How to Master Phone Product Photography

6 steps to master phone product photography

1. Use a room with excellent lighting
2. Choose your smartphone
3. Get a mini tripod
4. Set up your backdrop
5. Use white bounce boards
6. Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too luminous

Most ecommerce store owners recognize the basics of phone product photography: discover a white background and some natural light, choose the highest standard setting and resolution feasible on your phone—and click! You have a product photo. This is a great commence.

But there are a few extra tools and accessories that can greatly enhance your photos and demonstrate the worth of your product to let shoppers envision it in their lives.

If you desire to become a professional photographer with your smartphone and receive amazing product shots, here’s how to construct your setup.

1. Use a room with excellent lighting

First, discover a room in your home with a well-lit window. The bigger the window, the more natural light you’ll have for bringing your product to life.

Taking product photos closer to the window creates a softer light with darker shadows. Being farther away from the light source will provide you lighter, shaper shadows.

2. Choose your smartphone

Most smartphone cameras these days make great DSLR alternatives for product photography. The higher the megapixel count, the better your phone product photography will arrive out.

You can use any smartphone with a excellent camera, but aim to get your hands on a newer model with a 12 megapixel camera or more.

3. Get a mini tripod

Mini tripods can range from inexpensive to pricey, but the excellent information is, no matter your distribution, they’re a excellent resource with high payoff. A mini tripod will reduce camera shake and assist standardize photo angles and style for your product line.

If you desire a straightforward mini tripod, consider the Manfrotto Pixi mini tripod kit. It’s great for beginners, it holds your phone securely in place with a gripping clamp, and it can be placed correct on your sweep to easily grab enjoyable, high-standard photos of your products.

4. Set up your backdrop

Place your white backdrop behind your product to provide your photographs a tidy and consistent look and to eliminate distractions. You could use a white document sweep or buy inexpensive poster board from your local drug store or art shop. You’ll also require a table to place your backdrop on.

You can use tape or Sticky Tack to hold your backdrop down or stick your product to the backdrop.

Always keep your backdrop white. A white backdrop reflects natural light onto the product and gives you an evenly lit photo. It also makes the editing procedure easier if you require to remove the background. A cream or off-white color will make editing and lighting challenging. Also, try to position your backdrop not only behind your product but underneath it as well.

5. Use white bounce boards

Controlling the lighting is key when learning how to receive product photos with an iPhone or Android device. Bounce boards assist minimize powerful shadows and make a more balanced lighting surroundings to bring out the finest details of your product. You can buy a white bounce board made of foam on Amazon.

6. Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too luminous

When the lighting is too harsh, these sheets will soften it. You can discover diffuser sheets on Amazon or make one at home with parchment document, a frosted shower curtain, or printer document.

How to use natural lighting for product photography

Get photography lighting correct, and you’ll have some amazing product images on your hands. Get it incorrect and no amount of image retouching will save your photos.

There are three key tips that are crucial for getting the best images from your photoshoot.

1. Shoot in a well-lit room. Natural light through a window is a better alternative than artificial light from a photo studio. First, you probably have access to a window (and it’s free). Second, the light comes from a single path, which generates natural shadows and adds texture to your products.

Consider the weather: Is it sunny or cloudy? To get the look you’re going for, you may prefer a little overcast versus packed sunlight. As you’ll view in the example below, it can make a large difference on the shadows and highlights on your photo.

2. Place your setup close to the window. Aim for 90 degrees to the correct or left of your setup. schedule to commence your photoshoot at the brightest period of day. If the sun is too luminous, you can always use a diffuser sheet to soften the light.

Whatever you do, avoid challenging light at all costs, as it can make colors look saturated and will highlight the tiniest flaws in your product—things people normally can’t view with the naked eye.

3. Control natural light with foam boards and reflectors. Sometimes the sun will suddenly disappear behind the clouds mid-shoot. If that happens, don’t worry, use your foam boards to bounce and intensify the light to fill shadows.

If you’re using a reflector, you can manipulate the light on your product by moving the reflector closer or further away. This will assist reflect natural light from the sun back onto the product.

recall to test different angles with the reflector to discover the correct equilibrium between shadows and lighting.

