DIY Product Photography - Complete Guide for Beginners

1. Class Introduction: [MUSIC] Hi there. I have a question for you. Do you remember your recent online shopping experience? How did the quality of product for those affect your buying decision? Did you know that e-commerce is a multi-billion dollar industry that relies heavily on product photography. With all that said, my name is Rose, I am a food and product photographer and I will be your instructor for this class. I specialize in helping local businesses have a strong online presence through high-quality product photos. My services also include product photography for menus, prints, and other marketing and advertising materials. My recent clients said that high-quality product for those increase their revenue, that they were able to maximize the product photos that we created and used it on Facebook ads and made their professional looking menu. Not only that, this client initially contacted me because their application to an online food delivery service got declined because of product photo quality and sizing. After our product photoshoot, they finally got approved and were able to scale their business through this online food delivery platform. Now, you may be here because you want to know more about product photography and if you can do it yourself, my answer is, first, no matter what product you are selling, you need to stand out and find creative ways to do it. Among the different strategies you can think of, there is one that has a huge impact on buying decision or buying behaviors. Product photography. One research shows that 90 percent of online buyers see that photo quality is the most important factor in an online sale and that great product photography is essential for convincing consumers to buy products. Now the next question is, can you do it yourself? Absolutely. This class will cover the basics of product photography, how to properly like your products, how to plan, style, compose, edit, and export your images. I will also share with you different tips to really level up your product photos using human element, color, and other props to make it more irresistible for your target customers. Plus I will walk you through setting up your home studio. This class is perfect for anyone who wants to create and capture eye-catching product photos. Whether you are selling products online or you just want to expand your photography skills, or if you want to really immerse in product photography, then this class is a great starting point for you. By the end of this class, you will know how you can maximize the things you have at home or things from the nearest dollar store to create professional-looking product photos that can translate to sales. You will also know how to style your scene for creative ways to showcase your products. Basically, you will be more confident in taking still-life subjects without all the fancy gear. I hope you are excited as I am. I can't wait to share with you everything I learned from countless product photoshoots. Head onto the next video and let's get started. 2. Class project: Before we jump into the class, let's talk about your class project. There will be activities at the end of most lessons like setting up your home studio and taking practice shots. You may attach photos that you took in the project section of this class. The biggest mistake that you will make is not doing. We learn when we practice. I hope that you will really take the time to do the activities and really take it seriously and get your hands dirty. But most importantly, have lots of fun. 3. Top 3 goals in Product Photography: Hello and welcome to the DIY Product Photography course. Again, my name is Rose and I can't wait to share with you everything I learned from countless food and product photo shoots. Before we formally start, I just wanted to congratulate you because you have taken an important step in growing your photography skills and business. If you will continue with that growth mindset and can do attitude, success is not far ahead. Just a quick overview of how the course will run. I have divided it into different sections so you can have time to practice or take breaks. I have included some PDF Guides in the Resources tab. We will also be doing two kinds of photo shoots. First is a plain background on a sweep or a seamless background. Second, a stylized product photoshoot and we're going to use props and apply some styling techniques. Let's start with our top three goals. We want to nail products photography because number 1, we want more sales. Number 2, we want great customer experience. Number 3, we want less product returns. If you are a photographer, you want to help your client achieve these goals through some product photos. But how do we define great product photography? Great product photography is being able to capture a realistic image of the item. This gives your potential buyers ideas of what the product is like. This is especially important in e-commerce because your buyers cannot physically touch or feel the product. We're going to help them by conveying the look and feel of the item through our camera lense. Product photography is also an opportunity to suggest to your buyers how they can use your product. This is achieved through planning and creative styling. A great product photo is the one that shows accurate details of the product, while showing off the features that are most appealing to customers. Basically, we want it to look real and attractive. What are the things that we will need to create high-quality product photos? Number 1, your product. Number 2, a camera. It can be a DSLR, mirrorless, or even a smartphone. Next, a chair or a table, a plain background. This can be bolster papers or a fabric. Next is a flat surface. If you will be using a chair, tapes, or clamps, of course, you will need your light source. It can be light from the sun or light from artificial. Next, light diffusers such as white curtain, baking paper or the actual study in one diffusers that you can purchase online for a cheap price. Next, light reflectors such as whiteboards, bolster papers, white fabric or anything white or shiny to reflect light back into your subject or your product. Finally, props. Please take note that this is a DIY Product Photography course. I listed things that are easily accessible. Now if you have a more professional gear, that's perfect, that's great. Feel free to use them. Next up, an underrated topic that has a huge impact on the actual photoshoot and your final images. 4. The most overlooked and underrated topic: [MUSIC] Welcome to the planning lesson. You might be thinking, we will be photographing a product on a plain background. What is the plan? Well, Number 1, even if we will be photographing your products on a plain background, there are things that we need to do and make sure we don't miss for a smooth and easy photoshoot. Number 2, remember, I told you we will have two kinds of photoshoot. One with a plain background and second, a stylized product photoshoot. In the coming lessons, we are going to spice things up a bit by adding props and other elements to your product photoshoot. Yes. Photos in plain background showing off important details are necessary, but in my opinion, it is even better to include a style scene in your photoshoots. This way, we can really present your product the best way possible. Plus it adds dynamic to the overall image, which can really affect how your customers will portray the product. For example, this bottled cocoa chili paste looks nice and neat, but it becomes more irresistible when you incorporate it in a scene and suggest to your customers how they can use your product. Planning is very important because this is when you do all the brainstorming. This is when you look for inspiration. This is when you decide how you want your product photos to look at the end of the shoot. Planning tip Number 1 is your branding. Yes, your product photos need to look sharp and beautiful, but most importantly, it should be consistent with your brand. If your product is cute and playful, I don't think it will really match a plain black background. To really dig deep into this, let me show you examples. I have selected three Instagram pages to show you what they mean. First, I have this beauty product, then I have this organic clothing for babies, and then this Baked Mac page. As you can see, when you scroll through their feed, there's cohesiveness, there's uniformity, there's pattern, and you can really see their branding. It's very consistent. You don't see a mix of photos, later on I will show you what a not so uniform grid or Instagram page looks like. Let's move on to this organic clothing for little ones so you can see the colors. There is a pattern. You can see that they've selected a consistent color scheme, a consistent design for their page. You don't see bright red or bright pink. Yeah, it's very cohesive, and just by visiting their Instagram page, you can really see their branding, their style, and all of that. Next, this Baked Mac Overload page. It's very red and yellow. I think yellow and red suggest appetite if I'm not wrong. [LAUGHTER] It's the same color of McDonald's. Yeah, you can really see cohesiveness and uniformity like they really took time to let you know their branding, how they set up their Instagram page. That's what I mean when you are planning to create your page or if you're creating a portfolio for a client, you can do a mock up grid when you put nine photos so you can show them what it looks like if they will arrange their product in a certain way, that if they will have a professional photograph of their product. Maybe let me show you what it looks like if it's not very cohesive, so yeah like this one. I don't really think that this business has a professional photographer to take the photos or if this business planned for how they would arrange the photos on their Instagram page. From there, you can really see what a cohesive page, a cohesive grid looks like, so from this to this, there's cohesiveness, uniformity, consistency. That's what I mean about planning and really taking time to invest in your professional photos, and really creating that beautiful and attractive page for your business or for your clients. Really stay consistent with your branding. Make sure that the images you want to create will match your target audience. We want strong product photos and we do half of the hard work in the planning stage. Planning tip Number 2. In the planning stage, you can create a mood board or a sketch or anything that can put your ideas in one place. This will help you in sending a clear message to your target audience. People love consistency and pattern. Creating a mood board or sketch will greatly help with that. If you are a photographer and you are doing this for a client, showing your mood board or your sketch to your client will save you time and reshoots. It will also give an impression that you are professional and thoughtful. Next, planning tip Number 3. If you will be using props, this is the time to think about what color scheme you want to follow. This is also the time to make a list of the things that you will need so you won't get distracted during the photoshoot. Finally, this is the best time to make a list of the shots you need. How many, what angles, position, and orientation so you can match it to whatever online platform or purpose. Now, I know this is a lot, but don't worry. We're now moving on to the exciting part, setting up your home studio. Now if you are not yet ready, you can always go back to this lesson if ever you need to review the steps. But for now, head onto the next video, and let's start shooting. 