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Get Rid ofMediocreFootwearPhotographyOnce andfor All
FOOTWEAR PHOTOGRAPHYP R O D U C T I M A G E S O L U T I O N S T R U S T E D B Y L E A D I N G O N L I N E R E T A I L E R S
Best Practice Guide
Whilst quality product images are key to success in ecommerce, the key to success in product photography is developing an effective workflow. Below you will find some helpful tips and tricks to help you create footwear images like a pro.“
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03 Contents
04 Preparing your Product 1. Examine your product thoroughly 2. Remove or repair all distractions
3. Give your product shape
06 Setting up your Studio
1. Keep the background simple 2. Be consistent
3. Select your light source 4. Set up your studio 5. Control shadows
12 Photographing the Product
14 Editing Your Images
Contents
The content of this document is subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Pixelz shall have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of this document.
Pixelz524 Union Street #266
San Francisco, CA 94133United States
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Preparing your Product
Examine each productthoroughlyBefore photographing each product, examine it meticu-lously for dust, scuffs, identify-
ing labels and tags, and even damage. You might assume that dust specks won’t show up in the images, but they definitely will, so this step is incredibly important. Removing these distrac-tions before shooting will help speed up your post production process.
Remove or repairall distractionsClean, brush, wash, and shine your footwear to get rid of any imperfections
that you discovered in the previous step. Remove any labels, stickers, or tags that may be attached. In the case of stickers, make sure that none of the adhesive residue is left behind. Dust can be tricky to deal with on fabrics such as suede, but lint rollers and tape are usually effective. While you should
always aim to perfect the shot in cam-era, don’t fret if you’re not able to fix some things beforehand. It is often possible to fix such imperfections in post. For example, samples often acquire permanent scratches or scuffs during transport or storage and digitally repairing that damage is a relatively easy process in Photoshop.
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Give your product shapePhotographing shoes without foot models can be tricky. It is important to communicate shape to the
viewer, but unworn shoes often appear flat and limp. To remedy this, try stuff-ing shoes with paper and using dental floss or fishing line to hold straps and other elements in the correct place. You will find that sneakers and flats don’t really need to be stuffed or propped, but sandals, heels, and boots often need extra help to look their best.
In the images of the leather boot, shown above, we stuffed the boot with rolled up socks to help support the shaft and give the shoe some shape. Tissue paper, small wash cloths, and cardboard also work well as boot stuffers. If you have the budget, try purchasing boot shaft shapers or shoe shapers. These shapers are being sold on Amazon for less than $15.
Open-toed sandals obviously can’t be stuffed, but the straps can be held up-right using fishing line or dental floss, as in the images below.
This is an easy trick to help your shoes look great standing on their own. You can simply remove the string in post-production if it’s noticeable.
We tied fishing line to the strap of this sandal to hold it upright.
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This boot needed to be stuffed so
that the shaft stood upright.
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Keep thebackground simpleOne of the major goals of product photography is to make your product stand out
and captivate a customer’s interest. The easiest way to grab viewers’ attention is to photograph a product against a very simple background, such as a white bedsheet, rolled paper, foam board, or a wall—this will help your product to stand out. By eliminating distractions, you will allow the customer to focus in on what they’re shopping for, and nothing else.
In the studio setup on the left, we positioned white foam boards beneath and behind the heels to isolate the product and draw the viewer’s attention to it. Light grey is another great background color solution, as it contrasts well with most common shoe colors and can easily be changed to white in post-production if necessary.
Setting upyour Studio
Once you’ve mastered this simple studio setup, you can utilize it to photograph
many different types of products. 1
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If you are photographing multiple products, aim to keep the lighting and background clean and consistent throughout all of your shooting. This will convey a pleasing sense of professionalism to your customers.
It’s best to leave your camera, your staging and photography lighting equipment in place throughout all of your shooting, but if this isn’t possible, make sure to mark the exact positions of the equipment (tripod and table legs, product placement, camera angle, etc.) with tape and take note of all of your camera settings before you deconstruct your studio so that you can recreate it later.
Regardless of whether you take down your studio or leave
it up, all of your products should be “bottom aligned” from angle to angle. To do this, mark the initial location where you place a shoe and simply pivot it from one angle to the next, always keeping part of the shoe planted where you marked it.
Bottom aligning your products will keep your images consistent across category pages and ultimately improve the overall look of your website. Take it into account for your footwear images. It´s particularly good for them! It will also make it easy for you to create an animated gif that rotates 360 degrees to promote your product.
