The images you portray in your business are a reflection of your business. If your images are not quality-based or represent your brand cohesively you will run into a lot of confused and unimpressed customers. Now, I am not saying you have to hire a photographer or a content creator and pay a lot of money. But you do have to learn a little more about how to take, edit and produce good content. In this post, I want to share with you a few tips on how to improve your brand and product photography on a budget so you save money and transform your brand!
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1. Take a photography & editing class
You might be thinking “I don’t have time for that” or “It’s too expensive”, but the truth is there are plenty of online classes that are FREE. Those FREE classes give you a complete introductory course to photography and all its fundamental elements. I have curated for you a few classes in photography and editing that will build your skills:
Photography Fundamentals – This class will give you the full breakdown on the basic elements of photography and how to apply it. Check it out
Easy and Effective Graphic Design: The Ins and Outs of Canva- This class shows you have to design with Canva and gain graphic designer status instantly. Check it out
Photoshop fundamentals in one hour– Did you always want to learn how to use photoshop? This is a great class to get clear on how to use this amazing program. Check it out
Adobe Lightroom Classic CC: The Easy Photo Editing Course– Lightroom is another amazing editing program on Adobe that I adore. I highly recommend you watch this class because it gives you a full breakdown of how to use Lightroom and make your images magazine ready. Check it out
These are all completely FREE classes offered on Skillshare that you can take and enhance your skills with.
2. Photo Lightbox
If you’re doing product photography for your business it is important to photograph the product clearly and without any background noise. The best way to do it is by creating or buying a Lightbox where you can shoot all your products and have them photographed cohesively. It is the worst when you upload your product on a random white background that has many shadows and distraction. Also when you do that each photo turns out differently and the look is not cohesive.
Here is a great DIY video on how to make a Lightbox at home for under $10 – Watch here
and if you don’t want to make one at home you can always buy one here
3. Lighting
I can’t stress enough about how important lighting is! It is probably the make it or breaks it when it comes to a photo. When you take a photo for your business keep in mind that natural light is the best light. Try to avoid taking photos with flash. Additionally when you’re are outside taking photos during the day make sure that the sun is behind you. The best kind of daylight is overcast or sunny without the sun being in sight. Here is a great guide that will fill you in on more lighting information.
4. Angles
Angles angles angles! This one is super important if you are the kind to just snap a photo and upload it. There are a few “rules” in photography on how to correctly take a photo and make it appealing to the eye. I want to share with you a great guide that shows you 20 great compositions that keep the eye on the photograph, find it here. This is super important because the image you convey for your brand will be one of the main ways people feel your brand and communicate with it.
5. Editing
One mistake I see a lot of people make, especially on Instagram is uploading content that has not been edited. If you’re one of those people STOPPPP ITT! No matter how nice a picture is when it’s unedited when you edit it will become x1000 better (I STAND BY THIS!). The beauty of photo editing is that you can turn a photo you thought was ok, to something that people will simply say WOW. If you know how to edit, sometimes that can be better than taking a good photo because you can manifest the perfect edit to something average looking. I have already linked a few classes for editing above, but those are mainly for images that will be used for your promos and advertisements. I wanted to share with you a few other tools that will be great for editing, especially for Instagram.
VSCO – This is my favorite editing app! This is the app I’ve been editing my Instagram photos with for years. I highly suggest you download it, nothing is better than VSCO. Also if you want to learn how to use VSCO here is a FREE class to learn the VSCO fundamentals. Check it out
Easil – This is a great editing platform where you can edit everything social media related.
6. Equipment
When it comes to creating content for your brand the equipment can sometimes run for 1000’s of dollars. Most of us don’t have the budget to get a high-end camera and frankly, our phones can really do magic and create some good content. However, sometimes buying a quality camera can help showcase more than a phone. I wanted to share with you a great video that shows the top cameras for any budget. This video was made by Caleb Wojcik and it is very helpful and informative. Check it out
Here is some of my product photography:
There you have it. I hope you found some of this information useful and helpful. Photography is a key element in brand communication and doing it well is important. The beauty is that you can do it yourself without spending $1000’s on photographers, equipment and editing software. Practice makes perfect.