5. Let's make your HOME STUDIO from scratch: In this video, we're going to set up your home studio. Or in my case, I will be setting up my home studio so you can use it as a guide in setting up your own. In this photo shoot I will be photographing this coconut chili paste. I personally love this product. I'm really excited to show you that we can shoot this product. We can create great product photos for e-commerce for this product using things that we can find at home. Plus I will be shooting using my iPhone and my Android phone so I can also show you that really we can make high-quality product photos using our smartphone and the things that we have at home. Let's get started. I showed you the product and the smartphones that I'll be using. I might be adding some DSLR shots as well just to show you that if ever you have a DSLR, maybe entry-level, used DSLR, mirrorless, crop sensor, whatever it is, you can use any camera to capture high-quality product photos. First thing that we'll be needing, well, actually third, so we have our product, our camera, next, a chair. As you can see, the surface or this area of the chair is not flat so we're going to be needing a flat surface to put here so we can get a nice flat surface. Next is our background. Again, this is just a poster paper. I got it for a very cheap price from a near bookstore, near our place. That's where then, a bookstore near our place and I've got these tapes. It's very thin though. I ran out of the ones that I usually use, but it will still work. Let's just put it here ready for our background. [NOISE] This is really thin. I think I still have thick ones left, I really need the thick one. That's a very real-time lesson, use the thicker ones, reliable ones. [NOISE] We want to put the tapes here so we can attach the top part of our poster paper. If you're using poster paper you have to be very careful because you can make a wrinkle or destroy it, so we have to be really careful in attaching it to your chair using tapes. We're just making a nice sweep. A nice seamless background. I feel like it's a bit wrinkly, but that's okay we can just edit that. Or I hope it won't be captured by the camera. In the other videos, I will show you the effect of a really perfect sweep or a really perfect seamless background. But I just want to show you how you can set up your home studio. This is how you do it. As you can see, you have to be really careful with your poster paper in putting it because you can create wrinkles. [NOISE] Instead of you not having to remove them in the post-processing, then that's another work. That's why you have to be very careful. [NOISE] We're almost done with our background. You've got your chair, your surface, your tapes, your sweep or your background. Once you put your product here, this is how it looks like. You can see it's a bit dark in this area. That is when you can use your reflectors. We can just use anything white. In this case, I'm using this multi-purpose reflector, but then you can use folders, whiteboards, anything Styrofoam. Just look at how this reflector will affect our product. Basically, this is how your whole setup will look like. You have your chair, backdrop or background, your product, and a reflector. Let me just quickly go over lighting. As you can see here, this is our lighting. Just to share with you, this is actually our events light. This is for wedding videography gigs that we used before. But since we've transitioned to product and food photography, we've been using it in our shoots. It's not really intended for product photography. But the main point here is that this is going to be your light source. We're doing a one lighting setup. If you have a house and a window that has enough lighting from the sun, you can definitely set it up like this. You have to pretend that this is your window. This is your window and light is coming in. Then this round thing right here, this is a diffuser. You can use a white curtain or a white blanket to diffuse the light. You can even use baking paper. Let me just show you real quick. Let's say you have a light source, you can use baking paper to diffuse the light, to give you that really soft light. Product photos are attractive when they have soft light. But of course, you will see other photos or other product photos that has harsh lighting and they look good. But that's another topic for another day. We just want to go over a basic photo shoot setup at this point. Just a quick recap about lighting. You can use either light from the sun or light from an artificial light source like ring lights or anything that can provide you adequate lighting. Anyway, once you are doing the photo shoot, you can really see the effect of light to your subject. If you don't have any artificial light, I would recommend to shoot during daytime so we can get adequate sunlight and you can maximize it to create well-lit product photos. It's just that I'm shooting during night times so I use this artificial lighting in my setup. But then in the coming lessons, you will see how I use natural lighting to shoot product photos. 6. Lighting mistakes you need to know to save you from reshoots: [MUSIC] We are done with our basic home studio set up. In this lesson, let's quickly go over lighting mistakes so you won't have to experience them during your photo shoots. Number 1 is mixed lighting. That is when you have your room light turned on, you have light coming from your window, and you have your artificial light, all these light sources mixing. What you want when you're doing a product photoshoot is one light source. In this case, I just have my artificial lighting, and that's it. Everything else is turned off. If you have your television turned on, you have a lamp shade, make sure they're all turned off. If you're shooting using natural lighting, of course, open the window, have your curtain to diffuse the light. If it's cloudy, then no need to diffuse it. The clouds will do the diffusing for you. But if it's a sunny day and the light is really harsh, you can use anything to diffuse the light. Now, if you have your room light turned on, make sure to turn it off. Let me just quickly show you the effect, when I turn on the light in this room. As you can see, it's different, the effect of mixed lighting. Just one light source coming from lateral direction is different, if we will just look at our product photo. By the way, I just want to quickly go over directions. I placed the light source here so it will create nice shadows, and it will also create depth and add texture to the product. If I will be positioning the light in front of the product, it will not be as flattering. It will look flat, but not flattering. That's another tip. Make sure to position your light source on the right side or left side of your subject. Then you just bounce the light back using a reflector. Because I know you've seen in some of YouTube videos, where in they're using two lights to light the subject, what you can do instead is have an adequate light source. Then reflect it with a white board or white poster paper, white folder, whatever, as long as it will reflect light back to your subject. This is how a mixed lighting looks like, you don't want that. Make sure you only have one light source. [MUSIC] We are back on one light source. Next is color casting. If you will notice, I am wearing black. Please do the same thing, if you're doing a product photo shoot because you don't want to reflect unwanted color to your product. In this case, if I am wearing something bright, pink, and colorful, just observe the effect on the product. In post, if you're editing your product, it's going to really show that in your white background, there is some pink showing. It will be very light, but it's still noticeable. We don't want that, especially if you're a photographer, and you're doing it for clients. You want to make sure that your products look really professional. You want it to be clean, well-lit, balanced. Avoid wearing colorful shirts. Make sure to wear something neutral, gray, or black. White can be good. It can reflect more light into your subject, it depends. If you don't want more light coming to your subject, it's safe to wear black or gray. Next is harsh light. I mentioned about lighting without the diffuser. Let me just show you a photo of what harsh light looks like. It's not very appealing to most of product photos. But if you are a more advanced photographer, then definitely you can play with harsh light. But if you're just starting out, or if you're a business owner, or if you're an online seller, and you have these products, I don't think it's the best time to play with harsh light. If you are just starting out, or if you're a business owner, or you're an online seller, and of course you want to do product photography on your own, I'd recommend to start with soft lighting. It's safer and I think it's really better, when it comes to product photos. Moving on, we're done with lighting, we're done with your home studio. I just want to to show you how I will move this. Because I told you earlier, I'm not quite happy with how it's lit. [MUSIC] This is how it looks like. [MUSIC] I'll be adding this reflector. It's well-lit. Now, let me go ahead and try to take photos. [MUSIC] 7. It's time to take photos!: Now that you know how to set up your home studio, you know about proper lighting and lighting mistakes you should avoid. Let's start taking photos using a smartphone. So there are different angles that you can use to take photos. This is the eye level or a straight on. We also have the 45 degrees, we have detail shots wherein you go really close, then of course, we have the overhead or the top view which is not very appealing or not [LAUGHTER] very applicable for this product. But at least let me show you the effect. So this is called a flat lay. This is actually more applicable for clothes or for products that don't stand. Since this is standing, this is actually best shot straight on or at eye level. [NOISE] Now, it's quite challenging to photograph it using a phone, straight on. So you might want to put your phone or you might want to position your phone upside down so you can get a better angle. Because our camera lens is here, right? So this is perfect. This is better. Of course, while you're shooting, you may want to change the position of your product just to give you a better view, a better angle, a better look. Make sure to always focus on your branding, on your logo, and the important parts of the products. So that is it for the first part. We were able to set up a home studio, we were able to maximize the things that we can find at home or office, or a nearby bookstore or a Dollar store. So from there, you learned about lighting and how to position your product, different shooting angles. Just quickly with the camera settings, I will try and dig deeper into camera settings in the coming lessons. But I just want to let you know that if you're just starting out and if you're using your phone, you don't have to really worry about the settings, especially if you have adequate lighting. So the technique, in photography, in general, is having enough light. That way you don't have to really play around with the settings. But if you are a photographer and you want to create different scenes, or different moods and different looks, and you're using a DSLR, then it's worth studying about different camera settings and all that. If you are a DSLR or a mirrorless user and you're just starting out, you can always use the auto mode wherein your camera decides what kind of settings or what are the best settings for that specific scene or that specific lighting condition. You can definitely stick with that. That's perfectly fine. Auto mode in DIY product photography is okay. Lastly, be careful with your autofocus. Smartphones nowadays have this autofocus function, your DSLR have autofocus functions. Make sure that your camera is focused to the main logo, the brand, important parts of the product. If you really want to go deeper with camera settings, if you have a DSLR, you might want to check out my DSLR Photography for Beginners. In there you will see all the settings, how the switch from auto to manual, everything that you will need to know when shooting with a DSLR or a mirrorless. But for now, let's go ahead and move on to our next topic. It's your turn. Set up your home studio maximizing things that you have at home or the nearest store. Find a place with the best lighting in your house or use artificial light. Create a seamless background and practice taking photos of your products. 