Do you want to start shooting products in your home in a simple and easy way? Maybe you're a small business owner who wants to take photos of your products, a lifestyle blogger or wanting to become an Instagram influencer. Either way, with a few tips and tricks you can make your photos look clean and professional without a studio space.
1) Look for the Light
Like any photo your lighting is extremely important and it's what makes a photograph go from good to great. Superb natural light can found around your home if you take the time to look for it. Study the light in your home in each room, and see what time of day you get the brightest and most soft light. For example, in my living room I get great airy light from 9:00am - 11:00am so that is when I would take my natural light photos. The other times of day are just too harsh or dark and make my photos look muddy. In the evening my neighbours house blocks the light completely, but perhaps that's when you get a dreamy glowy light in your home from the sunset. It all depends on your situation, so take a look around your home and take some test shots.
Avoid turning on lamps or other artificial light. You may think you're just adding more light to your photo, but you're actually mixing light temperatures which can give your photo weird colours.
Notice the orange tinge in the second photo when I turned on my lamp
2) K.I.S.S?
Keep it simple, silly! K.I.S.S is a great rule to follow when it comes to product or lifestyle images. Keeping your background clean and simple will allow the focus to remain on the product free of any distractions. Plain white walls are a great way to give your photo a light and airy feel and then you can style the photo how you'd like. No one wants to see your dirty dishes or shower head, so be aware of what is in the background.
Make sure your products are also clean and free of any marks, scratches etc.
3) Get Creative
You never know what will make a great backdrop for your photos, so think outside the box! I like to go to places like B&Q or Wickes to look for backgrounds. Things like pieces of wood, veneer, tiles, laminate, etc can all make creative backdrops as long as they're not too shiny or glossy. You can also look at fabric stores or craft stores for scrapbook paper. Use your imagination and experiment using different materials.
The most popular background on Instagram right now actually seems to be fur blankets! Who knows what the next trend will be.
4) Use Your Laptop
If you want to backlight your photos or found an image online you want to use, you can actually place your product on your laptop and shoot with a low aperture for a great affect. Make sure you have permission to use the photo or that it is copyright free before using it. I actually created my own backgrounds by shooting long exposures of our lamp at night.
For my set up here I placed my product on a black glossy surface on top of my keyboard. The closest thing I had was a Cards Against Humanity box - whatever does the trick! My settings were F3.5, 1/125, ISO 500. This image took me about 2 minutes to create, with more time and attention to detail you can create stunning images.
5) Our Mini Studio
If you're struggling to find the right light and just want simple product images with a white or black background, with no hassle, we have a great option for you. Our mini foldable studio creates clean images and is so easy to set up. It is simply lit with an LED strip powered by a USB cable. Most of our products from the shop are actually shot with this box!
6) Edit Your Photos
Finally, to make your photos look more professional give them a finished look by processing them. Lightroom is our go-to editing software as it's batch editing and functions are so easy and simple, even for beginners. Brighten your photos and make sure there are no flaws that need to be edited out.If you are shooting on an iPhone, try using the A ColourStory app. It has many professional features and great filters you won't find on Instagram.
There we have it, 6 easy ways you can take lifestyle or product photos in your home. We'd love to hear from you on