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Photography Best Practices

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Introduction

What To Expect

This article introduces some of the basic principles of images in marketing with a focus on ecommerce.

Audience

This articles is intended for small businesses creating photography internally.

Read Time:

  • About 10 minutes

Introduction

How an eCommerce agency evaluates photography

Quality

Minimum image quality for web

Equipment

Equipment requirements

Staging

Staging photographs

Lighting

Control the environment

Quantity

Recommended number of images

Labeling

Labeling recommendations

Next Steps

What comes next?

Introduction

How an eCommerce agency evaluates photography

Your website is your digital storefront. Whether you are selling physical products directly or encouraging visitors to speak to a salesperson, how your visitors feel on the first impression is going to impact how effectively they are drawn to follow your call to action. If you are looking at building a new website or considering updating an existing website, one of the first things that you should think about is how consumers will perceive your brand based on the digital content that you display. To ensure that your website comes out looking as sharp as possible, there are some important questions you should ask yourself before you upload your first image:

giant-rubber-duck-half-high-resolution-half-low-resolution

Quality

Minimum image quality for web

Getting the right image quality is a fine balance between ensuring the best appearance of the image, and minimizing load times by keeping file sizes small. There are no perfect solutions for maintaining proper image quality but there are a few benchmarks that can help in most cases:

  • All images should have a resolution of 72 pixels per inch.
  • All images should be in .jpg or .png format.
  • Hero images should be 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall.
  • Product images should be 500px or 960px square.
  • All images should be less than 100kb or 500kb at the very most.

Equipment

Equipment requirements

Getting the best results requires the best equipment. An older smartphone or even an older DSLR camera is not going to be able to produce results that are ready for display on a modern screen. That being said, not every image needs to be a masterpiece. For larger images such as hero images, we recommend shooting on a modern DSLR - but that comes with a steep learning curve. Before you shell out for an expensive camera, you may want to consider hiring a photographer who already owns the right equipment and knows how to use it. For smaller images such as product photos, you can get by with a modern smartphone and a little bit of practice. A good designer will help you draw the line between what you can do yourself and where you need a little help.

iPhone11-showing-picture-of-giant-rubber-duck
rubber duck isolated on a white background

Staging

Staging photographs

Properly staging photos is a simple concept but can be difficult to execute. Staging is the process of physically setting up the environment in which your subject will be photographed. For product photography, this can be as simple as shooting against a white background or as complex as choosing a specific environment to better convey the feeling of your brand. An organic syrup producer may choose to shoot outdoors in a farm setting. A supplier of power tools on the other hand, may choose to shoot in a factory or workshop. Regardless of setting, consistency is key. Mindfulness of the following points can help to ensure that your images come out their best:

Lighting

Control the environment

Pictures taken under different lighting conditions will appear very different and your visitors will notice. When shooting outdoors, the difference between a sunny day and a cloudy day can be drastic. When shooting indoors, it is important to make sure you have enough light. You may want to consider a light box or a professional lighting rig. Try to control the following factors:

dslr camera held in front of the sun
stacked pictures of a rubber duck

Quantity

Recommended number of images

How many images is enough? Is there such a thing as too many images? The short answer to both of these questions is that you can never have too much image content. Excess media assets should be stored and cataloged for future use on social media and Google My Business. To prepare your website, our recommendation is simply to provide 3-6 images of each subject. Examples of image subjects that will help you get the most out of your website include:

Labeling

Labeling recommendations

You know your business better than anyone. It's important to name your images in a way that is easy to understand for someone who doesn't know your business inside and out. In addition to improving your search engine optimization, properly structuring your image names allows an agency to work with your content more effectively. It's a lot easier to understand yellow-rubber-duck-left-side-view-1600x900.jpg than IMG024563.jpg. These best practices will help you name your image files like a pro:

yellow rubber duck left-side view

Next Steps

What comes next?

If this is all making sense then take some pictures and start practicing. In the beginning, take more pictures than you think you will need. You can always replace your early pictures later on, once you've had a chance to practice. If you have a high quality image library ready to go, you might be ready to start updating your website. To prepare, we recommend checking out how an agency adds alt tags to images in bulk. If some of this is still a little overwhelming, we can help. We offer competitively priced photography and affordable consulting to get you started on the right track.

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This post was written by Aron Murch for 2h Media with contributions by Matthew Herchel.