High-quality product photography is an essential tool for driving sales in your ecommerce store. It compensates for the inability of customers to touch and feel the items you sell.

In physical stores, people typically tested products on display shelves before deciding whether or not to buy them.

When it comes to shopping online, they weigh the pros and cons of buying a product based on what they see, not what they feel.

Unfortunately, sometimes the actual appearance of a product is different from its image on a website. When a customer experiences this, they end up disappointed and return the item.

To avoid returns and increase your conversion rate, create visually appealing product images that are almost tangible.

5 ways to create quality product photos

Proper lighting can be the big difference between a spectacular product image and one that is, well, second-rate.

Anyone can take photos with a mobile phone or instant camera, regardless of unpleasant elements such as shadows, but product photography should always produce photos without shadows.

The wide lighting captures not only the shape of an object, but also its actual color and texture.

Now remember we mentioned the “touch and feel” aspect of shopping and what matters to the shopper? Taking close-ups breaks the invisible barrier between your product and customers. A close-up allows them to examine your product down to the smallest detail.

Still on the topic of touching and feeling a product, shoot from every angle you can to give customers a three-dimensional view of what you are selling. That way, they can experience the item as if they walked into your store and touched it.

Also, you’ll want to add a responsive video, showing how the product works, along with your photos at various angles. Not only will it give your customers a clearer picture of your product, but it will also increase your website traffic. Also, who doesn’t like videos?

Most important of all, you need to keep it real because a potential customer will want to see how your product can be used on a day-to-day basis. Instead of over-editing an image in Photoshop until it looks extremely fake, apply it to a real-life situation.

If you sell a ball gown, for example, how would you present photos to a woman with a nine-to-five job? You are unlikely to buy it if you only see a tight shot of the dress, but if it shows you when and where to wear it, then you have their attention.

Rather than increasing traffic to your ecommerce website, these tried and tested photography techniques are sure to lead to a higher conversion rate.

How do you come up with beautiful product images for your site?