8. The fun in changing backgrounds: Welcome back. In the previous lessons, we learned about the importance of product photography, how to plan and set up your home studio. We talked about the most important element in photography, which is lighting, as well as top three lighting mistakes you should avoid. In this video, I will be changing the background and we will go over three product photography tips. Before we change to a black background, let me just quickly show you other products I shot using the white seamless background. And hopefully you will have more ideas on how you can best shoot your products. Product photography tip number one is to show off details of your product. If you can do this with whatever camera that you currently have, then that's great. But if not and your products are small and you need to capture details. This is the only time that I will recommend investing in a DSLR or a mirrorless camera in a macro lens. It's worth it if you will maximize it and take detailed shot as well as other creative shots of your product. I mentioned that your buyers can't physically touch or feel your product, so giving them a closer look will really help their buying decision. I remember shopping for a dress online and what would really encouraged me to buy it are photos showing closer details of the fabric. I honestly felt the texture of the product just by looking at the photo. Amazing, right? Okay, going back to our necklace, what I noticed is that I have to position the camera a certain way to get this nice reflection on the pendant. In most of the demos, you will see me adjusting my position, adjusting the position of the camera and the position of the product to get a different perspective and that is your tip number two, move. Experiment with different positions and angles to get different results and perspectives. Next is this Rubik's Cube. I love how colorful this product is and the best way to show it off is with a white background. I wiped all the sides to make sure that the product does not have smudges. So product photography tip number three is clean your product. Make sure that there are no smudges visible. You want to select the best looking product for your photo shoot and make sure to do multiple scans to avoid distractions that are quite difficult to remove in editing. Remembering tip number two, I am now changing the position of the Rubik's cube to get a nicer texture and shadows. Now, moving on to changing to a black background. Black is also a great background because it can give your products a different vibe. Let me just quickly change it so I can show you. [MUSIC] Here is the necklace with a white background and here's the necklace with a black background. Nice, right? It looks elegant and fancy with a black background. I also shot a clock with this DIY black seamless background and finally, this laser hair remover that I just received in the mail today. Look at those dramatic shadows. I hope you are getting ideas by me showing you the effects of changing the background color. Next, I will be doing another photo shoot of the Coco Chili, this time with a brown background. While I was evaluating the final images, I realize that I am not satisfied with just the white and black background for this food product. I thought of using a brown poster paper instead. Also, I'd like to show you how I set up a table for my base instead of a chair. In this photo shoot, I pushed my table to the wall so I can use it to attach the top part of my seamless background. Of course, let's not forget the reflector. Here are our final photos. Honestly, I am happy that I tried another photo shoot with a brown background. I think it really complimented the product. Also in the coming lessons, I will show you a grid with most of the Coco Chili photos and you will understand why I had to do the photo shoot with a brown background. But for now I just want to show you the effect of changing background colors. I hope you enjoyed that. We know how to setup our home studio. You know how to take different photos in different angles. In the next video, I will show you quickly how we can enhance your product photos through editing using just a smartphone. It's your turn. If applicable to your product, try changing the background color to give a different feel and vibe. Please don't be limited to just black and white. You can also use pink, blue, and brown like I did earlier. You can even combine two colors as your background. Good luck. 9. Product photo editing using a mobile phone: Welcome to this lesson. In this video, I will be editing one of our product photos using Adobe Lightroom for mobile. I am just using my Android phone to do it. First, I open Lightroom for Mobile. Let me just record the screen so I can also show you what's going on in my screen. So here is our final image straight from the camera roll. Let me just start with a crop. When you're editing product photos, you want to start with a crop depending on the purpose. Let's say it's for Instagram. You can select the square and then put your product in the middle. Or let's say if it's for Amazon or whatever online platform wherein they want to see the clear and sharp and realistic image of your product. It will also depend what size or dimension you are required to when uploading your products. You have the option to do a crop. That's good. I'm okay with that. Next, I want to change the white balance, not really change, but make sure that the white balance is correct. We go to color and then white balance, as you can see. Then just select the white area of the photo. And this is the correct white balance of this scene. Next, let's go back to light and just make it brighter by adjusting the exposure and then adding a bit of contrast. For highlights when you decrease it like this, it will show you more details, but then when you increase it, it will lighten up and it will look more bright and airy. For this photo, I think I'll go with adding more highlights to make it more light and airy and vibrant, just how you're seeing it now. I don't want the shadow, so I'll decrease it. But not so much. I still want that depth and a bit of drama, just a bit. Add more whites. The reason why I'm adding more white to this photo because I want it to look clean and professional and guess what? The way that it's looking right now. It's amazing. And remember that I took it using my smartphone. You can see the before and after. We've gone a long way, we just editing the light area and the white balance. Let's see with a color, I don't want to adjust the temperature then. I just want to add a bit of vibrance. I'm good with 15. Then I don't want to saturate because as you can see, that doesn't look realistic anymore. This is when you don't want to overdo editing because then it will not look realistic and it will look funny and overly done. We don't want that. We just want to bring it back to zero. Doesn't want to go back to zero. There, it's back to zero. Then the effects, I want to add a bit of clarity. See it's looking so good. I won't be touching the texture because then it will. I'm happy with the clarity, just the clarity. Sharpening, do I want to sharpen it? Yes, maybe a bit, just around 30. You can play around with the settings. Feel free to do that. Just make sure to keep it real and attractive. I'm doing mask. When you sharpen, you'll want to compensate it with masking as well so you don't get noise. Do we want noise reduction? There's really, I don't see any noise on this photo, so I won't be doing noise reduction. You want to remove chromatic aberration and enable lens correction. It would correct any distortion. Because for some, when you take a photo, some lenses are shaped like that like a fish eye so there are distortions. So enable lens corrections option removes that kind of distortion. It looks more professional, clean, and awesome. This is our final photo. This is our before. It looks off and weird. But then this is our after photo. I will be more than happy to upload this on Amazon, on different social media or e-commerce website. It looks nice, it looks clean, it looks professional. See, I just used a smartphone to capture this image. I use a smartphone to edit this. Yes, you can definitely start with your iPhone. Your smartphone. Just make sure to really study the fundamentals and to really take the time to practice and to do your editing. All the hard work is worth it. Yeah, I'm just so happy with our final image and I will see you in the next video. [MUSIC] 10. How to save photos with customized dimension for e commerce and social media : [MUSIC] There you have it. We were able to capture this amazing product photo using a smartphone. We were able to edit it using just a smartphone. From there you can really see that you can start with whatever camera that you have, including your smartphone. Just make sure to really study the fundamentals and take time to practice. So just before we move on to the next lesson, I just want to show you how we can export it so we can maximize or we won't be losing quality when we use it for different platforms and different purposes. You have your Share button at the top, you have the option to select Export as and from here you can select the file type, the dimensions, you can include watermarks and you have other options here, so let's say we'll be uploading this photo on just an example, Instagram. For Instagram, the best they mentioned will be 1080 and then the quality should be just 70 because if you select 100, then Instagram will just degrade it so that the file size will be smaller and they do a very poor job at it so better to do it yourself. Next is to, of course, if you want to organize your files, make sure to change the file naming and for the output sharpening if it will be viewed onscreen. Well, for e-commerce. So just select Screen amount for sharpening is standard and color space should be sRGB. Those are the important settings, of course, if you want to print it or if there are other settings, or if there are other purposes for this photo, you can definitely change the quality to 100 and I have attached an export setting guide on this class so you can definitely review that and use it as a guide when exporting your photos. If you will be uploading your images or product photos on Amazon in different e-commerce website. They will be providing you with the best they mentioned and the best settings to upload your images so make sure to take note of that and use the Export As button to change the settings. It is amazing how very basic and minor edits can transform your product photos. I encourage you not to miss this step. If you are more comfortable using Lightroom for Mac and PC, feel free to use it. I also have demos in the coming lessons editing product photos using Adobe Lightroom for desktop. Just to remember that editing is not cheating as long as you are doing it to enhance the look of your product, then it's an important part of the creative process. Just make sure to not overdo it, because our goal is to make our products look realistic. Next, we will be moving on to a new section. I know some of you may be more interested in the coming topic, stylized product photography. Now it's your turn. Once you are done with the photoshoot, proceed with editing your images using any editing software that you are comfortable using. Follow the basic editing tips I shared from this video. Please upload your edited photos in the project section. I'd love to see your masterpiece. Have fun. [MUSIC] 11. Spice things up! Style your product photoshoot :): Welcome to a new section of this course. In the following lessons, I will share with you ways to really level up your product photos, how to make it more attractive, more appealing, and eye catching. Let's start with storytelling. The best part of working with different businesses is that every product and business has a story. For example, I told you about my recent client. Their business is a homemade pizza store. I love this story of their business. They are a couple who believed and supported each other. With a leap of faith, they started their pizza store. Although there are a lot of pizza stores already in our town, they believed their products are special. It is a homemade pizza with love. Before the photo shoot, the client told me that I should photograph the product in a way that it will look homey. Because I know the story behind the product and the brand. It was easier for me to plan for this photo shoot. The story helped me in deciding what props to use and how to execute the photo shoot. The client had a specific request as well, like the pizza in a background without props, so we did that too. Since I'm photographing pizza, the best angle to shoot is the top view, or most commonly known as flatlay. You can do this with clothes and other products that cannot stand and are more appealing when viewed overhead. Remember the planning stage right down the story of your business or a brand. Write down what is most compelling. Make sure to be authentic. Don't imitate other brands just because they are famous. Stick to your story because that is what your audience wants. Adjectives may also help your product storytelling. I will attach a list of adjectives to this lesson. Pick 3-5 that best describes your product. Remember the coco chili paste that we photographed in the beginning, that product has a different story too, and the best adjective to describe it are caring, earthy, natural, and authentic. These are the final photos that I created for this product. In the next lessons, we will talk about props and styling. We will start with a beauty product, and to spice things up, I selected four adjectives for this beauty products. But instead of putting them together in one photo shoots, I will do two concepts. I will do playful and pink, and the next is mature and natural. See you in the next lesson. 