A complete guide to packshot photography, 1: why take packshots of your products?

Welcome to the Complete guide to packshot photography, a series of articles designed to help you take attractive photos of your products and optimize your online presence. If you sell products on the internet, you might be surprised at how good packshot photography can make a difference. Indeed, when a potential customer visits your website, the first thing they see is an image of your product. If that image is poor or doesn't present your product in the best light, it's unlikely they'll buy from you. On the other hand, quality packshot photography can attract the attention of consumers and encourage them to buy. In this first article, we explain what packshot photography is and what it can do for you.

What is packshot photography?

Definition of a packshot photograph

By definition, packshot photography is a specialized photographic technique intended in particular for e-commerce sites for capture product images isolated on a neutral background.

Concretely, packshot photographs are essential for any company looking to sell its products on a e-commerce site, and A good packshot can make a difference between a successful sale and a customer who goes elsewhere. The advantage of packshot photography is that it focuses on the product and only on the product, without visual distractions. It also aims to represent the product as accurately as possible : the customer will thus not have an unpleasant surprise when receiving the product afterwards.

Packshot photographs are generally taken in a professional studio with a lighting configuration specially adapted to each product, in order to highlight its specific characteristics. Packshot photography thus requires careful knowledge of light, camera and composition to produce a clear and sharp image, adapted to the product.

Where can you find packshot photographs?

Are packshot photographs only for e-commerce sites or can they have other uses? Maybe that's the question you're asking yourself right now. Indeed, if you are going to invest in packshot photographs, you would be entitled to expect to use them to the maximum of their capacity.

The primary purpose of packshot photographs is to highlight a company's products on the internet, and as such, they can have multiple uses:

• On your e-commerce site of course, where they allow you to arouse the interest of customers by presenting your products in an attractive way, while showing their characteristics, colors, textures and dimensions,
• On social networks suchlike instagram or Pinterest to expand your audience and reach a new audience,
• as part of a advertising and promotional communication of your company and its products through the use of advertising visuals, posters, flyers, catalogs and commercial brochures,
• as part of a internal communication (training employees on the characteristics of a product for example),
• or even in the edition of Leaflets for your customers.

For example, a clothing store can use packshot photographs to present its new collection on its website, increase its conversion rate and improve its natural referencing, while communicating on it in online advertising campaigns or on promotional brochures. However, the primary use of packshot photographs remains in the product sheets of an e-commerce site, so it is on this use that we will focus primarily on in this series of articles.

Packshot photography, lifestyle photography or still life? Types of product photography that serve different purposes

It exists different product photography techniques, each with its own particularities and advantages. Packshot photography is one of them, along with lifestyle photography and still life photography. So which one should you choose based on your needs?

Packshot photography

Packshot photography is a technique that makes it possible to take pictures of isolated products on a uniform background. It focuses on product details by removing any items that could distract customers. The objective is to represent the product as it really is, without stylistic effects and without changing its appearance in order to beautify it.

Product photography in still life

On the other hand, Product photography in still life is a technique that involves staging the product creatively using various decor elements. Unlike classic packshot photography that focuses on the frontal presentation of the product, still life product photography leaves more room for creativity. By using combinations of compositions and colors, a still life photographer can thus add an artistic dimension to a company's brand image. Thus, still life product photography is not really suitable for e-commerce use as the product is not necessarily represented accurately. On the other hand, this type of technique is ideal for an advertising campaign.

Lifestyle product photography

Lifestyle product photography is for its part a technique that consists in staging products in their context of use. It allows you to show customers how to use the products, among other things. It also gives them an idea of the size and relevance of the product in their daily lives. Lifestyle photography can also help you make the product more real for the customer, by allowing them to imagine using it in their daily lives. The main use of lifestyle photography remains advertising. As you can see, packshot photography is more focused on the product itself, rather than on the environment in which it is used. The ultimate goal of a packshot photo is thus to allow potential customers to clearly see and understand the product. This will help them make an informed purchase decision. Instead, lifestyle photography attempts to create an impression in the viewer by showing how the product can be used in everyday life. A still life photograph aims to highlight the aesthetic qualities of the product, the artistic vision of the photographer and the message of the brand.

Why is good product photography essential?

Internet, a new era that changes everything for the presentation of your products

With the Internet, online shopping has become more and more common, until it became the norm nowadays. There is just one slight problem: consumers can no longer touch, examine, test, or physically experience products before buying them, unlike buying them in a physical store!

A new challenge then arises: How to make the product real and tangible for the consumer ? How to faithfully bring out its details, colors and textures... despite the screen barrier? That is the whole objective of packshot photography, and the common thread of this series of articles.

Stand out from your competitors by making a good impression

The online competition is extremely strong, and the first impression is everything.. Professional, high-quality photographs are a way to stand out and capture the attention of potential customers. And the opposite is even more so: nothing like poor quality packshots to scare away your customers. Knowing this, many can resort to the easy way out: simply using photos from their supplier. But is that just a good idea? Indeed, this solution seems practical and inexpensive, but it can also backfire. These same photos are very likely to also be found on the sites of your competitors.

A key element for the natural referencing of your e-commerce site

In addition, photographs are essential for the natural referencing or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) .Search engines like Google rank websites according to their relevance and quality. And quality product photographs can significantly influence this ranking.

In fact, images are considered content by search engines.. In other words, they can be indexed and referenced in the same way as traditional web pages. So, poor packshot photographs can cause your ranking in search results to drop. Let's not forget the search engines' image search functionality either. By using relevant keywords and quality photographs, you increase your chances of appearing in search results. This can help bring new potential customers to your website.

What are the main characteristics of a good product photo?

The objective of packshot photography is to present your products in a clear, accurate, and informative manner. And that is why a packshot photograph must have certain characteristics to be effective.

A white background

First of all, the background of the photograph should be preferably white, or neutral. This helps to focus on the product and sets it apart from any other element. A uniform background reduces visual distractions and makes it easier to highlight the product.

A faithful representation

Packshot photography should represent the product as it is, without trying to beautify it or to lie about its nature. This authentic approach helps potential customers make an informed decision when buying online. By showing the product as it really is, you avoid feedback and disappointments from your customers. Packshot photography should be as accurate and sharp as possible. It must therefore be taken with a professional camera, with appropriate lighting and appropriate settings. And if possible in a studio environment. Lighting is indeed essential in this quest for an authentic product. Shadows can completely transform how we perceive a product. It is therefore necessary to find the right balance between too present shadows that could darken the product and an absence of shade that would cause it to lose all depth.

Sharpness above all

A photo that is blurry, poorly framed, or poorly lit can also lead to a decrease in the perceived quality of the product. In other words, poor photography can jeopardize a sale. In this way, banish any notion of blur from your photos. Indeed, the customer must be able to see every detail of the product in your photos. The Focus Stacking can thus be useful in taking packshot photographs. We'll talk about this technique and more in the rest of this series.

Without distraction

Finally, and as we told you before, Packshot photography should be devoid of any distractions. It also means that you need to present the product in a simple frame. That is, without objects, colors, or textures in the background that could distract potential customers. The aim here is to ensure that the photograph draws attention to the product itself, and nothing else. That being said, you can imagine that we have only scratched the surface of packshot photography here. We still have a lot of things to talk about, starting with the equipment you will need. So we invite you to discover all this in the rest of our series of articles on packshot photography:

• the equipment needed to take good packshot photographs,
• how to properly capture the specificities of your product,
• the type of media to choose according to your product,
• the importance of consistency between photos and the best way to achieve this.