Nowadays, it is almost inevitable if you produce a physical product that you do not build an online business. And the product image is the first thing potential customers will come across and that’s why well-groomed photos are of great importance.
This is where product photography appears.
Big brands, boutique businesses and everything in between attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate sales with visual content. It is proving to be a key element in branding and helping brands to thrive.
The process of branding the product consists in building its individuality. This strategy is used not only for the audience that buys, but also to recognize the brand, to establish a standard and reputation that will reflect the company.
That’s why good product photography plays a significant part in a strong e-commerce strategy. Each product image has a specific direction, leaving users with a memorable image that will allow them to associate this product with a specific emotion, style, brand and more.
Companies rely on product photography for literally everything:
- product presentation.
- creating catalogs.
- advertising
- presence on social media.
- branding of websites and brochures.
And in fact, it is product images that are the secret weapon for achieving successful results in online sales.
Everyone loves visually appealing images. This is one of the main reasons why product photography is also used for product marketing. But product images become more effective if they have the authenticity that people are looking for.
We should not miss the fact that high-quality photos, optimized for search engines, have a much better chance of ranking in the relevant image searches, which in turn can attract more traffic to the product pages of each company.
How do brands approach shooting commercial products to achieve the most effective results?
For today’s article, we looked at several brands that enjoy high ratings among consumers.
The first thing that immediately impresses is the extremely high resolution and quality of each frame in each of them. Images of this quality provide users with a great visualization of the product. They are given the opportunity to get acquainted in detail with each individual feature and with each of its details.
We have noticed that depending on the field of business, the choice of product images and the way of presentation are similar. What do we mean?
Johnnie Walker and Hennessy, for example, rely on no more than a few shots to show us what the product looks like, make us associate the color and aroma of the drink, and direct us to specific details on the label.
Celebrities or characters are often present in ads for luxury goods and accessories.
Louis Vuitton, as well as many other brands with identical products rely on a brand ambassador in their main collections, which makes their customers identify with the brand. In this case, they chose actress Alicia Vikander.
While for their sublime Coco Crush collection, Chanel has invited Keira Knightley.
And while Louis Vuitton adds about 4-5 more frames to its product, accompanied by a short clip, Chanel has only two more images.
Most brands that seek to further differentiate their visual content focus on lifestyle-oriented photos. Using specially selected places, props and models, the brand shows potential customers how this product can be a part of their lives.
Demonstrating a product in the context of the real world and as part of a story not only gives a more interesting and attractive product page, but can also lead to real results. People can begin to visualize what it will be like for themselves if they have the product and identify more closely with it.
Very often, good visual content can also be a boost for social media pages. Good images have a 40% higher chance of being shared, which means that brands have the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
Famous designer brands are aware that before spending their money, people will want as much information and details about each product as possible. That’s why their product pages offer scalable photos and a variety of views.
Ralph Warren is based on calm sophistication and casual elegance. A brand that has already imposed a colossal lifestyle, offering everything from cutlery collections to costumes and watches.
The company combines product photos, usually using images with a model and lifestyle for the cover of the collection, and then tracks the main object in detail through product shots. Demonstrates several views from different angles, shows details , emphasizes textures and does not forget to rotate your mannequin 360 degrees in a short video. We must note that the image quality is simply stunning.
With all these product photos the company:
- gives extremely detailed information.
- provides highly compelling experiences to its customers online.
- creates engaging brand content to stimulate digital growth and enhance brand loyalty and popularity.
Apple is definitely one of the first companies to decide to take advantage of all aspects of great product photography and focus its efforts on presenting its products in the most efficient way possible. Looking at an Apple ad for iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, we see that their product images are so perfect, focusing entirely on the products themselves, that it looks as if they are a 3D render instead of a real photo.
We find an article in which Apple tells more about their shooting process. It turns out that they use bracketing – take several pictures of the same product with different focal lengths, but with very low depth of field and connect them, via a graphic editor. So finally, the whole object is in focus.
The challenge in this case is the balance between file size and depth of field. Often the products are so small that the depth of field turns out to be too narrow.
Sometimes more than 50 frames are needed to shoot the product. But it’s definitely worth the effort, because the results are fantastic.
The visual appeal of cars is most often identified with original real-life scenes combined with great videos.
Of course, AUDI also relies on more eccentric approaches. In one case, Audi Muddle East hired Mexican photographer and art director Felix Hernandez to shoot a series for their Q2 crossover for Audi magazine.
Felix, known for his realistic miniature photography, creates a small desert and road in his studio and shoots several star shots, using a 1/43 scale model of Q2.
Photo: demilked.com
But looking at the images, they are so realistic that if we don’t know the details in advance, we can hardly assume that the car is a miniature and the desert is made of a special powder.
Brand photos are successful, because companies are aware of how key they are to reaching customers, making sales and establishing them in general. Most companies have long spent large budgets and time on photo shoots with famous product photographers or have their own teams.
They always follow the trends and strive to develop. Commercial product photography plays a huge role in every single business, service and brand, whether it is a person or a product.
In conclusion, high-quality, well-thought-out photography of lifestyle products for e-commerce, in addition to traditional product photography on a clean background, has the potential to further develop brand identity as well as converting sales.