You're probably wondering, is there such a thing as a selfie expert? The answer is yes. It’s no secret; the selfie dominates the social media scene. With smiling faces, some people seem like they can just point the camera and look flawless. So where do we find the mythical secrets and answers to the question we’re all asking? In five quick tips, we are going to show you how to take a good selfies like you always see on Instagram.
We all follow a few people whose Instagram poses are on lock. And when we try, it’s…. A bit of a mess. The secret for how to pose in pictures? Whichever pose you choose to take, always begin the pose with your eyes.
That’s easier said than done. Or is it?
One tip to relax and pose your eyes is to imagine a funny joke. The point of laughter you get will truly bring the shine out. The eyes are the windows to the soul, so don’t forget to capture them nicely!
Every smartphone and camera we’ve owned have included a timer option for photos. This nifty little countdown is one of the biggest keys to reducing camera shake and maintaining your grip. Simply set it for a few seconds, use the time to strike your selfie poses, and the camera will do the work for you.
This is perfect for crazy selfie poses, and almost critical for those smoldering head poses. Most phones let you select from either 3 or 10 seconds, giving you some choice. Just hit the button, hold your phone out, and you have some time to make sure your pose is perfect before the phone snaps it for you.
One of the little nuances you start to notice in selfies is the angles that appear. Keep in mind that you have a limited space to set up your photo, so where to even stand is an art. In vertical photos, keep yourself in the center of the frame, while in horizontal photos you should mind the rule of thirds and keep yourself to either the left or right-hand side of the photo.
Getting your face angles and head poses just right can be slightly tricky, however, a good rule of thumb is to face your shoulders away from the camera while you look directly at it to give a solid side profile.
Full body poses are a little easier, though you should experiment with fun angles to decide how to pose in your pictures depending on where you place the camera, like the ground up or from a high vantage point.
What to know one of the biggest secrets in selfies? Most rely on help to take them. Not in the traditional way of hauling a cameraman around, but with a helpful invention, you may have seen it known as the Selfie Stick.
Seriously, these are some of if not the best things for self-photography invented since the forward-facing camera. We love these things so much, we decided to make ours even more versatile with a tripod.
Use the selfie stick for high-angle shots, and the tripod for lows. No need to carry around an entire bag when this one tool does the whole trick.
Please repeat after me.
Natural. Lighting.
Good lighting is only hard to come by if you’re avoiding the sun. In darker areas, the flash is acceptable, but understand your image may have a different color balance. White light is notorious for enhancing greens and reds and should be adjusted in your editor.
If good indoor lighting is required, then try to find natural light LEDs. These typically come in a three-color system between warm and cool lighting that is mixed to simulate natural light.
Mastering these five secrets can turn any Instagram page into some of the most viral pictures on the feed. These are just some of the thousands of overlooked tips for taking a good selfie out there.
Do you have a few favorite selfie tricks? Share it with other photographers over on our official Instagram by clicking here!
]]>Let’s fix that.
With these Amazon product photography tips, you can avoid the common mistakes that sink products harder than the 20th page on google. Even by mastering just the basics, your products can get in front of the buyers who need them. But first, let’s go over the top 5 mistakes you are going to avoid.
You are going to avoid them, right? Good. We know you have it in you.
Repeat after us. White. Clean. Backgrounds.
Amazon prefers to promote product images that showcase the product in a clean and clear manner. That means your very first photo, known as the Main Photo, should feature a white background and a clear view of your whole product.
Photos with colored backgrounds are acceptable if they showcase a specific product feature, but they should be relegated to your secondary photos. Your customer’s first encounters should be clean and pristine.
If you really need the perfect amazon product photography backdrop and white just won’t do, keep it a solid color. Black, Green, and Red are your friends in such scenarios, but they can be hit or miss.
If we had a nickel for every time we clicked on a link, excited for a product, only to find that the actual product being sold wasn’t what we’d been excited for in the photos, we could probably buy Amazon.
