cehwiedel: Opinion, Analysis, Humor,
Satire,
Mystery, Fantasy & Facts
Mystery, Fantasy & Facts
Digital Photography: Product Photography
Another way to monetize digital
photography is to use your digital camera for product
photography. An indirect monetization method, product
photography does not use digital photographs as a graphic basis
for artwork in posters or mugs or shirts, nor is its goal a
sale of a digital photograph as stock to be used in brochures
or advertising or on websites.
Product photography is entirely
utilitarian: the positive and accurate depiction of a product,
which can be
The obvious place online for personal
product photography is eBay, and the obvious importance of at
least one solid complimentary photograph to make a sale is only
underscored by eBay’s practice of charging extra for each
photograph beyond that first one, and (for a price) enhancing
product presentation with photo galleries.
Product photography for eBay
doesn’t require a fancy set-up, nor a high-end digital
camera. The photo at left shows the “product
photography studio” that I put together with suggestions
from eBay Photography the Smart Way by Joseph T.
Sinclair and Stanley Livingston.
My “studio” consists of my
dining room table, a small side-table used to hold up the
backdrop, a remnant picked up at a local fabric store for less
than five dollars, a tabletop tripod purchased online for less
than twenty dollars, a Kodak EasyShare CX 7330 digital camera,
a 3-volt AC power adapter for the camera, an Apple Power Mac
G4, and an Apple flat-screen display. Light is supplied by a
combination of an overhead incandescent light fixture and
natural light filtered through the curtains. Fill light is
controlled with “bounce cards” of white and black
foamboard, visible propped in a chair behind the table.
To test the procedures described in the
book, I used available equipment and materials, adding only the
fabric backdrop and the foamboard bounce cards.
After couple of hours taking photos of
assorted objects under varying light conditions, I registered
at eBay and listed an item for sale:
used by a seller to provide information
to prospective customers on which to base a decision to
purchase the depicted product.
Fashion photography is the glamorous
version of product photography. Catalog sales is a
long-established venue for product photography. Online
retailers require rafts and reams and bucketloads of product
photography.
So how can you?
