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It shouldn’t cost anymore than $300 and it will be the best investment you’ll ever make.

Tip: The cost of hiring a photographer to do product shoots and then prepare those photographs for presenting your product can cost several times more than buying a digital camera and accessories.

There are excellent used cameras and accessories available from several online auctions. If you shop around and buy from someplace like Trade-Me or eBay your costs could be as little as $50 - $100. That is exactly what I suggest you do: buy a good used camera and new accessories.


What sort of camera should you buy?
Don’t bother with one that has so many settings that it will take you a year to work out how to use the thing. Point and Shoots are by far the best and easiest to use.

I would suggest you buy a 2 or 3 mega pixel point and shoot digital camera, and if the product you sell is small, one with a good macro (for super close-ups).

Sales people will tell you that you need a 5 or 6 mega pixel, to be able to print out pictures at a decent size… that’s a load of rubbish… when I started I had a 2 mega pixel camera, and it’s still my favorite. I have printed out photos at A3 (Approx 11" x 17") size that were taken with that camera, and the photos look great. How often do you want photos larger then that? If you do manage to take that one photo in a million that you want to use for a billboard; a skilled graphic artist/designer can enlarge your image so it is suitable for an advertisement images of that size.

Look at these sites to read digital camera reviews:

www.steves-digicams.com
www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM (photo comparison site)
www.dcviews.com/tutors.htm

After you buy your camera
Check the settings on your camera (look for a button, or dial that will give you a menu to adjust various settings), there are only 2 that you need to concern yourself with for a start.
1. The flash settings: Auto generally works best for most shots.
2. The quality settings (size): adjust your camera so you are taking the largest photographs your camera is capable of. It is much easier to make a photo smaller then to enlarge it.

Take photos of your products in many different conditions: Vary the lighting (take photos inside and outside), the distance you are from your product, the angle you shoot from and the layout itself. If it is a small product vary the surface you place your product on. Take photos of the product alone and photos of someone using the product; take hundreds of photos; it will cost you nothing unless you decide to have them printed so don’t be shy.

To illustrate: On the photos below the product (a pendant) is taken against a variety of backgrounds under different lighting conditions (inside and outside). Notice how different the product looks; how some surfaces enhance the product and others make it appear drab or dark. Interestingly, the photo titled Paper is actually taken on white paper with artificial lighting. I think the one against the wood background displays the product best; the colors of the 2 stones and the gold are shown off very nicely with this background. These photos are an excellent illustration of how different backgrounds can show off, or detract from your product.

First view each photo in a viewer; keep you finger on the delete button; blurry, poorly colored and unattractive photos should be deleted. That is the beauty of a digital camera.
Tip: If you do not have an image viewer on your computer check out this free graphic viewing and editing program called Irfanview, it can be downloaded here: www.irfanview.com

If you start off with 100 photos and end up with 15 good ones you are doing well. Continue taking photos until you have 2 or 3 great shots of each product, from different angles etc. Since you have used your cameras largest quality setting you will be able to use them for other advertising purposes besides your website.
Remember to burn (write to CD) all your best photos to a CD, for safe keeping, that way you will always have a copy of the original photos.

Good photo of the product itself, bad background.
This is one of the biggest problems with photos of products. It’s best to get another photo, but if you can’t don’t throw away the photo; a good graphic artist can probably fix it. We recently built a website/web shop for a couple who fossick for gemstones in Australia. He facets the gemstones and she is a jeweler/designer, so they make their own jewelery. The photos of gemstones had to be taken inside with artificial lighting, and while the photos of the gemstones were crisp the detail and brightness of the background detracted from the product itself. I blurred the background, leaving the detail of the gemstone itself intact; what a difference!

Trudy (the jeweler) began taking photos of their jewelery inside, under lighting with a flash. I suggested that she go outside and find an interesting stone or piece of wood or bark to use as a background. What a difference it made to the photos! The natural surfaces give a great contrast to the jewelery, and enhance the designs, and it cost her nothing in materials. You can see the results yourself in the photos above; some of them are truly stunning. Trudy and Lou, thank you for letting me use some of your photos to illustrate this article. Please visit their website; they have some lovely products: Gemhunters

As an ending note: for those of you with a child (8 or older)
If you think you don’t have time for this, buy a point and shoot digital camera and teach your child to use it. Have him/her take your product photos; don’t direct them too much… let them experiment and use their imagination… you may be amazed with the results they get. My daughter was ten when I got my first digital camera, and she was taking awesome photos within a couple of weeks. I was bedridden, so I couldn’t show her what to do and she took very different photos from what I would have taken. Her angle, height and perspective worked quite well and looking back at the photos she took then I am still very impressed with just how good they are. Who knows you may be teaching your child a great skill for later life.