Props are great for your Facebook and Instagram. They’re great for showcasing your product’s functions. But they should stay FAR away from your Main Photo. Show exactly what the customer is receiving in the Main Photo. Let your product strut its stuff on its own. Secondary photos are the domain of product props only if they add to showcasing its features.
We don’t expect everyone looking to sell on amazon to be a celebrity-level photo editor, a photoshop warrior, a blend tool guru, so on and so forth.
Amazon does.
That may be a little exaggerated, but they do expect a baseline quality for photographs. Amazon is going to tell you that your photo can be a PNG, TIFF, GIF, or JPG.
What they don’t tell you is your photo should be a PNG, or a TIFF if you’re feeling fancy. PNG’s are lossless, meaning that the image you save is the image that’s going to appear on your customer’s screen. They save full size and don’t have any pesky artifacting JPG’s can render. That’s the weird fuzz and miscolored dots you sometimes see on lower-quality photos. Let’s avoid that.
GIFs are fun to show all angles of your products, but you really should avoid using it as a catch-all solution. Instead, take a few good quality PNGs of the angles and hold off on the GIF unless your product does something amazing while moving.
Aside from the technical details, make sure your product is in focus, filling up at least 85% of the photo (remember that number, you’ll see it again soon) and if your product is media, aka a book, movie, cd, or dvd, then you need to make sure the front cover is 100% of the photo.
Lighting is one of the most important aspects of photography. You’re taught from day one that light is important. That’s great until they forget to explain what kind of lighting you should use and how to get that perfect shot.
For Amazon, bright white lighting should be used. Avoid letting the light hit your product directly to reduce glare. This is where a good quality lightbox like MacroFrame’s really should join your amazon product photography equipment. The light is positioned to fill the box rather than point directly at your product. This allows you to just set your item in the lightbox and shoot your picture without the hassle of making sure the lights are positioned just right.
Amazon has a clear and consistent set of rules that every seller must follow to get their products featured. First and foremost is the core 5:
These aren’t hard, but you’d be surprised to learn how few remember, causing their chances to be featured to sink. If anything is permanently stuck in your head, let it be these 5 rules. These are the baseline for getting your product onto Amazon. Getting them right the first time will save you potential headaches far into the future.
A lot of people see Amazon photography as either a simple matter or this goliath that must be tamed. The truth is it’s somewhere in the middle. So long as you follow the rules and avoid the pitfalls we mentioned above, your diligence will reward you with an awesome Amazon shop and happy well-informed customers.
Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts, and follow MacroFrame on Instagram and Facebook for even more photography fun for both hobbyists and small businesses.
You actually don't even need to wait to get home to start editing.
There are tons of tools sitting in your back pocket and they are (mostly) free or a fraction of the cost. It can seem overwhelming when trying to find the perfect one that fits your needs.
You feel like you scroll forever looking at the reviews on the App Store and get lost in the sea of comments. Is simple always better? Or is an app with complex features better suited for you?
In order to make these apps seem a little less daunting, we’ve broken down the top 5 best photo editing apps for the iPhone.
We’ll use a usability scale from 1-5, 1 being the most difficult and 5 being the easiest. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned professional, you’re bound to find the perfect app for you down below.
Focos has more than just color and light adjustments. It gives you the power to change the focus of your photos.
Under the ‘Focus’ option, you can change things like ‘aperture’ and ‘lens’ which allows you to pinpoint the exact subject you want the main focus to be on. When using this feature, you can change the far and near intensity of the focus and the app even tells you what aperture it’s using. You can even separately adjust both the foreground and background in the ‘EFFECT’ option, increasing the depth where you need it. You can add things such as ‘bokeh,’ ‘motion blur,’ ‘soft glow,’ ‘noise,’ and ‘tilt-shift.’
Focos offers a bunch of different lens effects, but unfortunately you have to purchase most of them. It has so many tools to choose from and even can break down your photo into a 3D pixelated layer. It will take you some trial and error to figure it out, but the time spent on it is definitely well worth it.
