How to Use a Digital Camera to Take Product Pictures

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With a digital camera, taking high quality product pictures is easy

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Product Pictures Made Easy
Any small business that deals in physical products should be using a digital camera to take product pictures.
Armed with an inexpensive, mid-range digital camera and some basic photography skills, it’s easy and cheap to quickly photograph products and email the pictures to your customers.

A good, sharp photo of the product will invariably be more useful to an interested party than a verbal description over the phone.

Any digital images you take can be added to your “picture library” for possible future use on a website, in marketing newsletters, or for creating digital brochures.

At the previous company I worked for (clothing and footwear manufacturers) we were often asked by customers for detailed information about new and existing products.

Fortunately, using a digital camera and affordable imaging software like Photoshop Elements, such requests were not a problem.

Urgent Information Request
In the example detailed further below, a customer wanted information ASAP about a new product, a women’s hiking boot. I grabbed a sample of the boot, my digital camera and tripod, set up my basic “desktop studio” and fired away.
In this instance, I altered the angle of the boot for a couple of the shots and also “bracketed” one or two shots (shooting the same picture three times - one at normal exposure, one over-exposed and one under-exposed).

The beauty of a digital camera of course is that you can check your pictures as soon as you take them.

After about a dozen shots I was happy from what I could see on the camera’s LCD that I had some usable pictures, so downloaded them to my PC.

After checking for sharpness and detail, I made a final selection, cropped some unwanted background and then brightened up the picture (simply using “contrast” and “brighness” settings).

In order to add the original image to our picture library at its full size, I made a copy that I could resize before emailing it. Usually a picture about 600-750 pixels wide will be fine, as this will provide plenty of detail when viewed on a computer monitor but will also be a fairly small file size.

Unless there’s a special reason, you don’t want to send a big picture - not only will it be a large file, but it won’t fit on a normal screen, requiring horizontal scrolling to see it.

Digital Camera Advantages
The advantages of using a digital camera in this type of situation are many. You don't have to:

visit a store to buy film

worry that the pictures might not come out right

take a trip to the photo lab to drop off film and collect prints

re-shoot because something turned out not quite right

scan colour prints and fiddle with scanner settings

Here’s what my “desktop studio” looks like:

Product Photography Set-up

It consists of a large piece of plain white card, with one end taped to the edge of a plastic table and the other to a cardboard box.

This gives an “infinity curve” which means there’s no hard line cutting horizontally through the picture.

The plastic table is easy to move, so I can position it as I want in front of a large window. Lighting is provided by diffused daylight coming through the window and reflected off the walls.

This diffused light still casts a shadow, so I use some silver foil wrapped around a box lid to act as a reflector, helping to fill in the shadow and cast extra light on the front of the boot. A white piece of styrofoam works equally well.

The natural, indirect light is not very bright, so my shutter speed is fairly slow — around 1/60th sec. For this reason I prefer to use a tripod, eliminating the camera shake that causes fuzzy pictures.

While direct sunlight would allow a faster shutter speed, you’d have very dark, contrasty shadows that even a white or silver reflector would not fill adequately.

And here’s the final picture ready for emailing - 570 x 430 pixels in dimension with a file size of 27KB.

Boot Photo for emailing

Once you own a digital camera, you’ll wonder how you did without it. This is particularly true for any business that makes or sells things and more so if you use product pictures on your website.

However, even if you sell a service, there will be times when you need a photograph - of your premises, a member of staff or possibly even of your new industrial carpet-cleaner.

With a digital camera, you can avoid those disasters that sometimes occur when taking traditional photographs - no film in the camera, exposure all wrong, bad flash reflections off glass or shiny surfaces etc.

The beauty of digital photography is instant playback. Any disasters can be immediately corrected.

And, if necessary, you can always have high quality prints made from your digital images.

Last updated: August 2008. Copyright © 2006-2008 Scotch Macaskill, 18 Strawberry Fields, 36 College Road, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Tel: +27 33 3422811. Privacy: Your privacy is guaranteed. Personal information, including email addresses, will never be sold or given to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for further details.

