A short guide to product photography

It is rarely the thing that gets a project approved, and often the thing that decides how it goes. Everything we would tell a client about product photography in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

In e-commerce every friction point has a price attached, and the arithmetic is unusually easy to check. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

Why this earns attention

Consistent lighting and background make a catalogue look professional. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

How to approach it

Scale shots prevent returns from size surprises. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Warning signs

One excellent photo beats six mediocre angles. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

The short version

Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. Three things worth confirming about product photography before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Scale shots prevent returns from size surprises — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.