Before:
Playing with aperture:
3D pixelated layer:
App Store Rating: 4.8/5 stars and 24K ratings
Pros:
Cons:
Usability: 3
Afterlight has over 100 filters to choose from and gives you the option to fine-tune color with its ‘Selective Color,’ ‘Color Shift,’ and ‘Advanced Curves’ tools. It offers cool effects like ‘plasma,’ ‘leak,’ ‘haze,’ ‘prism,’ and ‘light’ if you’re looking to add a little something extra to your photo. If you feel like experimenting, Afterlight even has tools to play around with things like double exposure and layers. You can even add on some ‘glow’ or ‘dust’ if you’re looking for a classic hazy film look.
Afterlight breaks down their tools into ‘Adjustments’ and ‘Touch Tools.’ Keep in mind that the ‘Adjustments’ affect the whole image. However, if you have to edit a very specific area within your photograph, zoom into that portion and click on the ‘Touch Tool’ feature that you need. This app offers a 1 year full access free trial. After that, the monthly subscription is only $2.99 a month! That’s only 1 of your daily coffees.
It’s overall pretty easy to use but definitely takes some time to get used to. I love how moody you can make your photos and transform them into works of art with just a few taps.
Before:
Playing with Color Shift:
Double exposure:
App Store Rating: 4.7/5 stars and 10K ratings
Pros:
Cons:
Usability: 4
VSCO is the quintessential app for the influencer. Their tagline is literally “Photo and video tools for creators by creators.” It costs no money and all you have to do is make an account. I don’t know about you all, but I definitely feel like an Insta baddie when I use VSCO.
VSCO allows you to compare presets, accentuate color, and add effects like frames and a vignette so your Instagram grid flows together in the most perfect way. You can easily adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, and tone with simple slide features. It even offers a white balance option so you can tweak the temperature and tint of your photo making sure the color is exactly how you want it.
Sometimes with so many color enhancements, the people in your photo start to look like aliens with blue or orange skin and we don't want that! VSCO offers a ‘Skin Tone’ tool that helps smooth the skin as well as color correct your subject so the person in your photograph doesn’t start to look as green as the grass beneath them.
If there’s a certain look that took you literally forever to get, save it under ‘Recipes’ so you can use it in the future. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve edited a photo on my phone, only to forget how I got there, SMH. This prevents that exact dilemma and helps anyone looking to easily edit your photos so they all look the same.
VSCO is definitely your best friend when it comes to making sure your Insta feed looks on point. It’s pretty simple to use and there are tons of tutorials online that teach you how to maximize everything this app offers.
Before:
Playing with presets:
App Store Rating: 4.3/5 stars and 37K ratings
Pros:
Cons:
Usability: 5
Snapseed is a hidden diamond in a sea of photo editing apps. This free gem of an app may just become your new best friend. This simplified editing tool offers a lot of great features for the beginner editor.
With 12 presets and over 20 tools available, you’re able to find the perfect tone and temperature for your image. What’s cool about this app is the array of style choices you can make. Want a vintage look that’s reminiscent of the ‘70s? They have an option for that. What about giving it that grainy film look that’s super popular nowadays? They have a tool for that too! Even something that brings me back to my grunge tumblr days? Yup, they have that as well.
It even offers easy background blurring effects that are pretty similar to the portraiture mode on your iPhone. Use their ‘Portrait’ or ‘Head Pose’ to make someone the main focus of your image. You can also play around with things such as brush, text, and frames if you’re feeling a little fancy one day.
Snapseed is incredibly user friendly and it doesn’t take long at all to figure out the way it operates. I’m a big fan of Snapseed since it offers an endless amount of color and style choices that will bring your photo to a whole new level.
Before:
Playing with adjustments:
Look at all those tooools:
App Store Rating: 3.9/5 stars and 5.5K ratings
Pros:
Cons:
Usability: 5
Our personal favorite and go-to app is the Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor. This app is free with a Adobe CC subscription. Just sign in with your Adobe username and password to access its features. It offers easy slide adjustments for light, color, effects, detail, and geometry. It even has the ‘Curve’ button available under the ‘Light’ section. It has my 2 favorite tools under ‘Optics’: ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ and ‘Enable Lens Corrections.’ These fix those pesky color fringes and undos any distortion your lens may have caused when snapping a photo. It even offers ‘Selective Edits,’ the ‘Healing Brush,’ ‘Crop & Rotate,’ and ‘Profiles.’ Basically, anything you might need is somewhere in this powerful app.
