Show and Sell: DIY Marketing Photography for Entrepreneurs

1. Intro: Hello, my name is Julie Riemersma and I'm a professional photographer. Welcome to my studio here in Toronto and I'm super excited to share with you today in my new Skills hare class. Since I graduated in 2012, I've had the pleasure of working with businesses of all sizes to create impactful and meaningful marketing images that convey their brand visually. This course is great for anyone who wants to take better images, but it's especially good for small business owners who need sum behind-the-scenes shot to update their Instagram. If you're just starting out and you want to write your web story and you need some product shots, or if you just want to be able to understand what your photographer is doing onset. I'll show you the system that I use on every single shoot from creative to commercial so that you can create awesome images for your brand it's super easily. I'm going to show you how to break down an image into its different elements. Then once you known what those are, it's really easy to pull the different pieces and then recreate the images that you want. The five images in your final project are going to be the five most essential marketing images that you can use. You've got your behind-the-scenes image. We're going to do a clean product shot on white. We're going to do a lifestyle image, something that shows that in use on a scale. Then we're going to do a detailed shot, which is going to be great for banners in advertising. You're finished project will be five different images that convey your product or idea visually and that fit in with your company's aesthetic. Even more broadly than the five images in your project that you'll get the skills, so think about your images critically. Be able to evaluate and figure out how to take a better image and also just become more visually literate. When you hire a photographer, you're able to tell them the things you want to seen in your images. This isn't how to take a photo, is why to take a photo and I guarantee it's going to make you a better photographer. It will be fun, I promise. Let's get started. 2. The Class Project: Let's talk about the project you're going to create in this class. Welcome to the class project. What are we going to do in this course? We're going to create five different images so you'll have everything you need to launch your web store or refresh your Instagram. I'm going to demonstrate with some prints that I'm hoping to sell. Here's just the digital versions, and I'm going to walk through the process I would use to create a campaign around these products. I'm going to do a behind the seen shot of showing your process. We're going to do a clean product shot on white. We're going to do a captivating lifestyle image that creates desire. We're going to make an image that shows the size of your product or in use. We're also going to do a detail shot that's going to be great for banners. Mostly what you're going to need is an open-mind, but you also need some sort of image capturing device, be it a camera or a phone, a light source or window will be great, and a subject. So something you want to take a picture of consistently through this course. Don't worry, it's not going to be dry, I promise. It'll be funny. 3. Finding The Why: Hello and welcome to the first and most important lesson, which is, why am I taking these images? I use this question throughout my entire shoot process and every single shoot, so that the final images are better able to achieve the marketing goals of my clients. I'm going to ask you again to come back to this throughout the entire course, because I think it's so important if you want to take images with intention that are better and take them faster. Why? Lesson three, finding the why. What do we going to cover? We're going to go over the importance of asking yourself why. I'll give you some examples of effective use. We'll do an activity to find your why, and then I'm going to give you some hazards and hot tips. But why ask yourself why? Why is this question so important that I built this whole course around it? Well, I found that if I don't start with the why, it's harder to have the final images be effective for my client's goals. Holding onto your why from start to finish, it's a shortcut or a roadmap to creating images with intention that do what you want them to do, and also avoids aimless creation, which is super fun, but may not be an efficient use of time. When I work with clients, this is the very first thing I ask them, because it will inform every single decision on the shoot from where we're going to take the images to what I'm going to get them to wear. By having their goals in mind, it allows me to focus in on creating awesome images that sell their product and also fits with the brand aesthetic. Here are some examples of some Instagram profiles that I think do it really well. What they're trying to sell is clear and the visual style is consistent. I'm sure you've thought about buying a product and decided to check out their Instagram or website just to make sure they're legitimate. If you've come across blurry, dark, or confusing images, it's definitely a red flag that it might be a scam. You want to know immediately what they're selling and what they're all about. That is