How to Take High Quality Product Photos

I've been selling products online for a while now, mainly on eBay. I know how much of a difference high quality photos can make in your business. My current set up works okay for taking photos with a white background, but it isn't the best. Sometimes the photos come out with a grayish or off white background. When the photos are dim or dark looking buyers seem to gravitate to them less. However when the photos have a pure white background so much that it almost looks like the product is floating it catches the buyers eye.

I decided it's time for an upgrade. I experimented with multiple different backdrops and lighting to see what would work best. In this Instructable I'm going to tell you about my findings and what setup ended up working best for me.

You Will Need:

• Background Material(I'll cover some of the best options in the next step)
• Lights/Lamps( I have two 10" ring lights, they have worked the best for me but you can use whatever you have on hand)
• Tripod(Depending on the lights you use you may need a stand for them)
• A Camera(Of course)
• Reflector/foam board(optional)

You will also need a place to set up your photo area. A desk next to a wall would work best, but you could also lay the background on the floor if you don't have one available.

I had to experiment with several different materials to find the best plain white backdrop. For the longest time I have been using cheap poster paper. The paper is great for pictures, the problem is it's not very durable, it can easily get scratches, dirty, or dented. Foam board seems to be more durable than the paper, but since it's solid it can't be bent at all so it's not the best solution. I still wanted a cleanable and more durable surface, after some searching I decided to try a vinyl roller shade which cost me about $10.

I did a quick test to see if the different backgrounds made a difference in how white the photos came out. I set up the ring light facing downwards. My phones camera didn't really pick up any differences in the background of the photos. They all just look like a white background, I couldn't tell any texture differences.

Getting the right lighting for your product photos can be tricky. Especially since the results vary depending on what camera you use. I personally have two ring lights, but lamps and natural light can do just fine. Using natural light can make some great photos the problem with relying on it though is as the sun changes position it could turn into dark shadow filled photo quickly. Normal desk lamps can work as well, two would probably work best since they're usually not very bright.

Using another piece of white material such as poster board on one or both sides of the main backdrop can help reflect light more evenly. This works great especially if you only have one light to work with.

No, you won't need a professional DSLR to get some high quality photos. Now days most smartphones can take pictures just as good as a camera. Cameras can differ a lot when it comes to proper lighting. Some cameras might take a photo with a white background and it comes out grey or yellowish while on others it looks pure white.

While my set up works well with my camera it may not work for all cameras. One of the alternative materials or photography setups may look better with your camera. That's why I included all the different options I tried.

All the test pictures were taken with my phone's camera and I still got some great results considering it only has 12 megapixels.

I started off by cutting out a piece of the vinyl roller shade. I tried to get the wrinkles out using a hair dryer but it didn't work that well. The creases aren't super obvious in the photos, in most cases I couldn't see them, so I think it will work fine for now. Eventually I'll let it lay flat outside in the sun for a day or two and that should get rid of the creases.

I secured the vinyl onto the wall using tape, and draped it onto the desk. Then I use tripods to set up the ring lights properly. I did a lot of experimenting with using just one vs two ring lights at different angles. I also tried using just one desk lamp to see if I could get a good photo using it, but it didn't work that well.

Both of the ring lights were at full brightness and on a cold light setting.

Different Setups:

1. Ring light directly down.
2. Ring light directly down with foam poster board on the side to reflect light.
3. Ring light slightly angled from the front.
4. Ring light slightly angled from the front with two poster boards, one on each side.
5. Two ring lights slanted, one on each side.
6. Lamp on the right tilted to the left.

7. Lamp on the right tilted to the left with poster board.

After comparing all the test photos I narrowed it down to three of the setups, setup 1, 2, and 4. I put the different test photos of these three together to make comparing them easier. It's definitely a close call.

The setup that seemed to get me the best results was setup four. All the other ways I used the lights worked well and almost look the same. The worst solution was the desk lamp without using a reflector or anything.

I would say if you're using a desk lamp that isn't very bright, some type of white reflective material is a must have. Having the poster boards on the sides to reflect light definitely helps make some of those shadows fade.

I hope that this helped some of you improve your photos. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Feel free let me know any photography tips you might have in the comments. If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading!