Product Photography

Your customers are visual people. It doesn't matter if you make the best products in the world. If it looks like their photos were taken on a cell phone camera from 2002, you have to upgrade. While it helps if you're a professional photographer, there are some things that anyone can do to get better photos. You need some equipment, and some practice but you can get the job done.

1) DSLR. There are a number of great "pro-sumer" quality Digital SLR cameras on the market. Find one that fits your budget. Get a good lens with a large maximum aperture. Learn how to use the camera and practice shooting everything. Experiment with aperture sizes, focusing, perspective, etc. Buy a used one and save some money. These things are built pretty well, and you'll only be using it on a tripod. Expect to spend $500 to $3500 on camera and lens.





2) Tripod. Get a good quality tripod. Expect to spend $75 to $150.

3) Product light tent and high wattage constant lights. $100 to $500.

For less than $1k, you can have a more than adequate rig for capturing quality images for use on your website.

Keep in mind, photography is both an art and a skill. If you commit to learning both, you will do just fine. If you simply don't have the time to commit learning something new, hire a photographer. Good photos are important. It makes a bigger difference than you may think.