6 Fashion Photography Tips to Rock Your Online Merchandise Photos

Have you ever visited a fashion website and felt like buying every product your cursor went on? If your answer is yes, then you know how vital fashion photography is for selling merchandise online. High-quality images are very crucial for a successful E-Commerce, especially when it comes to fashion photography. The same applies to other domains like jewelry, cosmetics, H&B, etc. The more vibrant you post, the more eyes the product attracts.

The blend of art and analytics in E-commerce is very challenging. These two are intersecting forces that go hand in hand. One cannot focus just on the analytical data and leave the creative part aside. Which means that even if your couture looks great, trendy, and has an amazing fit, customers will still lose their interest within the blink of an eye if it is not photographed well. 

When done correctly, E-commerce clothing photography can prove to be the driving force towards a successful fashion merchandise website. Fashion photography is not a child’s game. Professionals spend a hefty amount of their time on editing and choosing the right shot that projects the actual beauty of the apparels.

Mind-blowing fashion photography ideas-

Here we bring you 6 photography techniques, to click beautiful apparel images and help endorse your business, while you feel like a boss. Below we list some ideas and techniques that will make sure you fuss less and win more!

Bonus: Fashion photography can also be done on a modest budget. All you need is a camera, a room with some space to set up the equipment, a white chart, a mannequin, good lighting and of course, your apparels and a knack for editing.

Before you start

Preparation is the key to start with any project. Without proper planning and preparation, no shoot can reach a successful ending. Whether it is brushing and ironing the clothes or choosing where to click the shots, you can never be fully prepared when it comes to clicking the best photos. So never skip this step and make a list. 

Jot down all the things you will require during the shoot and keep enough time in between to make all the arrangements. Prepare a list of shots and angles for each type of clothing. All this preparation will reduce the on-shoot rush and bring out the best in your garments.

1. Prepare your apparels for photo time!

Your clothes are what the customers are going to look at when they visit your website. So make sure you iron them well, check if there are any missing buttons or sequins or any other accessory used on your clothes. 

Check if any extra threads are coming out or any other finishing problems that might need your attention. All this seems very menial but will save you a lot of time during the shoot. Many people rely on Photoshop for this, but what they don’t realise is the amount of time that goes into editing photographs.

So keep the editing only for the final touch and enhancement, but do not skip this step.

2. Choose the right equipment

Sometimes, the right gear is all you need to fill the gaps between average and perfect photographs. Your smartphones are capable of clicking good quality photographs, but when it comes to fashion photography, choosing a DSLR is always a safer and better choice. 

You don’t have to go overboard, because all that matters here is a good lens and of course, good lighting.

You might have to use different lenses like a zoom lens, wide-angle, prime-lens, macro lens, etc., for different products. For example, if you have a fashion website that also sells accessories, then a macro lens will work best for clicking pictures of small objects. 

Tripods and other types of equipment might also be needed to obtain the best results.

Make sure your camera settings are correct. DSLRs are great but making the best out of all the available features is what will make the difference. 

You can hire any company providing E-commerce photography services if you are not confident about doing it on your own.

3. The lights

You might have visited some E-commerce sites with dingy and unappealing photographs and might have even ended up closing the site and searching for clothes elsewhere. This is where lights come to action to illuminate your business. 

Lights can enhance the colours and details of your apparels, making them look more attractive and professional.

More lights will allow your camera to take sharp and better quality images. Natural light with a white background setup made at home or office works too but a studio type setup is surely unbeatable.

Remember to consider how far the lights are from the background and the height of the light source.

Avoid any flares that might be present as these can make the images look dull. 

Using the three light setup is a great choice but two lights with a softbox and reflector are also doable. Create a versatile setting that can be modified accordingly. Consider adding accessories like mirrors, reflectors, foam boards, etc.

Bonus: Keep your RGB somewhere at or below 255 for better apparel photographs.

4. Choosing the right White Balance settings

Choosing the right white balance options are very crucial as this decides the colour casting of your photos. These unwanted colours affect the outlook of the whole image. These are usually divided into two tones- warm and cool. 

Colours like red, orange, yellow are examples of warm tones whereas colours like blue and purple are cool tones. 

All this depends on the white balance settings of the camera. 

There are several sources of light options available on DSLRs such as tungsten and sunlight. However, if you don’t understand how to work with them then put the white balance on AUTO mode and let the camera choose what suits best. 

5. Colour correction and editing

The next step here will be to get your images ready for the web. Editing is not the only thing your images require. There is one more essential step that has to be followed before you finally post your fashion photographs on the website. This step is called colour space profile. 

Colour space profile decides the colour range of the image- RGB, CMYK, etc.

SRGB is the best choice to make as it results in a vibrant colour display. Without these colour correct settings, your photographs will have different shades on different screens.

Professionals prefer doing this while editing the photos because SRGB captures a very small range of colours when chosen in a camera. 

Editing is helpful to give your images the final touch. It gives the images a soft look, removing shadows, fixing the background or any other final touches that your pictures might need. But don’t overdo it. Do most of your work in the production stage itself.

6. SEO friendly photos

The above photography techniques were inclined towards gadgets and spacing. This fashion photography tip is to help your business in general. You must be aware of SEO in terms of a high ranking for your E-commerce site. But how can you boost traffic through images?

The answer is labelling your images the right way. Use your selected keywords as the name of your photographed images. Use Alt text, to get your products on initial pages of search engines.

Bonus: Make sure that the images you post are small in size since it will make the downloading process easier. If your images take a lot of buffer time, the customers might end up losing interest.

Takeaways 

Your product is the face of your brand, a window to the overall image of your business. Using these techniques, you can build a strong E-commerce website that sells not just good quality apparels but also knows how to put it on the platter and serve them to the customers. 

360-degree professional product photography is also a great option. This technology allows the customers to view your photos beyond flat pictures, in a 360-degree view. You can use this to your advantage.

Keep practising. 

Click a lot of photos because experimentation is the key. Go extra with the lighting. Choose whether you need a mannequin or a model. All these factors will ultimately affect your results. In the world of photography, there is always something more to learn. So use these clothing photography ideas to your advantage and let your business become a success story.

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