12. Intro to PRODUCT PROPS and STYLING: Next is props and styling. To make it more exciting, we are going to style two products, a beauty product and a food product. Let's start with the beauty product. To show you that you can definitely shoot your product photos using natural lighting and because it's daytime when I shot the one for the beauty products, you'll see in the next demo that I will be setting up my scene near a window. 13. Props and styling for a BEAUTY product: Props and styling can help you tell the story through photos. These are other objects that you can use or even finding your house to add in your scene to show emphasis to the subject. Not overpower, but add interest to your photos. Examples of props are the ingredients of a dish, if you're photographing a food. The objects that best support your products or anything that can complement the product that you are photographing. This is a flexible and creative process, so it helps to look for inspirations. For this shoot, for concept Number 1, my adjectives are feminine, natural and cute. So I got this pink facial towel, this cute cosmetic headband. I also have this pink color. For concept Number 2, I have this wooden props that I normally use for food photography, this cotton container, and this wooden background. I got my props from American bizarre. I shopped earlier for this prop. So after I planned and sought of my concept, that really helped me to buy additional props. It's not necessary to spend a lot of money if you have things at home that could help support the styling or the plan that you have for your shoot, then there's no need for you to buy it. But for me, I don't have a lot of pink items or girly stuff in my house. So I went to American bizarre and got this props. So I got this pouch, this green and pink pouch. I got this pink colors. So we're going for femininity [NOISE] playful for scene Number 1 or concept Number 1. So when I saw these colors I thought that it would help with our concept. So pink colors to add to that girly feel. This pink face towel. I also have this cotton container. So when I saw this, I thought it would be perfect. We have at the toner, I thought it would be nice to have this cotton containers. Of course we have cottons. Basically that's how you style your props. For this product, how do you normally use it? You support that using props. So I'll be putting this cotton inside. This will really help us tell a story that this is for a skincare routine that you will be using cotton to apply this product to your face. This will help tell that story. It's not worrying, it's not that you just see the toner and that's it. You also see cotton and you see all these girly stuff. So it reminds you of your closet, of your bathroom, something like that. That's the exciting part with product photography when you choose props and you try to make a scene to suggest that your buyers, how will you be using their product and stuff like that. So that's nice. We have the cotton container. What else do I have here? Finally, I have this headband, this cute pink headband. So with the girls when you are doing your skincare routine, most of the time you have your headband because you don't want your hair going to your face or blocking your face when you apply your products. So this is also one way for me to suggest how you use this product sale is all about emotion. That's why product photography is very important and carefully styling your scene to match your product, to support your product is also very important in product photography. So these are the props for our concept Number 1, that's playful and pink. For our concept Number 2, it's mature and natural. With that, I'll be using wooden props to suggest nature, natural. I'll be using this background as well. So I'll be using this background for concept Number 2 to really support that mature and natural theme or concept. Finally, for this concept, I'd like use fresh flowers to really suggest that naturally feel. So we're going outside the big sunflowers. [MUSIC] So we are back in the studio and it was raining a little when we went outside and got these flowers. That's a very practical and live example of the unknowns when you do a photo shoot. So you have to be prepared with that. So that's something to also remember that things does not go as planned every time when we do a photo shoot. So it's trial and error. If it's doable, go for it. If it's not, just move on. Think of other creative ways to pull off the concept that you have in mind. It's very important not to get caught up with uncontrollable situations. That's why it's very important to have a plan. If your plan does not go accordingly, you know how you decided to have that concept. You know how to back it up. As you can see, we have two concepts. So we have playful and pink and mature and natural. So we have two. So I think that's the importance of having a backup plan. For example, it was raining so hard outside and I could not get my flowers and I could just stick with playful and pink. So I was able to show you a live example of why planning is important. Because as you can see, again, there are a lot of unknowns when doing a photo shoot. So get yourself ready. Don't stress out too much, just let your creativity do the work and enjoy, have fun. [MUSIC] So for our concept Number 1, I chose this background, change the position of my table. [MUSIC] [NOISE] These are my unknowns. A lot of unknowns. Next is styling. This is how you arrange your props and subject to match the idea that you have in mind. Now to help in styling, let us also explore what are commonly used composition techniques in photography in the next lesson. [NOISE] Your turn, choose your props based on the adjectives that you use to describe your product. What are the props that you can use to support the story of your product? 14. Every Photographer's secret: Compelling Compositions: Now that you have your sketch, your plan, and your props, next thing you need to consider is how you will compose your shots. Although spontaneous photo shoots are nice, images that stand out are usually carefully planned and involve a lot of preparation. But, there is a big but, don't use this as an excuse to never shoot. I'm just saying this to keep in mind in your future shoots. Progress is better than perfection. Done is better than perfect. Make sure to execute even if your plan is not perfect. Photography involves a lot of trial and error because really, who knows what happens into the photo shoot? What the final image will look like? All we can do is plan and prepare. But at the end of the day, we take great images or not, then we improve and eventually take great images. With all that said, let us talk about different composition techniques that we can maximize in photography. Composition is what guides our eyes through a photograph and gives importance to the subject in relation to the rest of the photo. It is important to go into every shoot with a precise idea of how you want the result to look. With practice, you will develop your own style and talent for composition and photo designs. When starting out, it is natural to place your subject at the center of the frame. However, in a photograph, having your subject placed dead center often leads to a boring composition. Doing so makes our photographs look predictable. The rule of thirds is one of the most popular compositional techniques. The rule of thirds divides your scene into a three-by-three grid with equal-sized rectangles. To follow this rule, compose your subject in one-third of the frame or on the line. This creates a more dynamic and pleasing composition since it gives more emphasis to your subject and their environment. Next is the rule of odds. This composition technique involves using odd numbers in styling the subject and the props. An odd number of elements is seen as more natural and easier on the eyes. Odd numbers create a sense of balance and harmony. It also provides a resting point for our eyes. An even number of objects can divide our attention and compete with each other. In product photography, the aim is to have three or five props. Of course, you can have more. It depends. As you go along, you will definitely discover your own personal style. Next, out-of-focus depth and foreground. In this composition technique, try to focus on your subject and make them stand out by narrowing in on the contrast between the subject and the background. The more contrast, the more dramatic your shots and the more prominent your subject will be. A winning photo composition also remains the one where your main subject is isolated due to the contrast solution, including some foreground interests in scene is also a great way of adding a sense of depth to the scene or your photos. Your photos are two-dimensional by nature, including foreground interests in your frame is one of a number of techniques that give the scene a more 3D feel and look. Next, the golden triangle. Instead of a grid of rectangles, we divided the frame with a diagonal line going from one corner to another, within additional two more lines from the other corners to the diagonal line. The rule of triangles can seem like a complex way of arranging a photo, but it can result in some really striking compositions. Another way to make your subjects stand out is by using contrasting colors. Examples of this include vibrant versus muted colors, warm versus cool colors, dark versus light colors. Symmetry and patterns are best with flat lays. There's a reason why we love patterns. They're aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The same goes for a slight variation, asymmetrical shots that include empty space and breaking of patterns is also good because human beings are naturally attracted to patterns. They are visually attractive and suggest harmony. It is also best used when photographing foods, donuts, and other food or product that shows patterns. Finally, minimalist composition. When you were in the actual photo shoot, there are lot of unknown. It could be overwhelming. That is why it is important that you have your planning notes to give you direction and to lead you back to your vision. Shooting involves trial and error because honesty, you will never know how your images will turn out. Most of the time, you will be surprised with your final photos. Sometimes they're way better than your initial plan. Just enjoy the process and if your worst-case scenario or if the worst-case scenario, you did not like your final photos, repeat the entire process of planning and shooting until you are happy with the result. Now that we have a plan, we have a location, we have our product and props. We are done styling and composing our first concept. Let's start shooting. This is the 45-degree angle. This is the eye level or the hero shot. Next is the top view. Next is artistic or going really, really close. It's your turn again. Grab your sketch plan, your product, and props. Using the composition technique that you chose, style your scene, and take photos using the four angles, top view, 45-degrees, eye level, and artistic. 