Knowing how to photograph clothing for your online store can mean the difference between success and failure. We live in a world where competition for people's attention is constant. The internet is enormous. It is difficult to make your online store stand out from the crowd. And if your products aren't well-photographed. You should probably give up now.
One option is to hire a professional photographer to photograph your products. However, many people do not have the funds to hire a professional. Fortunately, if you are willing to put in the time and effort, you can learn how to take professional-quality photographs independently. The below steps will teach you how to photograph clothing for your online store to make your products as appealing as possible to your customers.
Clothing Photography Tips
Before you begin taking clothing photos for your online store, there are a few things you should keep in mind if you want a professional result. This blog will provide you with a few basic but important clothing photography tips for good clothing photography ready for use in e-commerce after processing! So let's get started.
1. Determine the Type of Clothing Photographed
You can use clothing photography for advertising or selling your products in various ways. Depending on the type, you must make the necessary preparations and stock up on the necessary clothing photography equipment.
- Make use of mannequins: Mannequins and ghost mannequin photography techniques can be used when you cannot hire a model. They are inexpensive, and working with them does not necessitate any additional effort. Furthermore, you can gain experience and retake shots as many times as you want while photographing clothing on mannequins. Photographing clothes on models or mannequins is recommended to show how the item fits the body and shape.
- Invest in a model: If you have the opportunity to hire a model, you should take advantage of it. They can strike various poses for you to select the most flattering angles to showcase your product. You'll also get great examples of lifestyle photography of your clothing items to use on social media or in your online store.
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
- Experiment with flat lay: Flat lay or tabletop photography is an alternative method for photographing clothing for an online store. It is very simple because no mannequins or models are required. All you have to do is lay out the clothes and take a picture. However, it will not be ideal for online stores. Flat lays are mostly used for Instagram publications. Clothing such as T-shirts, jackets, and shorts may also be appropriate for e-commerce photography.
- Clothing photography in 360 degrees: 360° clothing photography depicts an item in full rotation so that the client can examine it as if it were in real life. This 3D format imagery provides a complete picture of a product, including its size, dimensions, and element combination. It appears to be a difficult task, but you can complete it with the right clothing photography equipment. Remember to select the appropriate size for holding a human or mannequin.
2. Bring All Necessary Clothing Photography Equipment
- Bring along a camera for product photography: It is unnecessary to shoot with the best camera available. However, to achieve professional photography results, a good lens and camera are required. To keep your clothing images from looking amateurish, we recommend using the right camera. Because of their studio lighting connectivity, DSLRs are more likely to produce stunning apparel shots.
- For clothing photography, select a lens: Use lenses with focal lengths greater than 50mm. If you use a short focal length lens, such as 18mm or 35mm, your apparel photos may have a fisheye effect, making your clothes appear larger than they are. You can use an 18-55mm kit lens; simply zoom all the way up to 55mm.
- Make use of a tripod: You must purchase a tripod to learn how to photograph clothing and get clear images. Unfortunately, shooting with a camera held in your hands is unlikely to produce high-quality images free of blur. Choose the best budget tripod and begin shooting.
3. Select a Lighting and Backdrop Kit
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
The light sources should properly illuminate the garments so that all the important elements are visible. As a result, you must purchase the lighting kit. The variant with three lights is the best. A three-point lighting setup can thus be realized (one key light, a back or hair light, and one fill light). A backdrop is required to achieve a clear look for your clothing photography. We recommend finding a solid green or white backdrop with a stand. When choosing a backdrop, keep in mind that it should be wide and tall enough to accommodate shooting mannequins and models at full height.
4. Iron and Clean the Clothes
- Iron your clothes first: Minor flaws, such as creases in clothing, could jeopardize the success of your eCommerce photography. That's why we recommend bringing an iron or a steamer to the photoshoot to instantly remove wrinkles from clothing. If you could not iron some of the clothes, you could use Photoshop to remove clothing wrinkles.
- Remove the price tags: Don't be afraid to take your time preparing clothing items for eCommerce clothing photography. You'll thank yourself later if you get rid of every sticker and price tag. These extraneous elements can always be removed during the image post-production process. Still, we recommend getting the clothes ready ahead of time to save time on photo editing.