why it is super important to have a consistent and clear, high-quality images on your website and social media. Before someone buys your product, your product photography is the only thing they get to see. By using the why approach to content creation, you'll help achieve a clear purpose and a cohesive look, so people will want to buy your stuff. Activity, find your why. We're going to find your why. This could be anything either personal or professional. Step one, write down why you've decided to take some new images. Grab your product or subject and start by brainstorming your goal for new images or for taking this course. Could be to launch new products, to generate interest, to sell edible stock, to finally have a website, anything goes. Even if you're just doing this for personal use, it's still super important. Your why could be to practice photography skills, capture how much of a director [inaudible] is, or show your favorite things about your city. Really make it yours and ask yourself why. First I got stuck coming up with the true why and had to brainstorm to get what I really wanted. I started with to sell my prints as fine art, and I drilled down to sell my work as physical products and to create desire. The why I had first was too general and they needed to know why I was taking these images. By doing this, I figured out that the lifestyle shots are going to be the most important. Step two, brainstorm some buzz words. You'd like to convey in your images. Buzz words, have to have it, cool, funky, modern, vibrant, queer, sustainable, do good. I cannot stress this enough. The why is fundamentally the most important thing that you're going to learn in this class. It will help you visually communicate clearly what you're trying to say, and it's going to help you if you get lost. If you're not sure how to improve your images by holding this in mind, it'll become crystal clear what the next step is. Looking forward to seeing your why's in the project gallery up next we'll look at some inspirational images that fit with your brand aesthetic. 4. Developing Your Visual Identity: For prospective customer, seeing a clear visual aesthetic across your website and Instagram sends a signal that you are legitimate and that gives them confidence to buy your product. What I'm going to do is show you how to take some inspiration images, figure out what kind of visual cues you identify what your brands so we can recreate them in your product shots. Welcome to lesson 4, developing your visual identity. We're going to go over what is a visual aesthetic, examples of consistency in branding and activity to develop your visual identity and hazards and hot tips. Consistency, so what the heck is a visual aesthetic? It's cues like color, brightness, or textures that fit harmoniously together. It's sort of like decorating for wedding. You create a theme with a few colors and some textures you'd like to use and it makes sense to do the same thing for your photography. Instinctively, you know it when you seen it and it's shortcuts for brands to tell you what they're about without having to use any words. What's the difference between your mood, your vision, and your aesthetic? A mood is something that's trying to make you feel a certain way, your vision as what you're trying to achieve and your aesthetic is what it's going to look like. Activity, develop your visual aesthetic. Our goal for this activity is to gather a bunch of inspiration images and see what types of things we're drawn to visually. Step one, start by gathering a bunch of images you think are cool. I use Pinterest for gathering inspiration because I like the quality of images and the ease of organizing. A bonus is that Pinterest also figure out what kinds of images I like and as I save them to a board suggests more than I may like. The images you save here don't have to be product-specific, just grab colors, textures, lighting, mood, concepts and things you instinctively like. We're going to refine them in the next step. Step two, look at your inspiration and find common threads. Now we're going to find themes in your inspiration images that you might want to use for your brand. Things like shot on bright white, bold color, close product shots, something with a dark background or maybe some natural sunlight stream again. Are there common objects such as plants or metal? You're starting to find your aesthetic. Keep in mind your aesthetic will evolve over time and that's totally normal and natural. But every time you release a campaign or product, it helps to tie things together by keeping similar images. Step three, pick one inspiration shot for each of the images in your class project. If you were to launch a product on Etsy for example, these are the kind of shots are going to ask for, so we're going to build this up as we go through the course. If you want to just start with the behind the scenes image and do the other ones as you progress through the lessons, that makes a lot of sense as well. For your final project, you'll create five different images and it's a great idea to have at least one inspiration shot for each, ideally something you can actually recreate, something with a horse and a castle or $20,000 cash or might be outside your means. For my inspiration images, I've pulled some shots that I think