15. Props and styling for a FOOD product: Now we're going to explore and experiment using props. First, I want to photograph this variant of this product. This coconut chili paste has a savage hot flavor, so savage. I think it's a very good way to say that it's really, really spicy. To achieve or to tell a story of spiciness, I have prepared a lot of chilies to use as props into the shoot, so I will show you the final results or how I was able to achieve that look. [MUSIC]. Now we are done shooting the Savage Hot flavor or the variant. There's actually another variant which is the light flavor we're in it's not very spicy. With that, I'll be just using a couple of chilies to tell that story. There is also a honey blend variant or flavor, and with that, I will be needing to use a honey deeper. I have a honey, but I don't have a honey deeper. I wanted to use a honey dipper to tell that story, but my order hasn't arrived yet and I needed to shoot this product for a client, and I wanted to show it to you as well. [BACKGROUND] I don't know, maybe when it arrives, I'll try to get the photo of that as well. But for now, we are done with the flavors with how we can show different flavors through the use of props. Next, I will show you an actual prompts in styling. I also use this or I also do this in food photography. This is basically product and food photography combined, so this is going to be exciting. For this shoot I had to revisit our adjectives or brand adjectives cheat sheet. You will see that attached to this course. For this product, the adjective that I chose to best describe and to tell the story of this product are warm, natural, and caring. Why did I choose this adjectives? First, warm and natural, because this is coconut chili. The ingredients of this product are organic, so it's my way of telling that story. When I interviewed the CEO of this product, he told me the story behind the name, the branding, the product, and from the name itself, it's Lola Pilang. In English it's like Grandma Pilang. It's more of a reminder, a memory of their grandmother who've already passed away. To me that's just so warm and just so inspiring, and so I wanted to put that into my photos. I wanted for people to feel care and nature and warmth whenever they see my photos. So I will try and achieve that, as I select my props, as I do this photo shoot, I will go ahead and do that. If I was able to achieve it, please let me know. You can send me a message, you can post in the Q&A. You can join our creative online community. You can let me know. I'm very interested in connecting with my students. You are my inspiration, and so I'd love to hear from you. Let's proceed with the actual styling and photo shoot. The first part I told you about the brand adjectives, I shared with you the brand adjectives, so I had to plan the shoot beforehand. I'll just show you some of the inspiration that I've got online before I proceed with getting or buying my props. Again, planning is very important. Part of planning is also researching on the product. If it's not yours, if it's for a client, interview the owner, search for the branding, the logos, the vision of the company, so that you know what you can do, you know where on what premises you can work on, you know what is the feel, what is the ambiance that you want to contribute to this company. Now if this is your product, it's going to be easier. Just imagine you're telling the story of your brand, of your product to somebody, and just take note of the adjectives of unique things that will come out and use that when you plan, when you select props, and when you shoot your product. For this shoot, we are going to photograph the coconut chili paste with the ingredients. That's another way to tell your story or the story of your product is by using the ingredients as props. So when your target audience saw the product, the photo, they would easily know what are the ingredients, in just the one look, you can tell them the entire story of how your product was made, what are the ingredients, something like that. Let me show you how I will do that. For this shoot, I will have to change the setup of my table. You will see why. The next, I'll be using this backdrop, I will be putting it here, so let me just show you how I will do that. Now I'm showing you all of this because I want you to have an idea, so when you're shooting you know how to do it. You'll see how I position my backdrop, my background, my lighting, so it will really help you. Since I'm doing it the best way to really cultivate your skills, to really do good in any type of photography is the practice, practice, practice. Right now I'm sweating because I'm wearing this is my only decent clothes to teach you guys. All I have here are breastfeeding clothes for moms. I just wanted to really show you that the best way to learn something is to actually do it. I want this course to be worth every $ in every second of your time. The best way to do it is for you to really get your hands dirty. That's why I'm doing this, so hopefully you will do it on your end too. Next for my base or my background, so I mentioned about the brand adjectives, so we have natural, warm, and caring. This is the background that I chose, so it's wood. The name of our product, when you say it in English, it's Grandma Pilang. It's the legacy of the grandmother to the family, and so I chose this wooden background to tell that story of classic, timeless, nature, care. Hopefully I can't pull that off, we'll see. This is our backdrop, this is our first ingredient. We have the chilies, we have the garlic, I'm just going to get the props. That was really hard for me to get because it's so heavy. Here are our real coconuts, and it's so heavy. But if you really love what you're doing, then you're willing to go great links for your client, for your photo shoot, and you know what really, this is one of the secrets. Going the extra mile. If you do this, if you're consistent in going the extra mile, giving your best, giving, serving, it will really serve you well. The more you give, the more you receive. I believe that, and I've seen that, I've proved that in my life, in Photography, and so, you can do that too in your shoots. That's just like an extra tip. As you can see, this is really nice. I think this is the branch of the coconut, so it's really nice, it's awesome that I was able to get this. The man from the market was nice enough to give me this branch. Of course, we want to make sure that we get this in camera. [MUSIC] I think that's good. Then we have the chilies, and we have our garlic. These are the main ingredients of our product. Again, coconut, chilies and garlic, and so let's see how we go. Let's start shooting. [MUSIC] 16. Adding HUMANS and other element to level up your product photos: [MUSIC] Now that you know more about storytelling, props, and styling, let me push you a bit further. In this video, I will share with you three creative ways that they compelling photos of your product. You already know how to shoot in plain background. You know how to add props to make it more interesting and appealing. Now, we are going to add another element, or a scene, [NOISE] human touch. Number 1 tip is adding humans, [NOISE] even just a hand in a scene is a great way to show how your product will fit into someone's lifestyle. Remember the necklace from earlier? Here's how it looks like with a human element. We need to show our potential buyers, how fabulous they will look with our product. If it's not something wearable, like the coco chili paste from earlier. What you can do is you can add a human element by including hands grabbing the food, whatever your product is, think of ways you can add a human element to your images. Our potential buyers need to feel that they can relieve to our products when they see it. Especially with social media, where content's have a short lifespan to make an impact. Next, number 2, [NOISE] choosing props wisely and intentionality. You already know about props and all of that. But if you really want your product for those to stand out, you really have to bring "adding props" to the next level. To really bring this home, I'd like you to close your eyes. Imagine you have yellow lemons on your hands. Then imagine you are cutting that lemon in half. Then you are squeezing the lemon juice in a small glass. Then imagine you drinking that concentrated juice. You may open your eyes now, did you salivate? That is the effect of visualization. Our brains don't really know if it's reality or not. When a buyer sees a photo of someone eating pizza oozing with cheese, most of the time, the buyer will have a feeling that she's the one biting the pizza, causing her to crave and want the real thing. The same thing with your products. What props can you add to your photo shoot that will really cause your potential buyers to want your product real bad? If you are a photographer and you are shooting appliance product, you can ask for suggestions, and really do your research. To show an example, I will use the same photo from earlier. This green mango is very famous in our country. Almost everyone craves green mango when they see it, so I often use it in my product photo shoots for food, if applicable. In this photo, potential buyers will crave the combination of the green mango and the coco chili. Plus, I was able to suggest one way that they can consume or use this product. Finally, tip number 3, using color harmony. [NOISE] Yes, there are a lot of elements you can use to really make your product photos standout, and that includes using color. Remember this from earlier? These brands use color to suggest consistency and uniformity. One way to use color is creating a cohesive business page, website, or Instagram page. Another way to use color is when, styling your scene. I have a color harmonizer app on my phone where when I select a color, it shows me the other colors that best compliment or combined with it. Let's say your product is a dark green color. This color best compliments a darker shade of purple. This tool will help you in your prop selection process, as well as choosing backgrounds. You want images that spun and catch your customer's attention, [NOISE] and maximizing color harmony is another way to do it. Just a recap. You want to add a human element to your images. You also want to use props that make your product irresistible, and finally, use color to suggest harmony and cohesiveness. It's your turn. Write down ways that your customers can use your product. Really exhaust the list, even in a unique way, or what are unique ways that they can use it? Next is to plan how you can translate those ideas to photographs. If you are a photographer, interview your client and ask for their insight, and it's your job to translate those ideas to photographs. Good luck. 17. Let's talk about camera and basic settings: Let's talk about cameras. I call this class DIY product photography because I want us to be able to create amazing photos with the things we already own and with as little expense as possible. I want you to be able to start shooting with whatever camera you have right now. In photography, they say that the best camera at the start is the one that you have access to and that is true. Please take time to really practice and take tons of photos and see if your current setup or if your current gear is enough. If let's say you are using your phone and you have applied everything that you have learned here and you're still not satisfied with the images you are creating, then yes, you may consider getting a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. If budget is your priority, you may consider buying a used one. You may also check affordable entry-level cameras, they're not bad at all. Lens is actually something that you will really need to invest on if ever you will decide to get a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. I use a 50 millimeter prime lens to get the shot. On the other hand, I used a 2.8 60 millimeter equivalent macro lens to get the shot. You will also need a camera that is capable of high shutter speed to get a shot like this. [MUSIC] A high aperture lens to get a shot like this. [MUSIC] Upgrading your gear will depend on what you want to achieve. My advice is to really think about what you want and what do you need starting with what you have and really taking time to practice will help you decide if it's worth upgrading your gear. Now if you are a beginner and you really want to learn how to use your DSLR or mirrorless camera, then please check out my photography masterclass. But for now, it's okay to stick with auto mode. If you are using a DSLR, please use the built-in camera. If you are using your smartphone, make sure to always clean the lens and that your subject is in focus. In the next lesson, we're going to talk about shooting angles. 