Are you a small business owner with products that you need to display on your website and social media? If so, I bet your first initial thought is to get some quick images from your smartphone. Or maybe you even bought a lightbox so that you can get professional-looking images from your smartphone? While this is a great way to save money, unfortunately, you are left with images that don’t stand out against your business's competitors.
So you decide that for your images to pop they need to be taken with a professional camera. This prompts you to buy a camera and get the images yourself or hire a professional photographer. If you decide to do the images yourself or hire a budget-friendly photographer you will notice that you are getting higher quality images than your smartphone, but they still do not have that sparkle that you want.
This leads you to your final decision. Either you accept that the images of your products will just look okay and that you are fine with that. Or you hire a product photographer with years of experience and a portfolio that shows off their work. As a Salt Lake product photographer, I have talked to clients that have been in all of these stages that we have stated. In my experience, the happiest clients are the ones that end up being willing to spend a bit extra to get the images that best represent their products.
The importance of having an experienced product or commercial photographer is they are masters in light. They know how to make your product stand out like how you know it should. Below is an example of some Kodak products I took an image of. The first one is just using the available fluorescent light and the second one uses a three-light strobe setup I had to spend time and attention to detail to make the products pop. The same camera and lens(Sony A7RV and 35–150mm) were used, the only difference was the lighting on the products. The third image is the same as the second but edited.
shot on a professional camera (Sony A7RV) with the available fluorescent light (unedited)
shot on a professional camera (Sony A7RV) with professional lighting (unedited)
shot on a professional camera (Sony A7RV) with professional lighting (edited)
Here is another example below. This example shows a knife with a white background. The first image was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone with the knife in a light box, the second image was taken on my professional camera but the knife was still in the lightbox, and the last image was taken with my professional camera but this time I set up a specific lighting set up just for this product.
shot on a Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone in a lightbox
shot on a professional camera (Sony A7RIV) in a lightbox
shot on a professional camera (Sony A7RIV) with a professional lighting setup
You can see how essential lighting is for product photography. Not every business needs images that stand out however, these images will set you apart from every other ordinary small business. Click the contact button below if you are interested in getting professional photos for your products. Or check out my photo galleries if you would like to see more Salt Lake product photography.
Great explanation! Professional product photography makes all the difference!