Best camera angles for product photography

When it comes to taking product photos for your ecommerce website, some angles work better than others. Offering different perspectives of your product to a shopper can also assist respond any questions they have that your product descriptions don’t explain.

provide as many different viewpoints as feasible to highlight key features of your product. An all-around view is more engaging and can assist shoppers envision themselves wearing or using your product, which can navigator to more sales in your store.

It’s also significant to include close-up shots of your products as well. Close-ups let you capture features that showcase the standard of your product, including print specific, fabric, texture, or product usage, and highlight specific elements of your product that shoppers would desire to inspect in a retail store.

Whether you’re shooting clothing photography or footwear, there are the five camera angles you should test in your photo shoot:

1. Eye level. This view shows the product as you’d view it looking straight on.
2. High angle.This view shows the product as if you’re looking down at it from an angle.
3. Low angle. This view shows the product as if you’re looking up at it from the floor.
4. Bird’s eye. This view shows the product as if you’re standing over it.
5. Slanted. This view shows the product from one side.

If you’re recent to phone product photography, it’s recommended you keep your smartphone and tripod in the same spot during the shoot and rotate your product to transformation the angle you desire for your image. When you rotate the product versus the camera, your final shots will all be framed the same, plus, you’ll ensure consistency and reduce image editing after the shoot.

How to shoot phone product photography

Now that you have all your gear set up and comprehend the different camera angles and lighting, it’s period to shoot some photos.

Before you commence, use the following checklist to make sure your Android or iPhone camera is ready to shoot.

1. Prepare your phone. Make sure your phone is charged and you have backup storage for your images.
2. Set up your white equilibrium. To set the white equilibrium according to the light temperature in your setup, touch the WB button, then touch the white background.
3. Check your exposure. Tap the circular Exposure button, then touch your product so the camera knows to expose it.
4. Keep everything in focus. Touch the circular Focus button, then touch your product so the camera knows to properly focus on the product.
5. Make sure you lock your camera settings. After you’re done adjusting these settings, tap each one again to lock the settings in place. This will stop the camera from automatically adjusting the settings while you’re taking shots.

Once you lock your settings, you’re ready to commence shooting!

After your first shot, receive a look at your image and view if you ponder it needs to be brightened or darkened in order to achieve a proper exposure. If you ponder the exposure needs tweaking, touch the +/- button below the circular Focus button and pull the slider up or down to transformation the exposure.

ordinary mistakes with phone product photography

Because so many people have smartphones, taking product photos with them is more accessible than ever before. That also means there are lots of ordinary mistakes. Making yourself aware of these pitfalls can assist you avoid them.

recall to avoid the following three ordinary mistakes in phone product photography so you can get the best shots:

• Zooming in. Your phone’s zoom function isn’t actually a great tool to use for product shots. It greatly reduces image standard. If you require a closer shot, it’s better to crop when editing.
• Using the front-facing camera. The front-facing “selfie camera” typically isn’t as excellent as the back camera. This may vary depending on your phone’s specs. But generally speaking, the rear-facing camera has more megapixels, which leads to higher image standard.
• Turning on the flash. Your phone’s flash will overexpose the photo and mess up the colors. It’s better to use natural lighting and consider the advice outlined above.

Phone product photography trends

Ecommerce is constantly evolving, and this impacts the way you way product imagery. It’s excellent to remain apprised of current trends to recognize what customers are looking for and what makes sense for your brand.

Here are three general product photography trends to keep in mind as you shoot with your smartphone:

• 360-degree photos. Advancements in technology have enabled brands to propose complete 360-degree views of their products. And, though these might appear to function like videos, 360-degree shots are actually a series of multiple still images.
• AI photo editing. AI has helped businesses become more efficient in many areas, including product photography. While you can use AI to remove backgrounds from your phone product shots, it’s still significant to carefully check the standard, as these tools can navigator to lots of imperfections.
• Product videos. Not necessarily a recent pattern, rather one that continues to develop, more brands are using product videos. In truth, 89% of people declare watching a video has convinced them to make a purchase. Like 360-degree images, videos provide shoppers a more complete view of the product. They can also view it in action, quite literally.