18. The best shooting angles for your product: There are different ways that we can photograph our products. The four most popular shooting angles are eye level or straight on, 45 to 75 degrees angle, artistic or details, and finally, top view or flat lay. Let's go ahead, and study each shooting angle, and how we can best apply them in our photo shoots. First is the eye level or straight on angle. This refers to when the level of your camera is placed at the same height as the subject. Eye level shots simulate standard human vision, and thus present visual information through a familiar viewpoint; this is best with products with height and can stand. Next is the 45 to 75 degrees angle. For me, this is best when photographing styled food products because this angle is how we view food on the table when we are sitting down to eat. Maximize this if you have products that can be incorporated with food. Of course, in some cases this can be used with any type of product. Next angle is the top view or the famous flat lay. Since your camera is overhead, you have to be really careful in arranging the elements in your scene. It should be balanced and pleasant looking. This angle is perfect if you have patterns going on in your scene, best for pizza products, donuts, clothing, and other products that can't stand. Finally, the details or artistic. Remember our three goals, more sales, great customer experience, and less returns. This shooting angle will greatly help because this will enable us to capture details of the product. When buyers see your photos, and are satisfied because of the completeness of the details, it means more sales, and great customer experience. If the buyer will receive the exact product that he or she saw online, then it means no product is returning, so really maximize the shooting angle, get really close to your product, and show off those details. Before we move on to the next lesson, I just want to quickly go over a few topics that might help in your product photo shoot. First is how many images you need to take. This will depend on the purpose. If you need to upload it on an online store, check out other best-selling products from that store, and model that. If they are showing off ten photos of each product in different angles and perspectives, you can do the same. Be mindful of the crop as well; that is why planning is important. You have to take note if your product will best be photographed in landscape or portrait. If you will be uploading to your Instagram, and Facebook page, best to have provision for a 4 by 5 crop. In the coming lessons, specifically the editing, I will show you how you can customize the sizing of your images to match the specific purpose or platform. Before I show you the eye level angle, let me just tell you how I set up this scene. I have, of course, the chair, you know that already, and I have the black sweep or the black background, and then I just added this reflective base to give me a different feel or effect since I will be photographing perfume. I added this flag, to absorb light and give me more shadows, and then I placed my lighting, it's the lateral that I placed it in this area so I would have more shadows at the back so when you're doing product photoshoots, try changing the locations of the light, see how it will create different effects on your images. First, I will show you the eye level. Eye level is photographing your subject on the same level or the same height. This is how it looks like. This is another eye level, and as you can see, the effect of lighting on the side of the perfume. Next, this is a 45-degree to 75-degree angle. Next, I will be just skipping the flat lay, and then I'll just show you some details or detail shots. Just to let you know that this is an entry-level camera, and I just attach a macro lens in it, and I'm able to get these images. Again, you can definitely start with used camera, any affordable entry-level camera as long as you get the prime lens or a macro lens for your product photoshoots. Just to add a little bit of fun, and to experiment, I will be adding droplets using, I think this is water plus glycerin. I will be spraying it and let's see if it will give us a different effect. This perfume has an aqua variant, aqua means water so if this is the aqua variant, this is how I will style it. Unfortunately, they didn't have the aqua available today, so I have to shoot the boss variant of this perfume, but let's just imagine this is aqua, let's see the effect of water or droplets. Let me just get the perfume first so my backdrop will not get wet. Let's see. I'll be adjusting a couple of things, let's see what's the effect of the droplets. It's actually really nice. Now, if you want to photograph it in a flat lay or top view, so you just put your subject. 19. Product editing on computer: Welcome to the editing section. This is where I told you I will be editing using Lightroom for desktop. Let me just quickly show you all the favorite and final images that we were able to create in the whole class. [MUSIC] In the following lessons, I will walk you through step-by-step how I edited these images as well as how to properly export them for a specific platform or purpose. See you there. 20. Editing our final and favorite product photos: [MUSIC] Welcome to the editing lessons. We're going to start with this necklace on a white seamless background. Honestly, this looks pretty good already, so I will be doing very subtle and very little adjustments starting with the white balance. We want to make sure that it has the correct white balance, so I just use the eyedropper tool. Then just select somewhere neutral, or white, or gray. The next, the crop. We want to make sure that it's suitable, best for whatever purpose we have for our products. For this particular photo, I'm just putting our main subject which is pendant on the rule of thirds. Next, I want to add exposures so it will look whiter, our seamless background. Then I'm just adding a bit of contrast. Then decreasing the highlights so that we will get more details to also compensate with the additional exposure. Basically, I'm just playing around with the sliders to see which works and which doesn't. I'm adding whites so it will give more emphasis to our main subject, and just adjusting the blacks just a bit for our foam here, and just adding vibrance. Basically, that is it. I'm happy with how this turned out. This is our before and after. A very subtle edits. Just a couple of tweaks here. Just the exposure, highlight shadows, the whites and the blacks, and just added vibrance, and I feel like we're good to go. I love the reflection or the highlights on the pendant. I'll be happy to upload this on my e-commerce website or on social media. I feel like we were able to do great on this photo. Let's move on. Here is the laser hair removal. I'm afraid it's already edited. I was able to do the edits, but same thing, it's very subtle. I just added a bit of contrast, a bit of highlights. Highlights because I wanted to show off that area. I think this a bit, it's not gold, but then I love the highlights on this area. So that's why I adjusted and added highlights. Then as you can see, it's just the blacks that I really went overboard because this is the original look of it. This is the seamless black background that we did earlier. As you can see, this doesn't look very flattering. That's why I added more blacks. As you can see, just by moving the slider for the blacks, it gave us this effect. It's just amazing, just the ones lighter, just adding more blacks to your photo, it can really make a difference, especially if you're photographing on a black seamless background. But then, of course, let's not go overboard, just around 60. I'm happy with that. Just showing you this other photo wherein I photographed the laser remover on the reflector. Let me just show you if I can adjust, you can see the reflection there, but then I don't want to go overboard with our exposure. If I add more blacks, then it will fix this area because this is the seamless black background, the DIY one that we made earlier. If I adjust the shadows, then it will be black again. Perfect. It looks great for me. This looks legit. Honestly, it doesn't look like it was shot on a black poster paper. I'm happy with that. Moving on to our perfume. As you can see, this area doesn't look very flattering. This is our black seamless background, but then I loved the reflection. First, we're going to adjust the crop. Honestly, it looks okay. Maybe just straightening out. Actually, it's straight, especially because of this area here. That's perfect. Next, I want to correct the white balance. Nice. Then just add a bit of exposure, just a bit. Maybe 10, so that we can see this nice reflection, and then contrast. Ten is like my safe number for all my adjustments. But of course, it doesn't work all the time. You really have to use your eyes to see what works and what doesn't. Editing is very subjective. Next, highlights. I want to add highlights. This is where the magic happens when we adjust the shadows, like look at that at the back. Then when we adjust the blacks. There you go. Look at that. That is amazing, but then you can see that little red or white thing here. To remove that, Adobe Lightroom for desktop, actually, it has it on the mobile as well, the mobile version. It has this function or feature wherein you can adjust, I think this is like the radial filter. Then when you click on the Show Selected Mask Overlay here at the bottom, you'll see which one or which area is selected, or which area will be affected by the edit. Of course, we don't want that area, we just want this other area. That was a bit complicated. [LAUGHTER] This area will be edited, but not this area. Only the one with the red will be edited. That's why I selected the Show Selected Mask Overlay. Let's remove that and let's see if we added more shadows or we add more blacks. There you go. I think it did it. I just need to move it. That's good. Let's see. I think that's good. This is our before and after. Look at that. But then I can still see something that we can adjust in this photo. You see this area, I think this is me, this is my reflection. That's another tip. You have to be careful with products that can be reflective. Make sure that you position yourself or the products, that way it doesn't really catch this bad reflection. If it is inevitable, then we can try and edit it in post. I'm going to try and do it. There is this feature in Lightroom wherein you can adjust individual colors. This is, I think, orangey-red. The saturation individually adjust these colors. If you want to adjust the saturation just for the red, then you can use this feature. Let's say we desaturate the red. It's not really making a difference. How about the orange? Okay, it did it. Just observe what happens to that ugly reflection when we desaturate the orange, and it's gone. It's looking more professional and more legit. I'm happy with that. Actually, I'm going to add more clarity. Maybe at 15. This is our before and after photo. No ugly reflection. I love how the glass is looking with light reflection. I love the reflection. All of that. I love it. Okay, moving on. Let me just show you this photo. There's this cool feature in Lightroom as well wherein whatever edits you made here, you can copy on the other photos. Basically, you just right-click, then Develop Settings, and then Copy Settings. Then when you copy and then paste it on the next photo, as long as it has the same lighting, same