are really going to work with what I'm trying to say. I really like this color of the behind the seen shot and the light and also the angle. This product shot on white is really nice with the soft white tone and the styling. I really like this captivating lifestyle image because of the set design, the sunlight coming in and the mood of it and I think this image showing the scale is really great because it looks expensive, but it shows you how big it is and I think this detail image is going to look great for a Benner as kind of a tight horizontal crop. Step four, why check. Make sure everything makes sense with your why. My why was to sell my fine art prints by showing how they can add a touch of tasteful queer to a space, I want to sell on my website and Etsy and promote on Instagram. I want them to feel modern, vibrant, cool, and I want to create desire. I want people to want to buy the physical products and have to have them. How do your images look together? Now's a great chance to find out. Having a hard time finding great marketing images, use your competitors marketing department for free. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here, feel free to copy ideas and lastly, keep in mind what your storefront's going to look like, doesn't need to be consistent. Do you need to have certain kinds of images on your homepage? Now that we know what kinds of images you want to create, let's figure out how to do it. I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. Elements Of An Image: Before we started shooting, we need to be able to figure out what's happening in these images. Every single photo can be broken down into individual elements. Don't worry about memorizing these. I just want you to be able to start being able to identify them when you see them and to have the vocabulary. Let's take a look at what's in your photographs. Video 5, elements of an image. We're going to break an image into it's digestible parts. We're going to ask ourselves, what are the elements of a photo? We're going to do an activity to identify and recreate critical elements and then as always, some hazards and hot tips. Before we start shooting and in order to figure out how to recreate our inspiration images, we need to know what's happening inside the frame. I'm going to show you how to break down every single photo into its small digestible pieces. Photography is like cooking. It's additive, so you start with a four by six frame and then you add your subject, light, props and background. The real magic happens when everything comes together harmoniously to convey your 'why.' [inaudible]. Really captivating images have won to three elements that without, the images wouldn't be the same. The challenges to isolate those and then recreate them within your budget and skill set. Here are some images that are defined by their critical elements. How can you use these elements to convey your 'why'? Let's start with your frame. Which way are you holding your camera? Flip it around for a vertical frame. Just for reference, this is how we set up this shot. Once we known what direction our frame is, we have to worry about everything inside the frame. You start with a blank set, make sure your horizon line is straight, now we add our subject. The main light is your brightest light coming in from the right in this case. Then the fill light coming in from the left to soften the shadows. Your foreground is in the front to your background, which creates depth. If you add a flat background, it reduces the depth. A black background has more contrast. A colored background can affect the subject. The placement of the subject influences your composition. Perspective is the angle at which you see your subject. It changes the shape of the subject. How big is your subject in the frame? The further away, the more background, the closer the less background and more subject. Activity, identify and recreate critical elements. Step 1, identify the most interesting element in each inspiration image. Let's figure out what the most important thing in your images. What do your inspiration images make you feel? Some questions to ask yourself could be, which element makes you feel like that? What could you remove from the frame and still tell the same story? What is essential? Write down, circle, sketch out the most important or interesting parts of each of your inspiration images, next we're going to play around with it. Step 2, see in 3D and think outside the frame. Before we start with your project, let's try out some ways of taking different images. The easiest way is to move yourself around the subject, keep your 'why' in mind and think in 3D. Take a picture of your subject three ways without moving it. Move around your subject in all three planes, up, down, side to side, get closer, move further back, which best illustrates your 'why?' Which tells the story the best? You can also do this backwards. If you want to start by writing down the most important thing you want to show in each of the five images, that's a good way to approach this as well. Here are some examples of what I had in mind. Using the different elements in the photograph with the ease of rational comes with time and patience, but with little planning you can do it enough to take some cool shots. Let's wrap up your free production in the next lesson. 