Get started in the field of product photography
Product photography is a field within commercial photography or, more colloquially, advertising photography. The ultimate goal of advertising photography is to illustrate and eventually sell a product or service. Editing techniques such as photoshopping and retouching of the portrayed product can be used to make the product appear more attractive to consumers.
Advertising photography can be commissioned to an advertising agency or design company that will employ digital cameras and techniques to display your product in the most favorable light. If the work is outsourced in this way, the advertising agency or design firm will usually send you the final result, which will be in a ready-to-import format for your website layout and design needs.
Tips for Entrepreneurial Product Photography
For those on a tight budget, or even just entrepreneurs with a dramatic flair, a few tips on lighting, background, and point of view can help ensure that your product is captured the way you want it to. The first and perhaps most important thing to consider before capturing any image is lighting: knowing the difference between hard and soft light, and the hard and soft shadows that each produces, can make or break a product website product videos.
For most purposes, advertising companies actually argue against selecting too hard or too soft light and instead tell fans to use natural light. Light distribution matters far more than quantitative specifications or the total wattage involved. Still, amateur photographers should at least know the difference between hard and soft shadows. Simply put, harsh shadows arise when the range of the light source is small compared to the size of the object. The opposite is true for soft shadows: the light source is larger than the object.
Typically, a subtle shade in natural light is the most attractive way to advertise and ultimately sell a product. Why? Because a hulking shadow behind the object (i.e. your product) is aesthetically unappealing and detracts from the product you are trying to sell. A flash diffuser can also limit the amount of harsh shadow in your image. For DIYers, simply placing a piece of masking tape over the flash can reduce the amount of shadow behind your product.