setup, then it will just copy all the settings so you don't have to do it all over again. And as you can see here, it looks good. This is the before and after of this photo. You can see [LAUGHTER] the setup here. But then with just a couple of edits, we were able to come up with this image. Cool, right? From there you can really see that there is a lot that you can do in post-processing and editing. My advice is never skipped or don't skip editing for your product photos. Moving on to this photo. The same thing, we'll be just a bit of exposure contrast. Basically, those are the things. Contrast, exposure, white balance, crop, straighten. To make it look professional and pleasing and attractive. For this one. See when we adjust the blacks, it's already giving us a nice image, but then I can see that reflection again, so we know where to go. Orange, desaturate, and it's gone. Awesome. I just wanted to add clarity on this image. Then I wanted to add highlights to really show off those nice highlights on our perfume bottle. We want shadows. Yes, we want to decrease or like sorry, add more shadows. Our whites, what do we want to do with our whites? Maybe you can just add a bit of that contrast. I'm actually happy with how this turned out as well. Before and after. Look at that. Perfect. Moving on, I know it's not part of the photos that I showed earlier, but then I just quickly want to show you how I will edit this image. This is the before, and this is actually the edited one. This is the necklace. I am actually wearing the necklace. As you can see from here, my skin is looking red and the background doesn't look very flattering. What I did was I just added a bit of exposure, again, contrast white balance on something white, and then I just decrease the highlights, added more shadows to make it more dramatic. I went overboard with the shadows. I will get that nice dramatic shadow in black background. I did not do anything with the white, but I did add blacks. As you can see, it changed the color of the background. What if I just crop like my neck? Still on the rule of thirds, still looking good. Here is our before and after. Actually, not very good. What did I do wrong? Let me see what happened here. I missed something, so shadows, contrast, clarity. Let's see. I think the reds, I need to desaturate the red and the orange. There you go. I had to desaturate the orange color in HSL so my skin won't be reddish, and before and after. That is it for the first part of editing. In the next lessons, you will see how I will edit the beauty product as well as the food product. See you there. 21. Styled BEAUTY product edit: Editing your photos is not cheating, it is simply enhancing your creation. It is part of the creative process. There are a lot of unknown during a photoshoot. I encourage taking photos with the best light and composition possible and that you get it right as much as possible straight out of the phone or camera so when it's time to edit your photos, it will be just minimal and subtle. You may use whatever editing software, but I highly recommend Adobe Lightroom. A free mobile version is available in Play Store and App Store. [MUSIC] I now have my photos imported in Adobe Lightroom for desktop but I will attach a guide on how you can do this on Adobe Lightroom on mobile but basically, the settings will be the same so I will be using the features of Adobe Lightroom, and I will try my best to use the ones that are available in Adobe Lightroom for mobile as well. So you have options of using Adobe Lightroom on desktop or your mobile phone. This is for our concept number 1, playful and pink and we have for our concept number 2, mature and natural. I want to edit the playful and pink concept first. In editing photos, the first step is to crop depending on the purpose. If you will be uploading it in Instagram or Facebook, the best crop option is four by five. In Adobe Lightroom, you have those preinstalled crop size, so you don't have to do it manually. This is four by five this is perfect for Instagram and Facebook. We just want to make sure that our subject is in the rule of thirds so the third line. [MUSIC] This looks good to me, so that's done. Next is to edit the exposure. [MUSIC] I'll just add a little bit I don't want it too bright. Next is adjusting the highlights and shadows. For my photos, I'd like to really decrease the highlights. As you can see, it will retrieve details on my photo as well as removing the shadows so it will look a bit flat. Then I'll just add some whites and add a little bit of black. Then to retrieve the contrast the effect or the contrast on my photo, of course I can use the contrast tab to add. We don't want to go over border, we don't want to overdo it so just subtle edits. This looks nice to me. Again, editing is also subjective. Of course your edits will depend on how your photo looks to you but for me, this is how I edit my photos so this is just a guide. First to adjust is the crop making sure it's matching the purpose of your photo. Next is the exposure, making sure it's not too bright, not to dark adjusting the highlights to retrieve details as well as the shadow so they work hand in hand. Then use the whites and the blacks to retrieve or to add the white and the blacks in your photo. Next is in Adobe Lightroom, you have this option to adjust the colors [NOISE] separately or individually. I don't really use the saturation tab because it saturates the entire photo. Saturation is the strength of the photo, but it does it on the entire photo. But when you use the HSL or the color tab, you can adjust the colors individually, let's say the red. As you can see, only the red colors are being adjusted. [MUSIC] Let's say the green. I'm not seeing any changes with the green. But basically we only have a couple of colors in this photo. Let's try on this one on this photo when we adjust, lets say adjust the exposure first so it will be bright. So as you can see when we adjust the red, observe how the color of the rows changes and all the other red color in the photo, but the other colors are not being affected. Brown is equivalent to orange, so observe how it will change when we hover the orange tab. That's the good thing with Lightroom. You have this option to adjust the colors manually or individually. Let's say you just want to adjust the green in your photo, you can just move this slider for the green and not just that you can also adjust the luminance or how bright that color is. When you go to luminance, you can adjust the luminance of the green. As you can see, it will be dark and it will be bright. Let's go back to our pink and playful photo. We can just adjust the red a little bit to make it pop and to make it colorful, I am happy with that. Next is making sure that our white balance is correct. I should have done this together with the exposure, but it's not too late. In Lightroom, there is an option to select white balance, a shot or auto let's try to do auto. I'm not very happy with that, so let's do a shot. We can also use this eyedropper tool. Just select a white color or a neutral color in your photo. When I use the eyedropper tool, the white balance or the color of the entire photo was too warm for me, so I used the temperature tab to adjust that. From the word itself, temperature, you can adjust your photos to look cool or to look warm, or just the middle, so this is perfect for me. Next, we want to add effects or texture to our photo. Let's see if we add texture and clarity. As you will see when we adjust the texture, notice how it adds details and texture to our photo. I don't use it very much on people or in portrait photo because it exposes pores but in different photoshoot especially products, you want your products to show texture and interests so yes, you can definitely add texture and clarity, but don't go overboard make sure it's as subtle as possible, so adjust a little bit. Let's see the before and after. As you can see, the colors are more vibrant in here it looks more alive and it looks pink. The color pink is correct on this photo that's why it's important to use the white balance, to use just a single light source. So as you can see from this example, we were able to correct the color. This is a good photo the before photo is a good photo however, when we applied little changes we were able to make this photo better. This one, I am proud and I'm satisfied. I would love to upload this in my social media. If this is my product, this is something that I want my target audience, my customers to see. Let's move on to our concept number 2. Again, we make sure that we crop it according to the purpose that we're going to use it. For Instagram, best to use the four by five, so let's see. Maybe we'll just put the main focal point in the middle. Let's see how that looks. Well, that looks good to me. Next is to adjust the exposure. Earlier it was really dark, so we adjusted the exposure, we made it brighter. Next is the highlights and the shadows so to retrieve details and then we just add contrast because it looks flat when you adjust the highlights and the shadows. So you retrieve the depth and the details and the contrast using the contrast tab and just a little bit white and black. Then earlier I showed you how we individually adjust the colors, so if you want to saturate the red, you can do that. I forgot the white balance again. But it's okay to make mistakes as long as we improve. Select something white that is very warm, so we're going to retrieve that using the temperature tab again or the temp tab. Now we want to go back to the colors so I want to saturate the green, actually, I want to desaturate it. [BACKGROUND] That looks better for me. How about the brown? Let's see. I really want for the focus of the photo to be under products, so I'm desaturating the brown as well using the orange tab. Let's see how it looks. We were able to crop it, we were able to adjust the highlights and the shadows, the individual colors. Let's add texture and clarity just a little bit. [MUSIC] In your guide, you'll see there that there's an option to adjust the optics to remove chromatic aberration. Let's do that here as well, just to show you, so make sure that you remove chromatic aberration. [NOISE] Let's do fine tune or to clean up our photo. I think that's all the edits that we can do, or the basic ones that we can apply to our products or to our photos to improve it. As you can see, this is the before and after. As you can see the colors are more vibrant, I can see more details, the colors are correct. This is definitely a photo that I would love to upload in my social media page on my Instagram. As you can see again, this is a good photo, but the before photo is good but as we make very, very few edits we were able to come up with this image. There you have it, that's how I edit my photos. I apply this editing principle on all of my photos. It might be portrait, food, product, just making sure the white balance is correct, exposure is correct. It's not too bright, it's not too dark, making sure I add a little bit of contrast. I retrieve details by adjusting the highlights and shadows, I also add effects using texture and clarity and I have the ability to adjust the color individually using the HSL or color tab. [NOISE] Your turn, edit the photos you took using the the guide that I attached to this class. Please checkout the resource tab. 22. Exporting tips: Do you remember taking a nice photo and uploading it on Facebook only to find out that the quality got massively degraded. That is because Facebook has downgraded your files to match their platform and did a poor job at it. To solve that, we lower down the quality of an image ourselves by applying a specific export setting to match different purposes. Now that we have our edited photos, so we have playful and pink, we have mature and natural. It's so exciting because it's the same product, but by using different props, we were able to come up with different feel, with different mood, with a different effect on the product. Just be changing the props, the styling, and the colors. Now that we have it all edited, our next step is to share it, to upload it, let's say on a website or Instagram. Now there is a proper way to upload it and that is to properly export our photos. Like I