How to Photography Merchandise

More and more people are selling goods on the internet. With the competition rapidly growing, it's important you have a good photo of your product to make it stand out. Making or investing in a light box (see link below) is the best idea, but if you don't want to spend the money these tips will help your merchandise look it's best on any monitor! Even if you have a light box, the later tips in this article will help you understand what you should be photographing. Read on to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Digital camera
• Plenty of daylight
• Black and white sheets (ironed, no creases)
• Tripod

How to Photograph Merchandise

1. Set up a table just to the right or left of your window and cover with you choice of background. Depending on the next few steps, you may have to change the background so keep the other one handy.
2. Place Merchandise on the table. Look at it. Is the light so harsh that the color is distorted? Are you getting a glare? Is one side of the product much darker than the other. You are striving to make the item as evenly lit as possible. At this point, adjust the table as needed. If you are still getting too much light, cover the window with a thin white sheet. Not enough light. Bring in lamps to help.
3. Once you have even, diffused lighting on your product, set up your tripod. Next, look at the merchandise without the camera. Where does it look the best? Make sure the camera is in that spot.
4. Take lots of shots. If you're comfortable, use manual and auto focus and play with the exposure time. Get shots of the whole item, but also look for any defining features you may want to highlight. Auction sites and ecommerce sites will let you put up multiple pictures; so you want to make sure your customer has the closest thing to a real life experience.
5. Familiarize yourself a photo editing software. There are many out there that are free or very inexpensive and they aren't that difficult to use. Use the software to crop if your photo has too much background or to add effects. Most importantly, before posting your photo take an objective look at photo next to the item. Does it really show the item at it's best? Happy Selling!

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use photo editing software to remove blemishes or flaws from the item. It's repeat sales you're after; so don't make the customer unhappy!