Internet for Business
With a digital camera, taking high quality product pictures is easy
Home > Articles > Product Pictures Made Easy Product Pictures Made Easy Any small business that deals in physical products should be using a digital camera to take product pictures. Armed with an inexpensive, mid-range digital camera and some basic photography skills, it’s easy and cheap to quickly photograph products and email the pictures to your customers. A good, sharp photo of the product will invariably be more useful to an interested party than a verbal description over the phone. Any digital images you take can be added to your “picture library” for possible future use on a website, in marketing newsletters, or for creating digital brochures. At the previous company I worked for (clothing and footwear manufacturers) we were often asked by customers for detailed information about new and existing products. Fortunately, using a digital camera and affordable imaging software like Photoshop Elements, such requests were not a problem. Urgent Information Request In the example detailed further below, a customer wanted information ASAP about a new product, a women’s hiking boot. I grabbed a sample of the boot, my digital camera and tripod, set up my basic “desktop studio” and fired away. In this instance, I altered the angle of the boot for a couple of the shots and also “bracketed” one or two shots (shooting the same picture three times - one at normal exposure, one over-exposed and one under-exposed). The beauty of a digital camera of course is that you can check your pictures as soon as you take them. After about a dozen shots I was happy from what I could see on the camera’s LCD that I had some usable pictures, so downloaded them to my PC. After checking for sharpness and detail, I made a final selection, cropped some unwanted background and then brightened up the picture (simply using “contrast” and “brighness” settings). In order to add the original image to our picture library at its full size, I made a copy that I could resize before emailing it. Usually a picture about 600-750 pixels wide will be fine, as this will provide plenty of detail when viewed on a computer monitor but will also be a fairly small file size. Unless there’s a special reason, you don’t want to send a big picture - not only will it be a large file, but it won’t fit on a normal screen, requiring horizontal scrolling to see it. Digital Camera Advantages The advantages of using a digital camera in this type of situation are many. You don't have to: visit a store to buy film worry that the pictures might not come out right take a trip to the photo lab to drop off film and collect prints re-shoot because something turned out not quite right scan colour prints and fiddle with scanner settings Here’s what my “desktop studio” looks like: It consists of a large piece of plain white card, with one end taped to the edge of a plastic table and the other to a cardboard box. This gives an “infinity curve” which means there’s no hard line cutting horizontally through the picture. The plastic table is easy to move, so I can position it as I want in front of a large window. Lighting is provided by diffused daylight coming through the window and reflected off the walls. This diffused light still casts a shadow, so I use some silver foil wrapped around a box lid to act as a reflector, helping to fill in the shadow and cast extra light on the front of the boot. A white piece of styrofoam works equally well. The natural, indirect light is not very bright, so my shutter speed is fairly slow — around 1/60th sec. For this reason I prefer to use a tripod, eliminating the camera shake that causes fuzzy pictures. While direct sunlight would allow a faster shutter speed, you’d have very dark, contrasty shadows that even a white or silver reflector would not fill adequately. And here’s the final picture ready for emailing - 570 x 430 pixels in dimension with a file size of 27KB. Once you own a digital camera, you’ll wonder how you did without it. This is particularly true for any business that makes or sells things and more so if you use product pictures on your website. However, even if you sell a service, there will be times when you need a photograph - of your premises, a member of staff or possibly even of your new industrial carpet-cleaner. With a digital camera, you can avoid those disasters that sometimes occur when taking traditional photographs - no film in the camera, exposure all wrong, bad flash reflections off glass or shiny surfaces etc. The beauty of digital photography is instant playback. Any disasters can be immediately corrected. And, if necessary, you can always have high quality prints made from your digital images.
Last updated: August 2008. Copyright © 2006-2008 Scotch Macaskill, 18 Strawberry Fields, 36 College Road, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Tel: +27 33 3422811. Privacy: Your privacy is guaranteed. Personal information, including email addresses, will never be sold or given to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for further details.