How To Photograph On A White Background

Accept you ever wondered how other people get such perfect shots of their products?

The ones where the product appears to be floating off the page?

With a seamless white groundwork? Aye, that one.

You see these photos on top brands like Paper Source, Burt'southward Bees, ModCloth, Nordstrom and more.

I'thou going to show you how you can accept your own product photos on a white background in this super easy and affordable prepare!

Why white product photos?

Merely first, why is it the industry standard to take product photos on white?

Firstly, they present your products with the least distractions.

Online shopping is completely normal these days, but for a lot of us, we desire to know what we're getting in the mail service.

It'south your responsibility as the seller to represent your products with accurate photos of them.

Secondly, they're media friendly, which means you're more likely to be featured in a pop blog or mag.

Equally an editor of a blog or mag, part of their chore is seeking for cool products to characteristic.

Editors always want white background product photos so they tin hands include your item on their magazine or website, without doing tons of editing.

Thirdly, they give your shop a more consequent expect.

This makes customers feel that you're professional and increases trust in shopping with yous.

I accept critiqued dozens of Etsy shops and the number 1 reason for lack of sales is the poor quality of photos.

Don't brand that mistake. Re-photograph your products if you need to. It'll be worth information technology!

What you lot need and where to become them

- Lightbox
  - A lightbox is made with white see-through material to let for light to shine through, merely softens direct light for minimal shadows (yay!)
  - get them for inexpensive on Ebay ~$15-20
  - or make your own with a cardboard box and white fabric (downside is it'due south not collapsible, but does the trick!)
- Clamp lights
  - habitation improvement store like Abode Depot, Lowes or Menards ~$10 each
  - get iii clamp lights
- 100 watt daylight light bulbs
  - home improvement store or Target ~$7 each
  - go three, one for each light
- Photographic camera that allows you to configure settings
  - A tripod is optional
- Place for you lot to gear up upward and clench on lights
- Photo editing software

Misconceptions almost photographing your products on white

I also desire to mention a few misconceptions on this process of taking product shots on white groundwork.

You don't demand a fancy, expensive DSLR camera to accept peachy photos. I can take perfect product photos using just my iPhone 5!
You don't demand sunlight at all. You can literally snap your photos in a dark room.
Yous will demand to edit your photos using photograph editing software – and so don't wait them to await perfect from the get go.
You won't need to buy Photoshop for your photograph editing software, there are groovy gratis ones you can use!

How to set up your equipment

How to Take Perfect Product Photos On A White Background

Hither are some photos of how I set up my cheap (and totally non classy) lightbox.

Information technology will be tricky to discover a spot to clamp on the lights, just consider dragging over chairs, furniture or storage bins (with stuff inside for the weight).

From the photo above, the left and right lamps are clamped on to the pinkish chair. The top light is clamped on to the closet shelf fixture.

A few rules to ensure your photos plough out perfect:

Utilise three lamps, one on top, left and right for the best light
Insert a piece of white paper or cardstock backside your product
Plough off all other calorie-free sources in the room (including sun light) and then that the lighting in your picture is consistent
When you are starting out, snap more photos than you lot think you'll need.
Don't use flash!

Jewelry hack:To hang necklaces in the lightbox, I poke through ii headpins and curve them into hooks for hanging the necklace! (See photograph above.)

Camera settings- ISO, white balance, F-stop,

Now that you have everything set up, you're ready to kickoff snapping some photos like the paparazzi!

Nosotros need to configure your camera and then that it takes the best shots of your product.

Don't be scared of this step, I'll help boil down the technical stuff downwards to easy-to-understand concepts!

ISO, aperture and shutter speed are three settings that are merely unlike ways that control the brightness of your photos.

ISO: the college the number, the brighter the photo but the lower the photograph quality (you'll go lots of grains called "noise")
- ISO examples: 200, 400, 600, 800
Aperture: the lower the number, the brighter the photo but the less out of focus your product is
- Aperture examples: f/2, f/2.8, f/5.vi, f/viii
Shutter speed: the smaller the number under "i", the brighter the photo but the more sensitive your camera is to mitt movement causing blurry photos (if not using a tripod)
- Shutter speed examples: one/250, 1/threescore, 1/30, one/5

White balanceis the fourth setting you need to know.

It sets the white hue of your photos. Setting the wrong white balance can brand your photograph expect too blue or orange. We want it just right!

White residuum settings are non always the same from camera to camera.

I recommend you lot have 1 photo using each of the different white balance options.

This style yous can look at which photo turned out the best – and memorize that!

Consult your camera's manual to bank check how you can configure these four settings.

Practice, practise, do.

The first few times, you lot'll feel dislocated and boring at taking photos.

Once you find that perfect configuration, write it downward or memorize it (only make sure your fix is e'er the same, or your settings may change).

Voila, the unedited photo straight out of the camera

Something I didn't understand when I was first starting out, was I kept getting grey photos like this.

I could never achieve the flawless white background directly out of the photographic camera.

Equally I mentioned before, you volition demand to edit your photos later. There's no way effectually it!

This apple necklace photograph is how your photo should look equally well.

In a follow upward mail, I'll evidence you lot exactly how to edit your photo to get that white groundwork and in nether ONE minute.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Leave me a annotate if you have any resources or tips to share!

And if you have questions or comments, be certain to let me know also so I can help.