Product photography is critical for any eCommerce business, especially when your main product is a t-shirt. To get buyers’ attention, a great product description won’t be enough. Having images of high quality greatly affects the outcome of your pursuit. Your images will influence whether or not visitors purchase your product.
However, contrary to popular belief, good product photography does not have to be costly. Small businesses starting in eCommerce only needs a few things and a lot of creativity to have a decent shoot. At the end of the day, the only difference between a professional and an amateur is experience.
How to Take Perfect T-Shirt Pictures
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When it comes to selling t-shirts, product photography entails far more than simply showing prospective buyers what your product looks like. Well-thought-out photos can help a customer see how your t-shirt might fit into their own life.
T-shirt imagery that is vivid and detailed increases a customer’s psychological feeling of ownership of that t-shirt. Product photography can also significantly increase your brand recognition. It reinforces who you are and what you stand for. All of these factors increase the possibility of a purchase being inspired.
1. Get the Product Ready
Before a photography session for your product, make sure that the sample shirts are ready. Do you want plain tees? Or do you want the shirts designed with art or your logo? You can even do a combination of snaps for both plain T-shirts and T-Shirts with designs.
However, be reminded that if you would prefer a T-shirt design, you should make arrangements for that before the day of the product photography. If you are to have custom t-shirts available at your shop, you must also include a few samples in your photoshoot.
You must also keep your customers informed through your photos. Custom T-shirts can be designed via either screen printing or digital printing. While screen printing forces ink into the fabric, digital printing entails printing images directly on the T-shirt. Digital printing can be achieved in minutes. With fast and reliable equipment, you can get your orders fulfilled with a short turnaround time.
Incorporating high-quality T-Shirt designs in your photography will give your brand a more personalized result. Also, you can choose between screen printing and digital printing.
Furthermore, iron out the T-shirts. In your images, your products should look their best. Clothing can become rumpled, creased, and start to look rough as a result of long-distance shipment. Some photographers skip this step in preference of using Photoshop or other photo editing tools to remove wrinkles, stains, and other visible flaws.
Such practices should be avoided. Photoshop isn’t a magical tool. Mastering advanced editing techniques takes time and expertise. Furthermore, excessive editing has the potential to degrade image quality.
2. Decide Your Display Method
Determine how you want your T-shirts to be displayed on your online store. Displaying a product in a more realistic form, such as with a mannequin, can be extremely beneficial to your customers. Online customers are more inclined to purchase clothing if they can see how it will look on them.
If you don’t have time or resources to find a model, a mannequin will suffice. Without the hassle of finding a model for each photo shoot, a mannequin will give your T-shirts a realistic human shape. You can later edit the background of each photo for a more professional feel.
Models, on the other hand, are a better option if you can afford them. Experienced models can take any pose or work with any angle to make your T-shirts look their best. This will assist you in creating the ideal product shots.
These images can be used on your website and social media platforms. On the downside, models are more expensive than mannequins. You must find a mutually agreeable time to shoot, which isn’t always easy.
If you are on a very low budget, or you want to spice things up, you can flat lay. The term “flat lay” means to arrange clothes on a flat surface and shoot them from above. It’s also known as a bird’s-eye view. Flat lay is an excellent alternative to mannequins and models. You can create beautiful product images that sell.
It’s a popular technique for social media photos. However, it can also be used for website content.
3. Set Your Photography Equipment
For your product photography, the quality of your equipment matters. You don’t need to acquire the most expensive equipment if you cannot afford them. Digital cameras are becoming more affordable, and smartphone cameras are improving.
- Camera. The right camera can mean the difference between a professional-looking photo and an amateur-looking one. If you can choose between shooting in jpeg and shooting in raw file format, always go with raw. Shooting your photos in raw format makes it easier to bring back highlights and reduce shadows than shooting in jpeg format.
- Lighting. In product photography, using the right lighting equipment or natural light from a window can make achieving the perfect lighting a piece of cake. Potential buyers want to see all of the item’s details. As such, it’s critical to get lights that can “communicate” with your camera. Investing in professional studio lights is essential for achieving uniform lighting throughout your product photos. If you don’t have the funds yet to invest in lighting equipment, you can opt to rent some from Lighting Rental Brooklyn instead.
- Tripod. A durable tripod is essential for product photography. It eliminates unwanted camera shake caused by hand-holding your camera. Aim for a tripod that extends to about your eye level in height. This will result in crisper, sharper product images. If you don’t have a tripod, you can use any stable or hard surface to mount your camera.
4. Show the Details
You don’t want a “what I ordered vs. what I got” complaint from your customer. This will ruin your brand reputation and may affect your customer base. Take close-up pictures of anything about your clothing item that you believe the customer might want to see before purchasing it.
By including details, you can minimize the amount of customer support questions you may receive. You can also increase conversion rates because the customer has all of the product information in front of them.
Final Thoughts
Product photography is a must-do for your T-shirt business. Although descriptions are important, pictures convey the message best. Depending on your budget, you can either get a model or use a mannequin.
Also, for better product images, you can customize your T-shirts and get unique T-Shirt designs. Don’t forget to iron out your T-shirts and get rid of rumples and stains before clicking the camera.