How To Optimize Ecommerce Product Images

In this article, I am going to talk about how to optimize eCommerce product images. So keep reading.

Image optimization helps a lot in maintaining the performance of your website. It keeps your image file sizes to a minimum without compromising their quality. Optimization along with compelling and attractive images helps increase the conversion rate of your shop and the possibility of gaining high revenues.

So how do you take attractive eCommerce product images and optimize them for your eCommerce website? Here, we’ll guide you about how to optimize eCommerce product images and help you improve your site’s performance and usability as you work on them. Here is some example you can check out here for sunglasses photography.

Tips On How To Take Product Photos

1. It’s Okay To Use Your Cellphone Camera!

You don’t necessarily need professional cameras to start with taking good product images. In fact, newer models of phones right now come with already decent cameras that have adjustable settings and work in any condition.

Most newer phones come with filters installed in the camera application and others even have settings that mimic settings straight from a DSLR!

With so many tutorials on Youtube, Instagram, and even on TikTok, you can learn more about ways on how to take product photos creatively. Just take advantage of the massive information you can find on the internet and you’ll find many techniques you can use for your products.

2. Use A Tripod

Even before cell phones had cameras attached to them and were the size of bricks, tripods were already used by professional cameramen and photographers. They used to be expensive, but now anyone can get on for a good price and especially for their phones!

Unlike DSLRs, cell phones don’t really have the physical capability of staying on your tripod without help. Tripods are important for slow-speed exposures and to prevent the camera from shaking which results in blurred images. There are two kinds of tripods that marketing teams and influencers use: traditional and flexible.

Traditional tripods are very much like your old-school tripods that are stiff and straight and can be adjusted one axis at a time.

Flexible tripods, or commonly known as gorilla tripods, on the other hand, are currently very well used among those who like to take pictures. Their flexibility is a huge plus as they can bend into a lot of shapes and take interesting angles.

3. Perfect Your Lighting

Light is an important factor in creating the perfect product image. It does a lot in setting the atmosphere and is necessary so you can get the correct color, vibrancy, and texture of your products.

The position of your light source will give different effects on your subjects. It will determine if your subject will appear flat or will cast a shadow partially to give a dramatic look or give a distinctive, alternative effect.

While some use special equipment, flashlights, or even the flash produced by their phone’s camera, you can also add or remove light digitally through programs like Photoshop or online editors like SnapSeed.

4. Use A Sweep To Keep The Background Clean

One way to achieve a seamless and plain background is to use a sweep. It’s usually a large bendable background used in photoshoots and would come in the color white. Although other sweep colors are available, white has been the go-to color for its simplicity.

At home, you can use a piece of plain white paper as the backdrop for your mini photoshoot. Remember, you don’t need to fold it (unless you’re going for a specific effect). You let your product sit on the edge of your paper and then let it bend. A lot of eCommerce product photos use this technique to make sure that their product is the star of the show.

5. Take Lots Of Pictures

Not all pictures are done perfectly by just taking a single shot. It takes multiple angles, positions, and correcting the light settings and effects to call the best shot of the product.

It’s the same reason why people rarely post their first selfies or influencers take a while before they actually bite into their ordered meal. They have to pick the one that makes them and whatever they’re trying to show off in the best light possible- whether it be food, a car, or themselves. Although there is that rare time where the first photo looks the best if you’re in the business of blowing up, taking ten more doesn’t hurt at all.

Aside from that, taking a lot of pictures helps in improving the way you take product images. It helps you see different shots from different perspectives so you will know what to do the next time you encounter such cases and not take much of your time.

Tips On How To Optimize Ecommerce Product Images

By taking good and high-quality eCommerce product images, you took care of the aesthetic and the visual appeal of your online shop. This time, you must deal with how to use your images in an optimal way that does not affect the performance of your website.

1. Optimize Images With cCmpression Tools

For websites that are image-heavy, it’s important to optimize the quality of the photo without ruining the quality. This will mean that your website won’t need too much bandwidth to run and it will even make your web page load faster.

There are multiple compression tools online that one can use to reduce the weight of your image. Compress Now is a good example of a compression tool you can use. You have the capacity to pick how many percent you want to compress it to and it will do it for you.

2. Remove Background From Images

Online marketers and retailers always pose their models and products in a plain background so the customer becomes more interested in the subject rather than what is going on in the background.

It is important that you attract your visitors and prospect customers directly to your product because this will bring greater conversion rates.

By hiring professionals on eCommerce photo editing or by using transparent background maker tools, you can have images with transparent or non-distracting backgrounds in no time and at a low cost. Photo editing tools and technologies usually come with compression and optimization functions that will improve the quality of your images to be made suitable for your online shop.

3. Keyword Optimize Your Image File Names

Aside from optimizing your images to maintain the performance of your website, you must also apply proper keyword optimization on your images in order to help the search engine recognize them.

Proper file names, descriptions, and alt texts help out in the overall SEO of your site. This means that there are high possibilities that the search engine can pick up your products and show them on the search engine results once someone looks for products that are the same as you offer. This will definitely affect the conversion rate of your shop and help you gain high revenues.

Conclusion

images are important when it comes to online retail. It’s important to provide the best possible photos so that when they comb over the website and study each picture, you can represent your product as close to reality as possible. It also needs to be optimized so the person checking out the website can still load the photo even when the internet is slow.

Ecommerce photo editing is not entirely different from how most people use FaceTune to make sure they present themselves in the best light. We only want to make sure that our consumers see the best of our product. Once they’re hooked, they’re most likely to be interested and eventually buy.

Author’s Bio:

Yen Pedrajas is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves to share and write insightful content about the latest social media trends, marketing strategies, actionable tips, and ideas. You can read her writings at Medium.

She is currently the Lead Editor of Removal.AI, an emerging image background removal online powered by AI technology to automatically make the transparent background from images. It also comes with a basic free photo editor to create graphic design much easier.