Avoidable Things for Capturing Product Photos
Producing product photos requires certain does and don’ts, especially when captured for commercial purposes. If these things are not thought out, they will create problems for the photographers later on that may come in legal contracts or in ceasing or desisting letters. The photographers need to follow the commercial rules for making their captured pictures accepted by the public. Certain things like location, place, and people that the photographer wants to include in the frame acquire pre-permission for shooting them. If you avoid these, the problematic situation tends to occur for you. The article refers to the avoidable things that will save you from all the dilemmas and cut your post-processing time. Please focus on the below-given points to have a grip on them for successful marketing product images.
Things to keep away when taking product photos
Faces of People
Capturing the photos in a public place entices lots of contracts and agreements because of the involvement of people in the frame to avoid those legal contracts. The planned way is to capture the shots of the passerby. It will benefit you by not revealing the identity of the people, thus saving you from all the legal issues, or else you have to spend time in post-processing for removing the people from the frame. But when you capture the shots of the passerby, you will not have to go through legal restrictions. The other followed idea is to shoot at a location where there is less population, and if you can’t, then remember to hide the faces of the people.
Price Tags
Avoid using the price tags in the images to prevent the unappealing and distracting look of the images. You can do that by cutting that from the shot without affecting the quality. If you cannot do it, then rely on Photoshop to fix that with the retouching techniques.
Children
Like the people, adding children also persuade many legal issues from the side of the parents demanding the signed release for getting the image published. Again, that will be a time-consuming and difficult task for you and may also pose a problem for you in meeting the deadlines. Hence, you can avoid the faces of the children in the captured shots if you are not interested in the signed releases, but if you have the necessary consent, there is no need to discuss.
Engaged and Distracting Backgrounds
You have to avoid those quite busy and distracting backgrounds to make your images stand out commercially. The biggest loss of adding the engaged background is the distraction of the customer’s attention on the product you cannot afford. Simply shoot the product with a white background or else in the location that relates to the category of the product.
Brand Names and Logos
The other added thing in the list is the brand names and logos that will create a problematic situation for you. Remember, you do not have to include the brand names and the logos if your image’s motive is not to promote and endorse the brand. And on the other side, if you use the undesired brands and logos with which your photos are not concerned, this will also make the image distracting for the viewers, and the user will not be able to use them. You can do this effectively by using Photoshop to remove the brand or properly positioning the product to the brand and logo name.
Public Buildings
Skip the use of public buildings like monuments, sacred places or famous buildings that possess some intellectual rights. You also do not have the authority to use the privately owned shopping malls in your images. So better is to avoid using them as the background of your images. You have to check the rights of using the particular buildings in the images before using them to be safe ahead.
Distinct Product Characteristics
Some distinct characteristics of the products give the viewers the brand identity without seeing any logo or brand name. Hence, removing that with your expertise and skills is mandatory to present the images commercially. The distinctive features you need to consider are the highlighting features of a product that you can first determine by questioning yourself about the product’s identity without looking at the brand name and logo and then clearing your work. After all, all formalities are over.
License Plates
You need to acknowledge the point when you are shooting with any vehicle. You have to avoid the inclusion of the license plates attached to vehicles in your images because that will give information about the owner of the vehicle, so make sure that either you blur the license plate or cut the view of the plates from the frame of the product photos that you are going to use in the market. But if you have already captured the photo with the license plate, edit it by including the fake plate.
Unintentional Shadows
To make your pictures appealing, you have to avoid all those shadows that are certainly not a great addition to the photos and are not natural in looks. You must have the proper knowledge of the hard and soft shadows you need to avoid. It is advisable to use natural light when shooting indoors or consider using the flash diffuser to have great product photos.
Product Packaging
Product packaging often does not create a problem unless they are not packed in the reflective or cellophane material. If it is, you generally have to avoid the photographs of the packaged products. The better idea is to use the packaging at the back in the shot, as done by various cosmetic companies.
Wind-Up
Follow the tips and avoid using the mentioned things in the images to have a safe play in the market and be successful as a product photographer. It is always better to stay safe than sorry.