6. Preproduction Is Your Friend: So you want to take some pictures for your store but there's a lot to plan and a lot to photograph. I'm going to show you how to use my preproduction templates. It's super easily planned. Everything to do with your shoot. We are planning it ahead of time, once you get onset, you will have way less frustration to deal and you won't miss anything. So let's get started. Lesson 6, pre-production is your friend. Pre-production saves time and makes better images. Activity, pre-production template. Activity, craft your shortlist and some hazards and hot tips. You can never be too prepared. Activity, get pre-pro-pared. Step 1, complete your pre-production template. You can download a blank and fill the template in the class description. I recommend doing this for every shoot, but let's start with the shot on white. Grab your inspiration images and let's break down what you need to recreate them. The nice part is, you've already done a lot of this work, but it helps to have everything laid out for easy reference. You'll need a white background and the surface to shoot on. You also need a light source. So if you're using natural light, plan to shoot when the light is going to be best. You'll need your best product, clean and in good repair. Trust me, this will save time and post-production. At the beginning of each shoot lesson, I'll give you a prompt to do your pre-production so you can do a new template for each shoot. Step 2, where will you be using the images? So what is an aspect ratio and why is it so important? Basically, it's just the width relative to the height, or in other words, the shape of the image. It's so important because there's absolutely nothing worse than taking the perfect image, but not being able to use it because it doesn't fit where you need it to. Depending on where you'll be using the images, you're going to need different ratios. Think about business cards, ad banners, printed materials, Instagram, and your website. I recommend shooting each image horizontally and vertically just in case. More on that in your shortlist. Step 3, craft your shortlist. The most important thing to make sure you get everything you need on the first try, is your shortlist. Well it maybe tedious to think of every shot you may need, I guarantee you it's harder to do it on set and you're weigh more likely to be kicking yourself later. Really think about every shot you could need. It's easier to get it now. Please pay extra copy, shooting vertical and horizontal. Trust me, you'll thank yourself. So don't be stifled by your pre-production. It should actually leave you the brain space for experimentation. Once you have everything you need and you've eaten your vegetable, so to speak, you can move on to the dessert and get to play with your images. All right, so we're finally pre-pro-up and ready to start shooting that so let's get started with behind the scenes image, in the next lesson 7. Warm Up With A BTS Shot: Enough learning, let's get shooting. I really want you to keep your why am I, throughout this process and we're going to keep coming back to it as well. Grab your camera, get some good tunes, and let's get started with the behind the scenes shot. Let's take some photos, let's take some photos. Video 7, warm up with a BTS shot. Behind the scenes shots generate excitement. Examples of effective BTS. Show a peek behind the scenes and as always, hazards and hot tips. The reason we're starting with the behind the scenes shot is because this is something that you can do while you're working on the others. People love these sneak pics into the process and the up and coming projects. You just have to make sure the images look great, and they fit with your aesthetic. These are especially great if your product isn't ready to launch yet. This can also be anything from team members shot to an event. In order to tell your stories instantly, you need to photograph with intention and think about your composition before you press the shutter. I think of composition as the selection and placement of objects within the frame. When there's nothing else superfluous to remove, you have the clearest image. Activity, show a pic behind the scenes. Step one, compose your shot. Don't press the shutter yet. Whenever I'm creating an image, I approach it the same way. First, I pick my hero, that's the subject and the most important part of the image. Then I decide where to place it in the frame, which includes how close versus how much background I'm showing. Then I place some supporting props around my hero to tell the story. Once you've thought about that, take just one image of your process. Step two, reflect on your why, is your image telling the story? Here's where the real photography comes in. You need to be able to look at your image critically and see how you can improve it. This comes with practices, so start by trying things out. Photography is not just about walking onset, taking one image and going, "Aha, it is amazing." It's about looking at your image and thinking critically about how you can improve it and always refining your why. Really hit your audience over the head with your why, make it super obvious. Step three, take another image by making a change. This is the step where I get closer to my subject usually, and