Get the most out of every piece of content you paid for!
Product photography is a huge investment for your business. After all, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your photos to make them as versatile as possible. Right? That’s why it’s so important to start maximizing your product photography! Although there’s a certain cost involved, there are many different ways to get more bang for your buck.
First of all, it comes down to change. How many different ways can you use your product photos? In what ways can they be altered? Which shots can transform with a bit of text? With the right photography, your products can truly shine. It’s all about making your business glow and stand out from the crowd.
Today, I’ll walk you through five ways you can start maximizing your product photography. And repurposing the images in your package to create “new” ones! Let’s get started.
1. Cropping
This one is super easy. And also a game changer. Altering the crop of your image can create a whole new photo as you can focus on a different element. Especially if you sell multiple products and have photos of them together! Try zooming in on a variety of areas in the photo. Guaranteed, you’ll get at least two new, usable images.
However, there’s one rule you have to follow if you want to zoom and crop your photos. They have to be high quality! No one wants to look at a pixelated, blurry photo. (Unless that’s the vibe you’re going for on purpose, of course.) That’s definitely not professional. So make sure that when you’re hiring a product photographer, they know what they’re doing.
Here are some examples of cropping your product photos.
This was the original image I delivered to SA Creative as they promoted their planner sets and how they cropped it to focus in on “The Planner Series” bingo cards that come with the planner sets:
You can also crop to certain areas of your photo if you’re trying to drop sneak peeks or previews of your product. It builds intrigue! And makes people want to come back for more.
Here’s another example. Take a look at the full image I delivered on the left, and the sneak peek that the brand used on the right. It’s a great way to showcase the detail in your product as well.
2. Share Across Platforms
Keeping in mind the usage you purchased from your photographer, take advantage of the different platforms you can use your images in. For this project, the brand was able to use images on social media, their website, digital mailing lists, and any organic digital platforms.
However, remember that each platform has a slightly different target audience. What someone resonates with on Twitter might not be the same as what someone loves in an email blast. So, that’s where maximizing your product photography comes in handy. You can zoom, crop, or alter your product photos to match each platform.
The brand used both of these images on their website as well as Instagram. And they even added a crop for socials! See? This is what I’m talking about. Switch it up and you’ll get the best results. Plus, you’ll build a collection of posts that you can schedule in your feed for later. We love an organized posting schedule!
3. Add Text and/or Graphics
This is another great way to reinvent your images. Pop them into Canva — or whatever editing tool you love — and add some graphics or text. This could be for socials or to promote a certain product. Want to use a favourite quote? Let people know about a sale? Or advertise a part of your business? You can do it all with text. The possibilities are endless!
This first graphic is widely popular on Canva, and you can add in whatever text is relevant to your business and what you offer.
Connecting with your followers by adding graphics and a short message is another great way to repurpose your images! The second one has the ornament graphics and text added to an already Holiday-themed photo. And it looks fantastic! Even if the photo isn’t already themed, you can make it so by adding whatever you want. Think: hearts for Valentine’s Day, bunnies for Easter, or stars for New Year’s Eve.
The third infographic is another great example of incorporating text and graphics into your images. Full post linked here.
Also, I love what my clients did at Zeyl Beauty. They used a swatch image to highlight the great aspects of their brightening serum:
4. Use within Video
This is an amazing way to get higher engagement on social media. Since they are now favouring video content over still images! It can be quite expensive to pay for some professional video work of your product. So, until you get there, use the images you have of your product within some reels! A great example from Santos & Cruz is linked here.
5. The E-commerce Shot
Saving the best, and most versatile, for last. This one will be your best friend. If you have the resources to do this right, then you’ll get some amazing photos out of this option.
An example of this comes from the Bridal Glow team. They took the e-commerce shots I delivered (usually a PNG file) and were able to pop it into some interesting scenes. This is a fun way to essentially create new images from the e-commerce photo you have of your product. This option may require you to have a graphic designer on hand or for you to have some graphic design experience to make this happen.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I’d love to hear your thoughts — was this post helpful? Are you going to use these tips? How are you going to start maximizing your product photography? If you’d like to book a product shoot and get the most out of your images, you can get started here!
xo
Jeeval