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Aligning While ShootingFootwear Product Images.
Click image to watch video.
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Select your light sourceNatural lighting can be great for product photography, but it isn’t always available or easy to manipulate indoors. By purchasing a lighting kit, time constraints and other inconveniences
can be eliminated, which will allow you to photograph your products whenever you like.
We chose to use artificial lighting for our example photographs because we needed to shoot in the evening. Specifically, we will use a Calumet 750R Travelite lighting kit, but there are many options for you to explore. If you are interested in learning more about your options, read this useful post about several great lighting kits we recommend.
Set up your studioDepending on the type of product that you are photographing, the type of light source that you utilize, and how you want your images to look, you may need to customize your studio
space according to your own specifications. However, a basic one-light studio setup tends to work well for most types of footwear.
Always position your light source to one side of your product; this will add depth to the image by creating a soft, appealing shadow on the “dark” side of the product while still maintaining overall brightness in your image. If a single softbox does not provide enough lighting, try using a piece of foam board on the opposite side of your softbox to reflect light back onto the product on the product’s shadowed side.
Always position your camera in front of your product and fill the frame with your subject, leaving some extra space around it for easier cropping in post-production. To maintain consistency between your product photos, it is best to mount your camera on a tripod.
In the example image of our studio setup at the beginning of this section, you can see that we placed our product on a table in the corner of a room. This allowed us plenty of room to move around and position our lighting and camera equipment in our shooting space. We placed our light off to one side of the product, at about 45-degrees, and our camera and tripod directly in front of the product, pointed down at the heels just slightly.
If you need more guidance about setting up your studio, check out our DIY guide and our guide to recreating several different universal lighting setups.
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Control shadowsShadows can make or break a product photo, so it’s important to know how to create the type of shadows that will flatter your product. There are two ways to control shadows: (1) moving the
light source closer or farther away from the product, and (2) moving the product closer or farther away from the background.
Shadows are a particularly important aspect of footwear photography. Select one type of shadow and continue to use it throughout all your footwear images so it looks clean and consistent on your product pages.
The closer your light source is to your product, the darker your shadows will be in the image, so you will need to tweak the positioning according to your preferences. For softer shadows, position the light source farther from your subject, and for a darker, edgier look, move the light closer to create more dramatic shadowing.
Likewise, the closer your product is to the background, the darker the shadows will be in the image. If you don’t want any background shadowing, then move the product farther away from the background.
You can also create shadows in post-production. Read this useful post to learn the different types and how to create them.
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Light is close and image is more contrasty and darker. Light is farther and image is more even and soft.
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Photographingthe Product
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Shoot as many angles as you canCustomers want to see the front, sides, top and back of a shoe as if they’re
picking it up and examining it in a physical store. They want to see close-up detail shots and overhead shots so
that they know exactly what they’re getting. With that in mind, shoot as many angles of each product as you can. The more closely you can mimic the experience of handling shoes in a physical storefront, the better!
For more help on photographing prod-ucts, including how to work in manual shooting mode and solve complex lighting situations, see our article about Do’s and Dont’s in Footwear Photography using product images on eCommerce sites.
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Here are some recommended angles to shoot for footwear:
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Although it is time consuming, post-production work is important to ensure that all of your images look their best and are uniformly presented. If your product images aren’t up to par, the aesthetic of your site will suffer.
However, image editing can be a demanding venture. There is a distinct learning curve involved with most post processing programs and even professional photo editors can spend hours perfecting a given set of images.
Should you want to tackle the post production yourself, consult this helpful tutorial on how to edit and optimize your images for the web. If you don’t have the know-how to edit your own work, you have the option
of hiring professionally-trained image editing professionals like Pixelz to retouch your images. Professionals will know how to achieve that consistency that will make your site and products look like a million bucks.
Photo editors should take these important adjustments into consideration:
• Background removal• Lighting level adjustment• Adding or adjusting shadow• Shoe direction (images can be flipped horizontally)• Dust and dirt removal• Cropping and resizing• Bottom alignment.
Whether you choose to do your own editing or outsource, consistency is key! Use standardized lighting, cropping and alignment specifications for all of your images to create a seamless, effortless online shopping experience for customers. Quality product images will evoke a sense of trust in your customers, which is one of the most important ingredients in the recipe for running a successful online business. These tips can teach you how to forever rid yourself of mediocre footwear photos and create expert shots that will keep your customers interested–and more importantly, spending!
Editing Your Images
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