I remove any distracting elements from the frame. All you have is the things inside your picture to tell your story, so really make sure everything in there is critical and important. This includes fluff, specs, garbage, anything you can remove is going to clean up your image. These are the things I'm asking myself, can I get closer to the subject? What story made me pick up my camera? Can I move myself to remove anything distracting? Can I physically remove anything distracting from the frame? Where is the eyes drawn to? Is the story obvious? This is thinking like a photographer. I always recommend getting a shot and then getting the shot. If something is happening and you're going to miss it, get whatever shot you can, and then if you have time refine and get a better shot. The most efficient ways to make behind the scenes content is anytime your work or life is looking cool. Anything goes if it fits with your why. Great job with your behind the scenes. Don't forget to share your best shots in the project gallery, and I'll see you in the next lesson on hot tips for a seamless shoot. 8. Hot Tips For A Seamless Shoot: You'll have a lot to think about once you start shooting, so make it easier on yourself by preparing everything you need ahead of time. Here are some hot tips for a seamless shoot that I've developed over many years and many mistakes, enjoy. Has this ever happened to you, too many images, unruly products, this? I'm a professional and I'm here to help. Video 8: Hot Tips For A Seamless Shoot. What's the worst that can happen? Some hot, hot tips. Activity, what is the worst that can happen? If you're not a professional photographer the worst that can happen is just a waste of your time and effort. But honestly, as a small business owner, that's more than enough reason to make sure you're ready. Step 1: tips for better images. Tripods are great. Note how much camera shake there is in this because I'm using my tripod as a prop. If you don't have a tripod, make sure you're standing strong, your elbows are tight, you brace yourself, or brace the camera. On your camera phone shoot raw if you can, it's a little bit more work, but the image will be better. If you're using a DSLR, you should definitely be shooting raw, really, honestly shoot raw. Step 2: tips to reduce frustration. Starting with a clean and tidy set will save you lots of work in the long run. If you're shooting outside, definitely make sure you have a rain plan. These things are handy to have on hand while you're shooting: sticky tack, good quality tape, fishing line, clips, white cards, pencils, and scissors. Then your products won't fall over. If there's anything you need to plug in, you need an extension chord because you never known when you need to move something, extension cords. Check your shot list before you wrap. I'm going to say it again, check your shot list before you wrap. Step 3: tips to bring you joy. Snacks, coffee, snacks, coffee. Make a playlist with your favorite tunes, with the mood you're trying to create. I'm not sure if this is a good example of it. Do not overshoot. Once you've got the shot, sharp in all angles move on. Lastly, once you've got the shots, have fun, experiment and play, try something weird. Maybe it won't work, what's the worst that can happen. Are you ready? I think you are, so let's get started with some product shots on white. 9. The Right Light For A Product Shot On White: Let's start with the standard of product shot on white. The goal here is to show all of the details of your product without any disruptions, your customer knows exactly what they are going to get, but there are a few different ways to do that. Lets take a look at your different options. Product shot on white. Video 9. The Right Light for a Product Shot on White. The basic product shot is a clean shot on white, brightness of white for effect. We're going to do an activity to shoot a clean product shot on white and some hazards and hot tips. You have two directions here and both have advantages and disadvantages depending on your white. You can either go 100 percent white or more of a soft white. For example, 100 percent white is what you're going to seen on Amazon, if you want to purchase an item, it can look a little bit cheap and it does require more shooting and editing skills to get right, but it's easier to drop into graphics. On the other hand, a soft white can look more high-end, but does require more consideration to add to graphics and may not look as easily purchasable on something like Amazon. Either way, the background is always the same white. The amount of light on it is what changes the brightness in the photo. Activity. Shoot a clean product shot on white. Step one. Grab a white background and choose your brightness. First off, we need a white background. I'll be using a white foam boarded from the dollar store and a white ikea tabletop, but a white wall, a white fabric or white paper can work as well. It just needs to be large enough to cover your product. Next, we need to figure out how bright you want it. Which tones were you drawn to in your inspiration images? What are others in your industry using? I'll be using a soft white because I want my product to look expensive and I don't need to sell on Amazon. Step two. Pick your light source. The focus of this course