mentioned before, Facebook and other platforms does a really poor job at degrading or minimizing the file size of our photos and it destroys the quality of our photos. We're going to do the downgrading ourselves. To do that, we just select the photo that we want to export. Let's say for our mature and natural. Let's just go to File and then Export. Then we just want to put it in a specific folder. I want to put it in my desktop. I have brought our photography here. Then I want to put in a sub folder. That's the product. This is mature and natural. Now for Instagram, the quality should be 70 or 72. Let's just make it 70. Make sure that the image format is JPEG or JPEG. Color space is sRGB. This is best for screen viewing or if you will be uploading it. Social media or other Internet platforms. For the image sizing, it's also very important to make sure that you click on resize to fit or you adjust the pixels. For Instagram, it should be 1,080. Now, don't worry about these settings. I will be attaching the guide on the Resources tab, so make sure to check those. Everything all throughout this course, I have attached helpful guides, PDF files that will really help you and assist you in shooting your products. Again, for Instagram, we have JPEG, sRGB, quality is 70, resize to fit long edge. Pixels is 1,080. Sharpen for screen since we're not printing it. These are your other options if you want to print your photos. Amount is just standard. Then I remove personal information and location information. I did not put a watermark in it. Then I just click on Export. Don't worry if you're using Adobe Lightroom on mobile because I attach the guide for exporting photos using Adobe Lightroom for mobile. Now for other editing apps or editing software, just search for or just look for the Share button. See if there is an option for export or export as and just apply the settings that I discussed in this course and the ones that will be seen on your export settings guides on the Resources tab. Let us export the pink and playful so same thing. File, Export and then same sub folder. I just change it to pink and playful. For Instagram, 70 percent is the quality. Image format is JPEG, color space, sRGB, resize to fit long edge, 1,080 pixels and we're done. Click on "Export". Now let's see our final photos. Here are our final photos. We have mature and natural. Then we have pink and playful. Here are our final photos ready to be uploaded on Instagram. It's your turn, export your photos using the settings I included in the resources tab of this class. 23. Edit and export part 3Styled FOOD product edit: [MUSIC] Welcome back, we are now in Adobe Lightroom Classic. So this is where I normally edit my photos, food product, portrait. It gives me a lot of options to correct the lighting, to adjust the exposure, contrast, and to properly export my photos. I'm done importing the photo, here are the final photos from our product shoot earlier, let's go ahead and start editing using the Develop module or the Develop tab. I have selected this, okay, "Ignore" then "Develop". As you can see, the white balance on this photo is a bit off, for me, everything looks good except, it needs a little enhancement and fine-tuning. So first, we need to make sure that our crop is correct as well, it's on the original crop. I just want to adjust it just a little bit, I want to get rid of this space right here, I'm just cropping this way and then adjusting. I want this third line to go under the flavors and I'm clicking "Done". This is more like it, I love the crop. Next is to correct the white balance, so you have options to correct here. You can use Auto or you can select "Auto" and different white balance presets here, or you can use the eyedropper tool, wherein you can just select on a white or anywhere that is white on your photo because it's like you're telling Adobe that this should be color white. So you can see that the colors here looks more correct. You can also use the auto preset here, that's a bit cool, so I'll just add a bit of temperature that looks more correct. Next, we want to adjust the exposure, so I just want to add just a bit of exposure. For me, this is a more well-exposed photo. Next, I want to add contrast, and then for food, for product photos, what I normally do or I do it on almost all of my photo edits is to lower down the highlights so I can get the details back, and then remove the shadows as well to make it more flat and just adjust the contrast to retrieve the contrast. Then I just add a bit of white since we've adjusted the highlights and shadows. Now that's looking better for me, you can see from the before and after. Next, I want to add clarity since we're photographing product we want it to be really clear and contrast the end sharp. Next the vibrance, so I use vibrance more than saturation because, vibrance adjusts the strength of the colors correctly, instead of the saturation where it strengthens all of the colors. It's like in vibrance, it knows which colors to adjust, not adjusting the whole thing, it's like its balance looking, and I'm actually happy with that. That looks more balanced for me, the colors are correct, whites are correct, all the others are correct, this is good for me. As you can see, just a couple of changes actually improves your photo a lot. So that's why I included editing in my lessons because it's not cheating, it's actually part of the creative process I always say that. It improves your photo, it makes it more balanced looking, it really enhances your photo, so it's something to really add to your skillset, editing is actually a valuable skill. Next, what if we want to create a preset for these settings that we made, so we can apply it on the other photos with the same exposure shot in the same situation or environment, what we can do is just go here, I'll just retrieve the window here. So preset, you just click on the plus sign and then create preset, and for this one, I'll just name this Product 1. Everything color, transform effects everything, and just click on create, and then let's see if we go here if we apply our preset. Product 1, as you can see, I just clicked on the preset that we've created, and then before and after, you can see the difference. So we don't have to do all the adjustment all over again, it will speed up your workflow. Let's do the same thing for all the other photos that has the same exposure. Let's see, from this, we can just press the command or the control key for Windows command for Mac and then click on Product 1. As you can see, it automatically applies the preset. What happened in there? There you go. I think I need to click on sync. Synchronize. That's good. I wonder why it's not copying the settings, maybe it got deselected, but anyway, so that's how you apply the preset you just select on the photo and then click on the preset, and there you have it, colors are correct, white balance is correct, it's a more balanced photo, exposure is balanced. So something that you can definitely submit to your client, or something that you upload in your Instagram, your social media, if you're the owner of the business, or if you're the one in charge of marketing. Finally, the last step is to properly export the photo, for this one, let's say we're going to upload it in Facebook, so let's just click on Export, and then we want to choose a folder. For me, I will be going to my food and products shoots, and then Lola Pilangs, that's the name of the product. Then I just choose this, and then I put in the subfolder, edited, and then custom text. You can put whatever name you want to put here, Product 1. Then make sure that your image format is JPEG or JPG, color space is sRGB best for screen. Quality should be 85, since Facebook will be degrading it for you, it's better if you do it yourself instead of them doing it for you because they do a poor job at it. So for image sizing, select long edge, and then 2048 pixels, sharpen for screen, amount is standard. I won't be including watermarks, and I'll be exporting now, and that is it, let's check out our photo. Let's go to documents, product shoot, and then here, edited, and this is our final photo. 24. Tips on creating a cohesive Instagram page: I know the editing lessons were quite long, but it is really an important part of the creation process, so I really hope you will take the time to edit and enhance your images to get the best look. Now, you may be here taking photos for a platform where you just upload the images and they do all the rest, but just in case you are also marketing your products on Instagram, let me just quickly show you how I arrange for those in a grid that chose cohesiveness. This is helpful to really promote your brand and suggest consistency and uniformity. Here are the photos I selected to upload for this mockup Instagram grid. You will understand now why I did a reshoot for this product on a seamless brown background. I wanted the grid colors to circle around brown, green, and red because that is the color of the brand and that is how I will arrange it. This is how my mood-board looks like. I used Canva to be able to create this collage. By the way, there are other templates and different designs that you can also use for your business on Canva, it's very helpful. But basically, I just used this collage and I replaced the photos with the ones that I took for this food product. I used this collage as my guide when I uploaded the photos for Instagram, and it looks like this. It looks more organized and more professional. If you are a photographer, you can actually take photos of products of the business you want to work with, and then create an Instagram mockup for them and use it to pitch your service. They will see it as proactive, thoughtful, and professional because you really took the time to research and present their product in a better way. Just take note though, that this works for brands and businesses that don't have a cohesive and professional-looking website or social media. If a business or a brand seems to have very solid visuals already, what you can do is think about how you can contribute and make it even better. At the end of the day, our job as product photographers and online business owners, is to create compelling images that motivates our target customers to take action. 25. Final Thoughts: The best part, sharing your work. Can I just say that when you reach this point, you should give yourself a pat on the back or let me give a virtual one to you. Imagine what started out as an idea then put into paper is now something tangible and can be viewed by your audience. How amazing is that? Now, let me end with a fun fact. In 1936, Psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote a simple equation that makes a powerful statement. Behavior is a function of the person in their environment. It did not take long for Lewin's equation to be tested in business. In 1952 the Economist Hawkins Stern described a phenomenon he called suggestion impulse buying, which is triggered when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualizes a need for it. In other words, customers will occasionally buy products, not because they want them, but because of how they are presented to them. Imagine when you take great photos of your product and continue to upload them online and suggest them to your buyers, that means more revenue. I hope you enjoyed and learned a lot from this course. If you have other questions, kindly start a discussion or join our online community. Don't ever give up if you don't achieve the photo that you have envisioned the first time, nobody starts as an expert. We improve by consistent practice. If you are on Instagram, feel free to tag me when you upload your photos so I can double-tap or give it a thumbs up. My Instagram handle is @Rosellenene. Thank you so much for choosing me in this class to learn more about product photography. If you're into other types of photography and videography, I have other classes that may help in your journey. You can also follow me here so you will be updated when I publish other related classes. I really hope you found this class is valuable, but either way, please leave a review and share your experience. I'd love to hear from you. Thank you again and see you next time. Bye. [MUSIC]