Need some help or inspiration? Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor even has ‘Learn’ and ‘Discover’ pages available. Find easy tutorials to upgrade your editing game or explore the thousands of shared photos other creators have posted. You can even search for something specific and or click on one of their many categories at the bottom of the ‘Discover’ page if you’re looking for anything from nature to sports to weddings and so much more.
Adobe did a great job at making an app version of Lightroom. It’s a perfect match for any beginner or expert. You’ll be a pro at navigating this app within a few uses. Don’t forget, explore the ‘Learn’ page if you get stuck!
Before:
Manipulating the exposure:
Manipulating the tint:
Healing brush tool:
App Store Rating: 4.8/5 stars and 119K ratings
Pros:
Cons:
Usability: 5
One (or all) of these apps will be the answer to your photo editing prayers. Don’t be afraid to mix and match too! Edit a photo in one app and try another one to see if it can enhance what you already did to it. There are endless possibilities at your fingertips. You’re in good hands with these apps whether you’re looking for an extreme photo makeover (Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor) or just adding in some touches of dust and light leaks (Afterlight) to give your photo that specific look or mood.
Happy editing!
]]>Foamboard
White cotton cloth (Or parchment paper)
Clear Packing tape
Cardstock or Posterboard
Double-sided tape
Carpenter's square
Box knife
Desk lights
Lightboxes are easy to build, worth their weight in photo-quality, and a fun DIY project for those taking their first steps into the photography hobby. They're a priceless tool for taking high-quality product photos for stores or for giving that arts and crafts Instagram a little extra edge.
Photos can be taken without a lightbox, but…
Yikes.
So how do we get our hands on a suitable lightbox for our photos?
When we’re on a budget, we turn to the wonderful world of DIY. With a few easy-to-find supplies and tools, we'll get our homemade lightbox up and running in no time.
Most, if not all, of these items tend to be found in discount stores making it a perfect upgrade for those on a hairline budget.
When drafting our design, we need to keep in mind the two functions of a lightbox:
(Bonus: Take great pictures!)
Both functions reduce unwanted glare and shadows in your photos and create clean, even lighting.
To emphasize that, we'll be making two windows for built-in light diffusion. This will let us use everyday desk lights for our light source to take full advantage of the lightbox's properties.
Let’s go ahead and sketch out our plan in advance, so we know what we’re looking for. Nothing fancy, just a rough draft to have on hand before we go measuring and cutting.
Now that we have an idea of our build, let's get to the preparation. Please keep in mind, we’re creating an 8-inch lightbox for small scale work. One of the primary strengths of DIY is that you can build it as big as you want, so long as you scale things appropriately.
This is rather easy thanks to the existence of discount stores. Overall, we paid roughly $8 USD for our supplies.
We'll need enough foamboard to make an 8-inch cube with one side completely open. For the windows, if you're able to get a good discount on white cotton cloth, then that’s the perfect material to help diffuse light.
Parchment or tissue paper will work as well if a usable cloth can’t be found. Keep in mind that the material needs to let enough light through, but not enough to cause glare. If you can hold it up to a light and see a bright white shine through it, then you're good to go.
If there's one tool anyone interested in DIY should own, it's a carpenter's square. It's the perfect tool to measure out our 8-inch squares. On two of the squares, mark an inner square 1 1/2 inches from the edge. These two squares will form our windows later.
With the cardstock or inner paper, measure out a 16 inch by 8-inch piece. This will form our sloped background, also known as a sweep, to remove the hard crease that would affect photo quality. For the cloth or parchment paper, cut two 7 inch squares, one for each window of the box.
With the box cutter, carefully cut the pieces and windows out. To make the cuts cleaner, use the edge of the carpenter's square to guide your knife. Scissors can also be used to cut the cardstock. Once all of our pieces are cut, we can start assembling the lightbox.