- Make use of a lint roller: It removes lint, dust, and minor dirt stains from clothing. After ironing, go through the garments with a lint roller before photographing them. When preparing dark-colored clothing, you will use a lint roller.
- Make use of a coat hanger: It may sound obvious, but you should always have at least a dozen hangers-on hand to keep your clothes smooth after ironing. It should not be hung on a hook or placed on a chair.
5. Set Up the Camera
- Keep white balance in mind: We’re sure you've seen some clothing photography that appears to have been taken with an orange or blue filter. Photographic light bulbs emit varying degrees of warmth, referred to as a color cast. These bulbs make determining true white for your camera more difficult. As a result, you must adjust the white balance by the type of lighting source you have chosen.
- Select the appropriate aperture: When photographing clothing, a high f/stop, between f/8 and f/11, is recommended. As a result, you will concentrate more effectively on the item. If you want to draw attention to specific elements, such as buttons. You should use a lower f/stop for shallow focus (2.8). Maintain a low ISO. Set the ISO to 100 or 200 for clear and sharp clothing photography. Furthermore, at high ISO, the camera cannot produce sharp images, and details are softened.
- Keep shutter speed in mind: Shoot with a slow shutter speed to get a smaller aperture while realizing your photography clothing ideas. A camera on a tripod in bright light may produce a slow shutter speed, so choose a low value, such as 1/30. However, when photographing dynamic models, you should increase the shutter speed until you eliminate blurry areas.
6. Begin Taking Pictures
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
Consider where you want to put your camera. It should be directly in front of the captured item of clothing. For example, if you're photographing skirts, position the camera across the hip area. When photographing shirts, the camera must be positioned in the chest area.
- Highlight distinguishing characteristics: People look for eye-catching items while browsing online clothing stores. They are more likely to pay attention to images with intricate and unusual elements. When photographing clothing, a shooter's job is to highlight such unusual and elaborate details to appear natural and coherent.
- Provide a variety of images: If you only show clients one or two pictures of the product, they won't be able to examine all of the details and materials closely. Clothing photography needs to take three, ideally five to ten photographs of a single item. You must photograph the garment from the front, back, and sides. Don't forget to pay attention to details like zippers, buttons, patterns, or logos that distinguish this product from others.
7. Don't Ignore Post-Processing
After shooting, make sure to edit your images. Because it is impossible to take a perfect photograph, you must perform numerous manipulations such as color correction, white balance adjustment, and background enhancement.
- Take out the background: Any clothing photography guide will tell you to shoot on a white background. However, you can break the rules and completely eliminate potentially distracting details by removing the background. You can add a professional touch to your imagery this way. Suitable background color should be determined by the store's style. The white variant is the most universal because it does not clash with other colors and draws attention to the garment.
- Make any necessary color adjustments: Although the white balance can be properly adjusted, colors like pink, neon, and red are difficult to capture with a camera and require image editing. Clients will believe they have been duped if the colors are incorrectly reproduced. As a result, spend some time in Lightroom correcting the color rendering of the items. Your ultimate goal is to match the colors in images as closely as possible to those in reality.
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
- Crop your photos: Crop your apparel imagery so that it all looks the same. This ensures that the buyers' shopping experience is as pleasant as possible. If the online store has specific rules about the size and format of the images, just follow them, and you won't have any problems.
Create a Clothing Photography Website with Strikingly
Website builders such as Strikingly enable you to showcase your products and designs in the most spectacular way possible. Strikingly's "Product Showcase" feature can be used. This allows you to display your products in various photos so that customers can see them from various angles. It also allows you to enter the product's price and a description. The "Gallery" section is the most commonly used to showcase designs and products. Strikingly gives you the option of displaying your products and designs in various layout designs. If you do not use the right and best lookbook design layouts, your fashion lookbook will not be at its best.
Conclusion
Customers arrive on your pages as a result of an active marketing budget. Unfortunately, when you do not pay enough attention to your photography and post-processing, these customers leave your webshop quickly. Because clothing is widely represented on the internet and competition is constantly increasing, we have compiled a list of the most common pitfalls in general guidelines. Minor changes in clothing photography and post-processing make a huge difference for your webshop, resulting in happy customers and no wasted marketing budget.
