product photos which really show off your work is a vital step when it comes to building your online shop. Without great photos, your new website will look at best flat, and at worst a bit unprofessional. Plus, you can use them across your social media too.
When I first started my own handmade business, I remember making some earrings and a matching necklace which had actually been brought by a few people at the local craft markets I was doing - I was over the moon!
Pretty quickly, people at the markets started asking me for a business card and whether I sold online - eek! At the time, I had no website of my own, and next to no web design skills. It was 2013, and I’d toyed with a Wordpress blog and an Etsy shop, but quickly realised if I was going to do my products justice, I needed to get some gorgeous photos of them too.
Truth be told, I wasn’t a particularly great photographer either😂
I had my first camera phone, and loved trying to take arty snaps whilst I was out and about, but I had no idea how to take great product photography which would actually sell my handmade jewellery.
Que hours on Google, and even more hours practicing, I finally had some photos to put online, even if they were pretty ropey!
Plus, I’d spent hours taking them, HOURS!
I quickly realised, aside from the photography skills or a decent camera (our current smart phones making taking great photos sooo much easier than now) what I lacked was a bit of direction.
What I needed was a simple brief to follow.
Now wait, you may be saying, isn’t a brief something fancy agencies or big corporate firms use? I was just taking a few snaps for my own website - why would I need a brief?!
Good question.
A brief in its simplest form (and I’m all about keeping things simple when running a handmade business) is like a road map, helping you to stay on course and taking away all the guess work and trial and error.
This will massively speed up the process, and ensure you get all of the product photos for your website and social media which you need.
Why get product photos for your website and social media?
Good product photos are SO important for showcasing your beautiful handmade products. As an artisan maker, you undoubtedly put hours of work into handcrafting each piece, so you really don’t want to get let down by your photos when it comes to selling what you’ve made.
It’s true, there’s a lot of competition out there, whatever your craft. Customers are discerning, especially if they are looking to buy someone bespoke or unique. They want to know that the item they are going to receive, be it a gift for a friend or themselves, whether it’s jewellery, ceramics, macrame, homewares or any plethora of amazing crafts out there!
Your photos are a way for you to build trust with potential customers. The more detail they can see, the more likely they are to hand over their hard earned cash, entrusting you and your skills deliver exactly what they are after.
We’ve all been there - you buy something from one of the big mass-produced websites like Amazon, and what you actually receive is wildly different from what you thought you ordered. It’s our job as makers do to our utmost to ensure that our customers have a great shopping experience with us - it’s what sets us apart from big faceless brands.
As makers, it;s our role to make beautiful, meaningful gifts, sure, but it’s also our role to create meaningful experiences for our customers. And that starts right when they land on your website or social media.
And that leads me to my next point - with great photos, as long as you’ve got all the correct dimensions (hint - here’s where the brief comes in!), they an be used across multiple different platforms - be it your website, or other selling sites like etsy, Instagram, Pinterest and even in magazines!
Types of photo for your handmade business
To make the most of your product photography, there are a few different types of photo which can probably want to include:
Product lifestyle shots
Lifestyle shots show your product being used, such as jewellery being worn, cups being filled or wall hangings decorating a room.
The aim is to showcase your products in a dreamy setting which will make people browsing your website see how great they look and to put them into context so that they can imagine them in their life.
These photos are great for both your website product listings and social media, and are also popular in magazines.
2. Flatlays
These are lovely stylised shots which you often see on Instagram, and are taken from above. Their main purpose is to showcase your product in a creative way, and to create lovely pictures which people will love to look at and share. Depending on what props you use, they will create a visual story about your brand, values and aesthetic for anyone who visits your profile.
3. White background product shots
It can be handy to have some of these available to really elevate your brand, as often high-end stores use them. They are also popular with magazines.
4. Grouped shots
Perhaps you have some products which go well together - matching earrings and necklace; tableware; a crochet blanket and toy… be sure to get some shots of them together. Thinks about when you walk into a shop and see the perfect outfit on a mannequin - grouped product shots serve the same purpose of making it easy for a potential customer to see what goes well together - meaning more sales for you!
5. Brand shots and ‘meet the maker’ style photos
Back when I had red hair!
This type of photo does not necessarily showcase your products, but it is a great way to build your brand and illustrate your skill as a designer-maker. Brand shots normally include a mixture of head-shots of you, and lifestyle shots of you at work making your craft - like a peek behind the scenes
Now I know this may seem like a scary thought,
but people love to see behind the brand, especially for small artisan businesses. It adds a personal touch and creates a compelling story - a way to show how much love and care goes into what you make.
These photos are great for social media as well as your website, so if you can afford to get some done professionally I’d really recommend you do so.
If you’re just starting our, you may be able to find a local photographer who is in the same boat and do a barter or skill swap, plus they may offer a discount whilst they build their portfolio.
Failing that, smart phones have really great quality cameras now. If you have a friend with a good eye, at the very least as them to get a couple of snaps of your face using the portrait mode, which gives a lovely blur behind it.
Suggested photo dimensions for website and social media
Use these suggestions to ensure you have images which can be used across all platforms. Remember some images will be cropped from the regular portrait or landscape (normally 4:3 dimensions).
When planning which images for use for items such as website banners or graphics, you may want to ensure you get some photos with plain space within them, where wording could overlay the image.
Getting the perfect product photo
I’ve used the ‘aspect ratio’ as a guide above, which you can easily change on your camera phone as you snap.
I tend to get my props ready and set up my scene, then take photos in the various different dimensions for each product, so that I have a variety to choose from.
Make sure you have high-resolution photos available if you want to use them in any printed material such as leaflets, or send them to magazines for use in PR.
High res can usually be changed in your settings - it’s 300 dpi. The images will be too big for you to use on a website, but you make them accessible for web using a free online tool like Tiny PNG.
Ensuring your photos are website friendly is something I include as standard in my Squarespace website design package!
