Why You Need A Product Photo Editor For Your Online Business ?
Shopping will always be the best entertainment for everyone. To open an e-commerce, it is better for you to know your target audience and their behavior. Let us go to the mall. When you go to the mall, what is the first thing you see there? A display window for some products which are using mannequin or not. Then if you feel interested, then you go to the products and looking at, touching and finally choosing the right product before you buy it. In an online store, the customer’s behavior is quite the same with those who shop in mall. Unfortunately, they cannot see the products directly even touch it. A good image you use in banners or product page becomes the new display window for your customer.
In an online store, the product description is not the major things for customer. An image with high quality will be the key for your brand or product. A good image will help the e-commerce owner to ensure the customer that their online store is reliable and professional. Besides, an image can strengthen your SEO when the customer googling the product via google image. The most important thing, an image is all about customer’s expectation for the product they want to buy.
Now, we realize how important a high quality image is for an e-commerce. But how is the photo session process? In an e-commerce, especially if you sell apparels, you need a model to show the apparels. For the professional image, you need a photographer who is familiar with e-commerce’s needs, knows how to direct the model, at least has a standard camera and knows about lighting. Is it enough for e-commerce?
The next step to have a good image for your e-commerce, you should hire a product photo editor. But absolutely, there are pros and cons about it.
Cons
• It is enough to hire a good photographer and ask him to minimize any mistake
• Without a photo editor, you minimize your company’s budget
• A photo editor will make the images become unnatural
Pros
• You will have a final quality control for your images when you hire a product photo editor
• The budget you should pay for the photo editor is worth it considering your sales and SEO needs
• In contrary, a product photo editor will make your image more consistent
• You should learn that a photographer has its own final touch, and a photo editor does. We will discuss it more below
There are more reasons for you to hire a product photo editor. When your e-commerce becomes bigger, you should really know the difference between a photographer’s job desk and photo editor’s.
Usually, in e-commerce, photographer and photo editor under the same division which is Production. There will be a Production Manager who makes sure all the products go to the photo session based on the products that received in your e-commerce, and he will make sure the products are taken by the photographer based on the style that the brands have, hire a model, a fashion stylist, and a maker-upper. Then after the photo session, he should make sure that the product photo editor receives all the images and then do their job.
These are two big difference between a photographer and product photo editor:
• A photographer’s focus
Photographer will focus on the model, the reference style of the brand/products, the details of the products, and other technical skills such as lighting and angle.
• A product photo editor’s focus
A product photo editor will consider about the whole tone of the graphic design of the site, the product page, the consistency of the background of the image, and the relevant images needed for the product copy.
What we should consider again to hire a product photo editor are mentioned below
1. There is a mistake that a photographer cannot avoid, such as a tattoo, scar or different color on the model’s skin.
2. Wrinkles on the apparels should be edited because sometimes it is not enough only to rely on how tidy the apparels are.
3. There will be a graphic designer who creates the style guide of the site related to the design of the whole site and regular banners. He really needs a product photo editor to edit the quality of the image before he creates the banners.
4. On the product page, besides that we should have a consistency of the background, we should have the consistency of the width and height frame related to where we put the product.
5. Lighting. Though the photographer will concern about the lighting, still we need a photo editor to make all of the images having the same tone and fit with the site itself
See, there are a lot of responsibilities that a product photo editor should do in an e-commerce. But then, we should consider again how the result can be a benefit for the e-commerce.
Remember that our customer has a behavior to see their expectation in the product which they want to buy, right? We need a product photo editor’s skill to fulfills their expectation by knowing more about 3 types of images needed to sell a product in an e-commerce.
1. The individual shot
The individual shot refers only to the product itself. This is usually the front angle of a product which shows the product generally.
2. The group shot
Usually, it refers to the product worn by a model or put with other props to make the product more interesting.
3. The detail shot
There are a lot of things you should concern about the detail shot. It should be very informative and relevant enough when it is displayed side by side with the product copy, for instance:
• For bags: you should give the detail shots of its external compartment, internal compartment, any details like the logo, the button or the pocket. It is a photo editor’s task to make sure when the customer zooms it, the photos are good and clear enough.
• For jewelry: you should give extra details from the photo editor to show the length of the necklace or the width of the bracelet.
In conclusion, the more you can have a high quality images from a product photo editor, the more traffic you can get from SEO and the more sales you can get from your customer, because the customer will be happier to see the product like their expectation, so we can anticipate any disappointment from our customer when they receive the product at home.
