Hello! Hope you're having a great day whatever that may involve.

I did an Instagram poll recently asking if you would rather my next blog be about taking a better selfie or taking better product photos. It was a close call but product photos pipped selfies to the post so we'll cover that first then selfies at a later date.

So, taking photos of your products can be tricky can't it and probably a LOT of overthinking goes into it because of course you want to show your hard work off in the best light (literally, see tip 4!)

Here is my 5 top tips to make product shots easier:

A plan: Ok so you can't do anything without this and the plan should align with your branding. What is branding? I have a blog for that here. So presuming you've got your branding at least vaguely figured out, you can go ahead and shoot your products in a way that your ideal customer can relate to!

Camera: Yes, defo gonna need one of these. I'm not going to go into great detail about types of cameras and how to specifically use them, that's a whole other post of it's own I'm just going to talk general camera tips. You of course want to use the best camera possible to you whether that's your smartphone or a DSLR (digital single lens reflex - a "big camera" as I simply called it for years) You want to make sure you have covered the 3 C's before you start any shoot Clean, Clear and Charge. How many of us think to give our phone camera lens a good wipe (with a microfiber cloth) before taking a pic? Probably none of us but we really should, our phones get put through a lot in bags and pockets etc and your lens can get quite grubby. Clear - by this I mean make sure you have space to take as many images as you need whether that's clearing your memory card or making sure you have enough storage on your phone. The final C - make sure you have plenty of charge in your camera, you do not want it to cut out just as you're about to get the perfect shot!

Tripod: Essential for product shots unless you have an insanely steady hand and a lot of patience. Taking product shots need to be sharp and clear and camera shake (from unsteady hands) can make that more difficult, not impossible of course but if you want to make life easier, a cheap and cheerful tripod for your camera is the way to go.

Lighting: No 1 rule of all photography is getting your lighting right. I like a natural source of light whether that's outside or inside near a window or you can use, as I mentioned above, a lightbox.

Background: Refer back to your plan (no.1) as to what sort of look you want to achieve. You're probably going for one of two looks - lifestyle or studio shot. Lifestyle is as it sounds, a more lived in look so if your product is a candle you might want to style it with a blanket and some books, if it's clothes you might want to shoot them on a person with the background to suit the clothes - beach for summer, rainy window for the candle etc. If your look is more studio shot, you might want to consider investing in a light box to get that well lit, clean crisp white background shot or, some plain white card (available in art and craft shops - also available in colours) to sit behind and under your subject and position next to some nice light.

There you have it, 5 top tips for taking better product photos - please do let me know how you get on!

Speak soon,

Amanda xx