Intro
Lifestyle product photography is about showcasing a product in a styled setting. This approach is effective for boosting your brand identity and improving the look and feel of your eCommerce website.
Unlike traditional product photography, lifestyle photography is more engaging, interactive, and true-to-life. The unique aspect? It creates visually appealing images that help you envision the lifestyle you desire. Pretty cool, right?
Usually, good photography is the right balance on how to use a camera and understanding light. It also helps to have a good eye to compose and break an image to make it unique. In commercial lifestyle photography, it’s all about telling a story and showing the product you are shooting in real-life use.
A perfect market research helps to understand what kind of customer buys the product. Understanding your audience is key to making sure you are telling a good visual story for creating a lifestyle product photoshoot.
Why is Lifestyle Product Photography Important?
Instead of wondering what lifestyle photography is, let’s explore why it matters. Lifestyle photography enhances your brand by adding a personal touch. It's also a great way to enhance your marketing materials.
Quality photography is essential for any business and its customers. It not only showcases the product but also connects with the emotions of potential buyers.
Lifestyle photography excels in this by illustrating real-life situations and relatable people, making customers feel a strong attachment to your brand.
It balances your business materials by incorporating real-life imagery. It is not just a casual still life product photography. That’s why It's essential to avoid making your product photos appear lifeless, as this can give the impression of a run-of-the-mill business devoid of human considerations.
By including lifestyle product photos, you infuse human emotion and context into your brand, creating a harmonious blend of product and lifestyle images.
Top 10 Lifestyle Product Photography Tips for Boosting Online Sales
Captivating your customers' attention isn't always about words. Photographs can also create the desire to purchase a product. To achieve this, you need to master the basics of lifestyle product images. Try implementing these tips and tricks to leave your customers amazed:
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Utilize Props
Just as you rely on friends for a little boost in life, your product photography needs props to stand out. Be creative and use props or accessories that add value and catch the customer's eye. However, be cautious not to choose props that distract from your promoted brand.
Common props for lifestyle product photography include plants, kitchen tools, perfumes, twinkling lights, trays, magazines, shells, mirrors, and ribbons.
For example, kitchen tools can bring life to food or beverage product photos, while plants complement skincare products, particularly if they are organic.
When selecting nature or environment-related props, consider using artificial ones, as natural plants or flowers may wither quickly. Artificial props are more durable and portable.
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Employ a Model
While it is not mandatory for doing lifestyle photography with models, using a model is crucial for promoting fashion accessories and skincare products. It is one of the best lifestyle photoshoot ideas. It allows customers to connect with your brand, especially when a public figure showcases your product.
Lifestyle product photography with models works best at creating engaging poses to grab the viewer's attention. If budget constraints prevent you from hiring a model, consider involving friends or family members. Even a baby can be a suitable model for baby clothing or baby food products.
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Ensure Proper Lighting
Light plays a pivotal role in lifestyle photography. It is much more than a typical marketing photograph. As it can either enhance or diminish the quality of your images. To achieve the right lighting setup, experiment with both natural and artificial light sources, as a fixed setup may not suit all products.
For natural light lifestyle product image, avoid direct sunlight, especially for fashion products, to ensure accurate color representation. When shooting indoors, position yourself beside a window for optimal lighting.
Avoid excessive glare on labels or logos by adjusting the brightness of artificial (ring) lights or repositioning relative to natural light sources.
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Select the Right Backdrop
The backdrop you choose can accentuate the texture, size, and color of your products, making your E-commerce photography successfully attract customers. It's important to avoid backdrops that may offend or alienate the public.
If your product boasts vibrant colors, opt for a subdued backdrop. Ensure the backdrop size harmonizes with the product.
Mismatched backgrounds can fail to highlight your products effectively. Always consider the purpose and features of your product when selecting a backdrop.
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Shoot on a White Background
White is the go-to choice for a background color because it makes products stand out and is easy to edit or remove if necessary. Many eCommerce lifestyle photoshoot services prefer white, gray, or neutral backgrounds to feature images in their campaigns. Using a white background facilitates multi-channel marketing.
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Tell a Story
Your customers can better relate to your products when photos convey their benefits and intended use. Understanding your products' best use and target audience allows you to create a relevant story. It is one of the core lifestyle photoshoot ideas that impacts the most.
For example, showcasing a model wearing fashion products helps customers understand the fit and style, enabling them to visualize themselves in the products and evoking the desire to purchase.
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Choose a Color Scheme
For online business photography colors are determining factors for the audience online. While there's no universal color scheme for all products, your choice of props and background colors should complement each other. For guidance on color combinations, consult online illustrative resources. Keep your products as the focal point and select props in neutral or brand-specific colors to enhance their appeal.
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Show Scale
Displaying the exact size of your products is essential to establish brand loyalty and prevent returns. If your products come in different sizes, present them together to illustrate variations. Not all lenses can accurately capture scale, but a 43mm lens is ideal for lifestyle photoshoot due to its precision.
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Capture Different Angles
Presentation matters for product image. Photographing products from various angles is one of the best product presentation techniques. It helps convey their unique perspectives. For online products, consider front angles, bird's-eye views, and back angles.
Front angles provide an in-person inspection feel, while back angles display any product information. Bird's-eye views are essential for bundled products, capturing multiple items simultaneously. Experiment with eye-level, macro/micro, and various angles to discover their impact on your photos.
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Storytelling
Out of major lifestyle photoshoot ideas, another prime one is storytelling. Only professional product shots are not enough. Even after capturing your desired shot, your work isn't complete. Editing your photos, especially the background, is crucial for improving quality.
Because there’s a whole matter of storytelling where each element and edits matters to create the buildup. Lifestyle photos often tell a story or convey a message. This could be about a person's daily life, relationships, experiences, or a brand's values and products.
Final Thoughts
In an era where the online landscape is dominated by e-commerce and social media, it plays a vital role in building connections, sparking desire, and transforming potential buyers into loyal customers. In this case, there’s no other better alternative than having professional product shots for your online stores to earn the trust and make sales out of the potential customers.
To achieve this, you must know about the tips, its importance, and other factors that would help you to shape out the whole journey to success. And if you think it’d be a hassle for you, then ask for a clipping path service provider. From professional touch to post-processing they’ll take care of all of it.
FAQ
Can I do lifestyle product photography with my smartphone?
Yes, you can! Modern smartphones have great cameras. Find good lighting, choose real-life settings, and focus on the product's role in your life. Just try to keep it simple, and you'll capture amazing lifestyle product photos.
What's the difference between lifestyle product photos and regular product photos?
Regular product photos show products against a plain background. Lifestyle product photos place products in real-life scenes to make them relatable. It's like comparing a product on a shelf to a product in use.
How can I use lifestyle product photos for my ecommerce store?
Use these photos to show how your products can improve customers' lives. Display them on your website and social media to create a story around your brand. This personal touch can boost sales and customer loyalty. Make sure your photos are professional enough otherwise it is recommended to check clipping path services.