Using the tape, we'll assemble the box most of the way with the windowed panels on the left and right sides. Leave the top off until you use the double-sided tape to affix the cardstock into the box.
This cardstock will act as the sweep, removing what would be a slightly darker line from behind your photo subjects and allowing the softened light to bounce and fill the shadows.
Tape on the top of your lightbox.
Now with the general structure finished, we'll finalize the box by attaching our window diffusers and admire our finished work. THUMBS UP EMOJI
It's time for the best part.
Get something you'd like to take a photo of and set it in the lightbox. Mount and adjust your lamps, the bulbs facing the windows. You'll want as much light as possible entering the box. Take a few test shots, and adjust your camera to fit your subject and with that, your lightbox is good to go.
Here’s a shot from one actively used by an artist nearby! He built his using a 12-inch pattern rather than an 8-inch, with 3 windows on the top and both sides.
Now that’s a good looking photo
While a DIY box will service most small-time, in-studio projects, there comes a time when an upgrade's in order.
Any DIY solution lacks compact portability, durability, consistent lighting, and requires the use of extra lamps to make the lightbox function.
A perfect upgrade would keep our strengths while shoring up those weaknesses while still giving us the best bang for our buck.
For that, we turn to the MacroFrame Lightbox, a portable, durable, and overall complete piece of gear when the time comes to upgrade from your DIY lightbox. It comes with a collapsable high-quality construction that remains portable for the photographer on the go, or even if you want to regain the space your normal lightbox takes up. The LED light strips built into the box also provide nice, even lighting that takes no time at all to set up.
MacroFrame also offers a ton of other exciting products like a rotating display stand that fits both the DIY build and MacroFrame's portable studio perfectly. With the rise of GIFs and Video enabled sites, the turntable is the perfect complement for any product photoshoot and should be a part of all photographer’s toolboxes.
The DIY journey has only started and we’d love to have you along for the ride. Have you built a lightbox of your own? Share a picture of your set up on Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to tag us!
]]>Ecommerce product photography has become an essential aspect of online shopping. Customers rely on photos for an accurate depiction of what they are buying, as well as a way to judge the value of your product and trustworthiness of your brand. So yes, the quality of your visual presentation is essential.
Most businesses don’t understand the importance of their product photos, and neglecting this aspect of their online store is costing them big time. It’s easy to argue that the price of getting professional ecommerce product photos is not worthwhile, but if only these businesses knew it’s possible to take site-ready photos with little to no sweat of their back.
Luckily, YOU can get a step ahead of them with the tools in your pocket and at the cost of a dinner for one! You can create polished and beautiful product photography without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment or a professional photographer.
Here are a few tips to get you started in photographing high quality and consistent shots of your products!
Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash
While the most essential element to your product shoot is your camera, you don’t need a multi-thousand dollar camera set up to create professional photographs.
Smartphone technology today is tremendous and allows you to shoot high-quality product photos for ecommerce without the hassle and expense of a high-end camera. Think of the shock you have when you see “shot on Iphone” under some of these crazy images and videos on the internet! Of course, if you have a professional-grade camera, take advantage of it, but if not, any smartphone camera like an iPhone 7, Google Pixel, or a Samsung Galaxy S4, will do the trick.
Using a smartphone along with the following tips will allow you to create product photography that is professional, consistent, and most importantly SELLS $$$.
Photo by MacroFrame
That’s right, we’re talking tripods. While propping your phone or camera up against a makeshift set up is a cheaper option, it ultimately leads to irregularities in your photos that can deter customers from your product, site, and brand.
Remember, the goal is to create trustworthy, clear, and professional photos that represent your product and brand in the best way possible. Sharp and in-focus shots give your customers a realistic impression of your product and will increase your sales. A tripod will help you regulate the orientation of your product in each photo for a consistent look, and these days finding the right tripod to fit your needs is easier and more affordable than ever.
You will want to decide between a traditional or a flexible tripod to get you started. I prefer the flexible tripod and find them to be more versatile and easy to use; my go-to tripod can be found here and is extremely affordable!