How to edit product photos

The concept of editing photos may sound intimidating, but it’s actually really straightforward with your smartphone.

• Choose a product photography app. leave to the app store on your phone and download an editing app for product photos. Some smartphone photographers prefer mobile apps like Lightroom or Snapseed; others prefer photo editing software for their desktops.
• Open up your editing app. Choose the image you desire to prepare for your online store. Most images require a little tweaking to truly make them shine.
• Use the app to make a few basic edits. These include brightness, contrast, sharpness, highlights/shadows, and white equilibrium. Don’t be tempted by filters, borders, tints, and oversaturation. Your objective is to make your product look amazing and make it stand out. Try to make it look as close as feasible to what the product looks like in real life.
• Save presets. After you edit your first photo, save the settings as a preset so you can apply the same adjustments to other photos from your shoot. While presets assist you save period, make sure to check each image after applying the preset to view if there are any additional tweaks for you to make.
• Apply a white layer background. Remove any blemishes or creases from your background by replacing your background with a white layer. Since you took photos on a white background, it’ll be straightforward to isolate the product and add a layer.

Once your product image looks tidy, crisp, and attractive, add it to your Shopify store and put your challenging work to use!

5 best apps for product photography

Choosing the correct editing apps is an significant part of mastering product photography with a smartphone. Many arrive with an in-app editor, but there are plenty of third-event apps that provide you everything you require to make your product stand out.

Some of the top-rated product photo app options are:

1. Lightroom

Available for: iOS and Android.

worth: Requires Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, starting at $9.99/month.

Some would declare Adobe Lightroom is the best app for product photography on the economy. It features straightforward-to-use tools like sliders and presets to make photos that look exactly how you desire them. Lightroom is also a excellent alternative if you schedule to edit photos on your computer. You can commence on mobile, web, or desktop, and when you make edits, they will be automatically applied across devices.

If you desire to get the most out of Lightroom, you can sign up for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography schedule, which includes the photo editing app for desktop, mobile, and web, plus the latest version of Photoshop for $9.99 per month.

2. Photoshop Express

Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows.

worth: Requires Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, starting at $9.99/month.

You’ve probably heard of Adobe Photoshop and what it can do. With Photoshop Express, you get all of its great photo editing features correct on your smartphone. You can use product photos from your phone or receive them inside the app. Then easily adjust the hue, brightness, exposure, and contrast to make amazing photos for your store.

3. Snapseed

Available for: iOS and Android.

worth: Free.

Snapseed is a free photography editing software owned by Google. The app brings the power of a professional computer editor to your phone, with many features to edit images in ways you’ll usually only discover in expensive software. Beginner photographers also have more utility with Snapseed using Stacks, which lets you revert your edits to an earlier version and makes it straightforward to save settings and apply them.

4. VSCO

Available for: iOS and Android.

worth: Free version available; annual paid plans are $29.99 or $59.99.

VSCO has all the basic editing tools such as exposure, agreement, color equilibrium, and more, letting you make incredible photos on the leave. It’s a great product photo app to enhance images and doubles as an effective Instagram tool with its huge library of filters and endless options to customize your photos.

5. Photon

Available for: iOS.

worth: Free,

Photon is a great alternative for both experienced and beginner smartphone photographers. You can use Photon not only as an editor but also as a camera for your product shoots. The product photography app lets you set exposure and focus and includes a stabilizer, timer, and more so it feels like you’re shooting with a high-standard DSLR camera lens.

If you prefer to edit photos on your computer, you can use Photon to capture product photos in RAW. This makes sure no information or data gets compressed and you can produce higher standard product images.

Getting the most from your product photography

Learning how to receive photos on an iPhone or Android seems challenging at first, but after a few times behind the camera, you’ll be a pro. With all of the above info, you’re well on your way to mastering product photography and selling more photos in your store. At some point, you might even consider selling your photography online.