Business
Welcome to Season 2 Episode 5 of the Creative Business Success Podcast! Crystal over at Crystal Clear Photography is a killer product photographer. If you're a product-based creative entrepreneur and you haven't checked out her work, you definitely should! I invited her onto the podcast today to share her best tips to help YOU improve your product photography. It doesn't have to be as hard as it may seem!Here's a cheat sheet of some of the episode highlights:Crystal's intro, 0:59How to improve your product photography lighting, 1:56How to handle product photography shadows, 3:12Should you use ring lights in product photography? 4:20What to use instead of ring lights, 4:39How to style your art photography or product photography, 7:03Know your branding! Listen to Episode 2 of Season 2, 7:34Why knowing your ideal audience is important for product photography, 7:57How to use your ideal audience to style your product photography, 9:05Tips for lifestyle product photography, 10:39Taking photographs of your art, 12:08Get even more product photography tips and tools! 12:27Creating a story with your product photography and brand photography, 15:19How to edit your product photographs, 16:21Color temperature in product photography, 17:46Should you use Lightroom on your phone? 19:07Lightroom Mobile vs. desktop, 20:18Storing your product photographs, 21:48Make time to practice your product photography! 22:45Check out Crystal's product photography course and presets, 23:32Where to connect with Crystal, 24:59Let's dive deeper into a few of these key takeaways...1 | Lighting is key to product photographyA lot can be forgiven in product photography if you have good lighting. After all, if you can't see the product in the photo, you're probably going to ignore it! Crystal recommends using natural light as much as possible, but if you don't have access to a location with good natural light for your product photography, there are alternatives.Crystal recommends avoiding ring lights unless you're doing beauty photography or something along those lines. However, softbox lighting kits are a great alternative that won't break the bank. I finally bought a softbox kit after Crystal and I recorded this episode and it's crazy how much of a difference it can make!If all you can control is the lighting for your product photography, DO IT. It's the first step toward professional-looking product photos and can be the difference between someone buying your product or ignoring it.2 | Keep your audience in mind when styling your product photographyKnowing who your ideal audience is can be an important factor when it comes to styling your product photography. Your ideal audience may be different than the audience of another creative entrepreneur and because of that, you may need to style your product photography differently than they do. If you style your product photography for the wrong audience, they won't connect with it and you could lose sales!If you don't know your ideal audience's tastes very well, check out Episode 2 of this season and soak up Britt and Kelsey's tips. Establishing a solid brand, including knowing your ideal audience, can have a big impact on your product photography!If you don't know who your ideal audience is right now, take the time to figure it out. Use what you know of your ideal audience to fit their style in your product photography!3 | Consider investing in LightroomNow, I know as creative entrepreneurs, the business wallet is often a bit tighter than we'd like, especially when starting a creative business. Sometimes you really do have to invest money into your creative business to make more money, though. If you sell products, whether it's art on your own site or handmade items on Etsy or what have you, Lightroom may be one of those necessary investments.While Lightroom's mobile version is free, as Crystal pointed out in this episode, using the mobile app can drastically reduce the quality of your product photography. If you can use the Lightroom desktop version, your product photography will retain its resolution and quality and look better on all platforms. If you can't afford the monthly cost of Lightroom just yet, give it a try on your phone and see if it makes enough of a difference to justify the cost.If you're able to use the Lightroom desktop version, it's worth it! If not, just remember that the quality of your product photography will be decreased by the mobile Lightroom app, so bear that in mind when using it.Want to connect with Crystal?You can find her on her website, and on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest @crystalclearphotographyaz. Don't forget to subscribe to the Creative Business Success Podcast for more episodes and share your biggest takeaways in the comments!