is not technical lighting. There are a million resources online for that, but what I really want you to get is the ability to see light and that's the way you learn how to improve it. That being said, here are a few quick definitions to get you started. Your light source is where your light is coming from. That can be the sun or some photo lights. Direct light is hard light with sharp shadows like the sun without clouds, indirect light is reflected light with soft shadows like the shade or the sun on a cloudy day. I'm going to go over some basic and cheap light modifiers that you have in your house. A light modifier is something that changes the light. A reflector is something to bounce light, like a white wall or a blank sheet of paper, and a diffuser is something that you can put between the light and your subject to soften it. Definitions are cool, but now I'm going to show you how to use them. If you're using natural light, you've either got directly or indirect light. Here, my product is in the direct light and you can tell by the bright highlights and the hard shadow. Well, looks interesting, it's not quite the right light for this shoot. One warning for the natural light is that it changes. These routes are only 30 seconds apart. You can try diffusing the light with anything opaque, like a white sheet or curtain. This will make it a big soft light which will be even and easy two deal with and that's what you want for the shot because soft, even light will have nothing to distract eyes away from your product. I still think the shadow can be a little softer, I'm going to move my product out of the direct light. Here's what my shot looks like out of the direct light, but I still think I can soften out the shadows. Next, I'm going to try block in all of the indirect light with a big white reflector card. Just note that the color of your reflector will show in your pictures, picks something neutral unless you want the color. If you ever reflective product and you can't move your light source because it's, for example, the sun, you can try moving your product to eliminate any distracting glares or reflections. If you're using studio lights, you can feather them by tilting them away from your subject slightly to soften and reduce glare. If you want the background 100 percent white, you'll need to add some extra light only on the background or to increase the overall brightness and block of sunlight from your subject. Both are a little tricky, I'd recommend trying it with natural light first. Step three. Add product and finesse your shot. Before you shot all have your product's really make sure there is nothing you can clean up or remove from your shot. Are there any dust, hairs, specs or spots on your background set or product that you can eliminate now? Fix it onset and save yourself time in post-production. Really look at your product. I added another print behind my image because I could see the stands to the print, and it was distracting for my way of having a clean shot. As long as you are still leaving enough room for all your needed ratios, get closer to your subject, the final image will be more impactful. Here are my final images cropped to a square and all shot with natural light. I did run into won issue I could clean up in Photoshop, because my last print is vertical and I needed more space above it, the top two corners are a little darker. With the white border between them, you can't tell, but next to each other is more obvious. Hazards, troublesome subjects. White products, glass or reflective products are tricky to shoot in general and getting a clean shot can be hard. Some tips include, adding a black card to create a shadow for definition on one side, using a matting spray can help us super reflective products. Here I hide myself behind a black curtain so I didn't show up. Also spike your set. If you need these shots to be consistent side-by-side, put a little tape or a pencil mark where your product needs to be. Re-shooting everything because you moved it a little bit is super annoying. Another route to 100 percent white, is cutting out your product in Photoshop, and dropping it on a white background. It can look a little floaty, but there are many people who offer this service for quite cheap. If you're trying to figure out how something as lit, take a look at the shadows, how hard or soft the edges and which direction it falls will give you all the clues you need. Don't forget to share your product shot in the projects gallery. Now we get to move on to the really exciting stuff which is a captivating lifestyle image. 