The flexible legs bend and move to achieve the camera angle you desire and it comes with a mobile phone grip and DSLR attachment for whatever you’re shooting with!
Proper lighting can ultimately make or break your product pictures, but most people seem to completely forget about it.
The main factor you will want to consider is natural light versus artificial light. The right lighting set up should reveal the critical decision making features of your product so your customers have a clear image of what they will be purchasing.
While natural lighting can be effective in lifestyle product photography, it does have its limitations; like relying on the weather, only shooting during specific times of the day, and introducing the possibility of inconsistencies. For those reasons alone, I prefer artificial light and recommend it especially for newbies in the product photography world.
There are many ways you can use artificial light in your product shoots. Lamps can create a bright artificial setting when used with Fluorescent, LED, or Tungsten light bulbs.
Photo by Jackie Rahl on MacroFrame
However, I recommend purchasing ready-made photography equipment, which is low cost, easy, and convenient. Lightboxes are a helpful tool in creating consistent, professional-looking photographs without breaking the bank. The MacroFrame lightbox is equipped with an LED strip; this simple yet powerful piece of gear allows you to properly photograph and show off your product with clean, even lighting. If you have multiple products to shoot, tools like a lightbox will make the photographing process more efficient and smooth. Some lightboxes sell for hundreds of dollars, but options like the MacroFrame lightbox are affordable and effective.
Images by Taylor Mathis
An essential step to take when creating professional-looking ecommerce product photography is using a sweep background; a photography sweep is when the backdrop does not have a crease or break in it. This is the best way to create a seamless background that allows the product to be the center of attention.
Images that are focused and distraction-free are pleasing to the eye and help create a more professional look and feel for your brand. Sweeps are not fancy, this look can easily be accomplished with a low budget and just a spark of creativity.
While making one of these backdrops from home is possible and affordable, the MacroFrame lightbox (pictured above) comes equipped with black and white backdrops to help create the smooth sweep. Instead of setting up my own lighting and sweep, I rely on easy assembly lightboxes for accuracy and consistency.
When taking pictures of ourselves, we all know there are good angles and there are bad angles. But when it comes to product photography, hunny, you need ALL THE ANGLES. Do not stop at one photo per product, give your customers so many images it feels like they are holding the product!
In order to create product photography that mimics the shopping experience, you need multiple shots of your product from different angles. Your customers want to look, pick up, hold, and use the product you are selling, so give them a variety of photos that promote these sensations. The better your customers know and understand the product the more likely they are to purchase it.
There are two ways to give this experience to your customers.
First you can start by taking multiple photos from varying angles (and don’t fret- digital film is free so shoot your heart out). The more options you have to choose from the better. The beauty of creating your own product photos for ecommerce allows you to take several shots and strategically choose the best ones for your product and brand.
Second, get a rotating display stand to do the work for you. Accurately capture every angle of your product by putting it on something that will show a 360 degree view. This makes the possibilities endless, you can turn the footage into a video customers can watch, or you can get fancy and make an interactive 3-dimensional experience with full 360 degree product views.
Images from Ian Bondi
At the end of the day, the importance of good product photography cannot be overstated.
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say, “you don’t need to spend thousands on a professional photographer,” you just need the right tools and techniques.
The photos on display for customers are essential for convincing them to buy your product and trust your brand. Using the techniques above will allow you to produce photography that tells a narrative, creates trust for your product, and will sell sell sell!
*Feature Image Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash
]]>A studio flash head will usually offer a few simple controls. First, there’s the output setting. This controls the strength of the light. Many monoblocks have a range between 1.0 and 6.0. Each number represents one stop of light, so the maximum output of 6.0 could equally be thought of as 1/1 power, while the minimum output of 1.0 is effectively 1/32 power (although some heads will go lower than this). Of course, the strength of this maximum and minimum output will vary depending on the power of the unit and whether a light modi er is fitted.
Among the other controls there’s usually a button that switches the recycling beep on or off. This tells us when the heads are fully recycled and ready to fire (it usually takes half a second or so). The other useful control is an optical slave mode. Enable this on our second light and it’ll fire upon detecting the flash from the first.