Advertising Question of the Week - What’s the Best Way to Use My Smartphone for Product Photos?

When trying to make the most of your marketing efforts, you may want to save a few bucks. Who doesn’t? 

And if you spent hundreds of dollars on the newest smartphone, you might be tempted to use it for your product photos. But is it a good idea? 

Some folks - i.e. professional photographers - would say no. They’d say that you CANNOT use your smartphone to get professional product photos. They’ll tell you that there are some pretty big things that you can’t control on a smartphone - such as lighting, exposure, aperture/depth of field and white balance.

They’d be right. Technically, photos from your smartphone won’t be professional grade. 

But You Can Still Take Great Product Photos with Your Smartphone

And frankly, if you’re just starting out, or if your product isn’t particularly photogenic (like orthopedic shoes), “great” photos are all you need. Then you can spend your advertising dollars on more needful things like effective website design, powerful writing for said website, and pastries or other bribes for the designer and writer.

But since you’re not just slapping these photos up on the community bulletin board or your FB page, there are some things you need to think about when using your smartphone for product photos.

Ponder these:

1. Proper Lighting 

Stick with natural light. Not the harshness of direct sunlight, but rather diffused window light. It will bathe your product in a large, yet soft illuminating light. Experiment with different angles and positions for your product. Keep the shadows to a minimum.

And unless you’re partial to the pallor of malaria, steer clear of fluorescent light. Most don’t give a full color spectrum so photos taken in this light have a green tinge. Incandescent lights aren’t much better. They’re as harsh as sunlight. Or a mouth full of nails. Which all translates into, “no good.”

2. Neutral Background

You’ll want to go with something soft, plain, neutral and free from clutter. You could remember this with the acronym SPNFFC. But that's unnecessarily complicated. So don’t do that.

Just stick with something simple that complements your product. To prevent distractions, white is recommended. You can use a sheet, cloth or board, for instance. 

If your product is on the smaller side, you could go with a piece of white paper on a flat surface. Or curve the farthest edge of that paper to create a small infinity cove.

3. Picking up Accessories 

These aren’t necessary. But they can help. 

If you have the less-than-steady hands of a non-surgeon,

consider a tripod for crisp and clear shots.  

Or you can attach different smartphone lenses to your

camera to get some seriously detailed macro shots. (In your free time, you can take way up-close photos of your eye. Or bugs.) 

And editing apps can make all the difference in post production. For example, you CAN get the effect of a high key image shot in your smartphone. You’ll just need to finish it in Lightroom or Photoshop. Rumor has it that the brush tool in Lightroom is pretty spiffy.

Ultimately, the thing to remember is this:

Keep Your Smartphone Product Photos Simple

Soft light. Simple background. Get everything you need in the frame, and nothing else. Consider a simple square format so you won’t need to crop the product or stretch the background.

The more you’re able to simplify the image, the less time you’ll spend in post production.

Then once your product takes off and starts establishing some visual street cred and the revenue starts flowing, maybe you’ll be able to hire a professional photographer for some real glamour shots. 

For your product, of course.