3 Tips For Better Product Photos For Instagram
With the holiday season right around the corner, now is the time to hone in on your product photography skills, especially if you’re taking the DIY route to content creation for Instagram. Today we’re sharing 3 Tips for Better Product Photos for Instagram from our Insight Social Owner + Creative Director, Ethan Gaskill.
Ethan has spent the past 8 years photographing content for brands like Bob King Mercedes, Goodfair, and Rose Wine Water, as well as many others. His passion for content creation is the foundation for the important work we do here at Insight Social to create a branded presence on behalf of our clients.
Without further ado, let’s dive into Ethan’s 3 Tips for Better Product Photos:
Tip #1: Lighting is everything, choose it carefully.
Natural light direct — Place products on a surface/backdrop in direct exposure of your natural light source. The bigger the light source, the more beautiful your lighting will be.
Natural light diffused — Place products on a surface/backdrop in direct exposure of your natural light source but use a curtain or sheet to help soften the light even more.
Continuous light — This is a light source that consistently stays and allows you to see the lighting results while you’re shooting. A good option if you don’t know how to work with flash but want more control than natural light has to offer. Because a lot of products reflect light, this is easier than flash because it’ll allow you to see where the light hits before actually taking the photo.
Strobe/Flash light — This is the most powerful of all of the light sources but also requires the most knowledge to help achieve the most natural or beautiful results. Most ideal for e-com or cleaner product shots since it normally doesn’t look natural or organic. Nicer flashes give you a “model lamp” which is a continuous lug that is built into the flash unit so you can see your lighting results and where the light hits before taking the image - kind of like a continuous light X flash combo.
Tip #2: Consider the visual elements that tell the narrative of your image.
Explore color theory and the impact it has on the viewer and how it makes them feel. Play with complementary colors to give the most beautiful results. We love looking through magazines at ads and seeing the colors they play with for inspiration.
Textures are also important since they often elicit a particular feeling. Leather feels masculine/high-end, concrete is cold/modern/edgy, marble is classic/luxe, wood is warm/comforting, solid white/plain textures are clean/minimal/fresh, etc…
Adding a human element makes the product photography a lot more approachable and relatable. It feels less product-y and more applicable since the viewer may be able to imagine themselves being the one in the image. You can get really creative with this, for example, we sometimes use magazines or books that feature photos of people in our images instead of having an actual human in them (i.e. a tube of hand lotion laying on top of a coffee table book with a woman’s face on the front).
Tip #3: Position the product(s) mindfully.
Placement of your products and the objects around your product are very important in determining whether the viewer will resonate with the image or not. We’ve all seen those super aesthetically pleasing flat-lay images... that’s the concept we’re discussing here. The contents in the shot should be balanced out across the span on the image and tell a story while ALSO allowing the product to be the main focus on the shot.
Allow your surrounding elements to frame the product in a way that feels natural. Just throwing items around your product may not make visual sense. It’s important to be mindful of where you’re placing the objects, how far away or close they are to the product, etc…
Check out the image demonstrating the S-curve concept for product shots/flat-lay images. It’s a go-to that we always use!