10. Desire By Design - Captivating Lifestyle: Now it's time for the really fun stuff. We're going to experiment with some different background colors and props, so you can tell your brand story visually. These lifestyle shots are really great for giving your customers contexts for your products so they can envision it in their lives, but make sure that the most important thing is that everything in your shot has back to your why, you don't want to add anything extra that's going to confuse that. Let's take a look. Video 10, desire by design, captivating lifestyle. Create desire to bought with a lifestyle image. Examples of effective use activity. Activity, create desire with a lifestyle image, hazards and hot tips. Ikea is a master of the lifestyle image. You open their catalog and every shot makes you want the life that they depict. If only I had a throw in those mugs, my life would be so wonderful. That's the picture we want to take because we want to sell stuff. You can also go more the graphic set design route if that feels right for your aesthetic. I need it, I have to have it. Activity, create desire with a lifestyle image. Step 1, preproduction check, why, moodboard, planning document, and shot list. It will really help you to be crystal clear in your communication if you do your preproduction for moodboard and short list for each shoot, but it's up to you. What do you need? Generally, a background and sum probes. Trigger your inspiration image. What did they use? What life are you trying to create? From your shot list, you'll known every shot you need for each product. You want customers to be able to picture your product in their life, so make sure you put it somewhere that makes sense. Step 2, pick your background. Your product will have a different field depending on your choice of background. Think about it. Most images are nearly entirely subject and background. Try a few different options, which won looks the most interesting and makes your product stand out. Your eye will be drawn to the brightest part of an image, the sharpest part of an image, or the most saturated part of an image. How can you use that to make your product stand out? Try a darker background than your subject, or a brighter background if your product is dark. You can use a solid background or location, that just depends on your why. Get a sense of how the background interacts by trying a few options. Step 3, place your props. Keeping with your why you want to pick props that fit in with the lifestyle you're trying to create. For example, if you're trying to set up an office, you need office supplies. You can use a prop to create depth and draw the eyes through your frame. Think of your set in 3D, you can place props in front or behind your subject. Also keep in mind you don't have to show the whole prop, even half of it will get the story across. Step 4, why check. Is everything in your frame essential? Let's check back in with our why and make sure the images we are creating makes sense for our customer. If you are selling a notebook, where does that fit in with their life? A place of plants and the coffee cup, it's probably not a dark bathroom. Feeling stuck. Think of the entire lifecycle and use of a product. What do people do after they're done with it. Amazing. You've created an entire world for your product. I can't wait to see what you share in the project gallery and make sure you're always thinking about your why. 11. Showing Scale: Another shot that's critical to get your customers to buy your product, it's something that shows how big it is or new is. This is really great for inspiring confidence that your product is not a scam and actually does exist in real life. Depending on the type of product you have, there are a couple of different ways to do this that are still very engaging. This video is not to scale. Video 11, showing scale. Showing scale helps sell products. Examples of two main strategies. Activity, create an image that shows scale, hazards, and hot tips. You can show the size of your product a few ways, but the two main ways are, one, in a photograph of something everyone knows the size of or two, adding a graphic overlay with the measurements. Let's try both and seen which works best for your product. Activity, create an image that shows scale. Step one, pre-production check. Are you ready? I think, you're ready. Let's go. Step two, find a prop with a consistent size. So look around your house for something that everyone would know the size of. So a coin, an apple, a pen, a piece of line paper, etc. Bonus points if you can find something that fits with your aesthetic. If you can't find anything, you can always use a human hand. Unless yours or your model's is remarkably smaller or large. We'll have a pretty good idea of how big your product is when it's held. Step three, checked your perspective. To show scale correctly, place your subject in the center of the frame and shoot straight on or top-down. If you put your subject in the edge of a wide angle or you're looking up at it, it will distort how the size is perceived and you'll probably get bade reviews. This clamp isn't great, for example, because they come in many different sizes. Step four, add a size graphic. All you need here is your product clearly and a little line with a bit of text that add the size. I use Photoshop, but you can use any other photo editor you are comfortable with. Make sure the perspective and size of your subject look accurate. Show me your products. Make them look appropriately sized. Sell more. 12. Taking Stock...Photography: Scenario pictures of your product in all situations showing in every life. But now, what are you going to put on the top of your website banner or the top of your store, or maybe as a background for an Instagram story. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to create sum great stuff photography. So cool, so stuck. Welcome to Video 12 detail shots for banners were going to ask what is stock photography? Common examples of use, activity, taking stock photography and hazards and hot tips. What is stock photography? It's generic images you can buy the license to if you don't want to hire a photographer. The disadvantage is that it looks like stock photography. If you've ever gone to a drugstore where there's like laughing people looking yogurt that stock photography. This lesson will focus on taking some custom images that are useful for web banners and Instagram backgrounds. Let's take a look at some common examples. It's important to keep your Y in mind hear the color palette and value of the shot should fit with your product. Activity; taking stock photography. Step 1, pre-production checked. Step 2, what about ratios? Thinking back to Lesson 6, is important to shoot with ratios, and mind here, because a website banner or an Instagram story has a fairly aggressive crop. They're going to need to be wide and short, or tall and narrow. Step 3, shoots something soft. Up until now we've been trying to get images that are sharp, but now we're going to switch focus and try and get something that's out of focus. This depends on your Y, but try and use the colors and tones that you've been using for your static. If you have manual settings on your lens, easy just flip it out of focus. But if you're using something like a phone, you can focus on something closer or further away, then lock your focus and then recompose your shot. Also play experiment, try new things, catch some reflections, just have fun with it. Have fun. Step 4; shoot something detailed. Now, we're going to get really close. I am not a gear head, but my favorite lens is a 105 macro lens, and it is literally the best thing ever. If you have the macro setting on your camera or a long lens is super-helpful, but it's totally doable even if you don't. Whenever you're using a long lens it amplifies the camera shake. If you've got a tripod, now's the time to use it. If you're using something like an iPhone, switch to your telephoto lens if you have it and zoom in and get as close as possible. Again, some stabilization is super important, even if it's just your table. Step 5; text for affect. An effective strategy can also just be using plane white or a color or a texture, and then adding your logo or some text. This is a great way to use soft focus shots. They work great for background and something like a giveaway pose. Just make sure you leave space for text where you need it. How do your shots look? Checkout line. Tripods or stabilization is super helpful if you're doing a close-up macro shot, and lastly, play, experiment, have fun, try weird stuff, maybe it doesn't work, but this is really your chance to try and seen if it does. Wow, what a trip. But we have accomplished everything we said to do with this course. We now have your product in five different ways, you're ready to launch your store or refresher your Instagram. In this very last lesson, I'm going to go over some tips for selecting the best images, editing your images, and then sharing them online. Let's go. 13. Postproduction: You can be the most incredible photographer in the world, but if you share the wrong images, no one will ever know. In this lesson, we'll go over some tips for selecting the best images and optimizing your post-production workflow. Post-production is a whole other course, but I'll outline a few best practices to get you on your way. Okay. This is hard and it takes a lot of time, but selecting the best images is really important. One tip I can give you is think about why and pick which one feels right. Try process of elimination, rating them or comparing them to see which one works best. I like to do a quick pass of everything, and then go back in, take those slacks and see which ones are the best. Also, you can eliminate any that are out-of-focus or there's wrinkles or anything weird happening as my automatic no. Especially if you've been treating it raw, edit lightly, add a bit of contrast, bump the brightness, fix your horizon line, or crop out anything distracting. Honestly, fix your horizon line. It is so annoying if it's not straight, just fix it. This is super important for having crisp images. Export your files for use correctly and they'll be nice and sharp when you post them. If you upload a super hi-res shot to Facebook, Facebook is going to destroy the quality when they make it smaller. Also, if you upload a large file to your website, it will take forever to load. You want small, sharp images online. Wow, you did it. Congratulations, you just did a ton of work. Give yourself a pat on the back, do a little, happy dance. You are ready to take over Instagram. Let's wrap it up in a little outro. 14. Bye Bye Bye!: You made it to the end. Congratulations, you should be so proud of yourself. We've covered everything from pre-production to post-production, so you have all of the tools to start taking better photos faster. If there's one thing I really hope that you take away from this course, it's holding on to why you're taking the images, and being able to think critically about the images you do take so you can constantly improve them. Please share your projects in the project galleries so we all can take a look at the amazing work that you've created. If you liked this class, leave me a review and follow my profile for all of my up coming classes. Thank you so much.