Why Props Are Important in Product Photography
As more businesses focus on staying relevant and making sales online, the competition has become even more fierce. One of the things that would make your online store stand out even more in the competition is a good knowledge of product photography. Product photography has become a lot more complex than it used to be. One must learn how to properly place their products in pictures, to show the sides that reveal their value, and to generally have an attractive-looking online store. Just as items like clothes are worn on mannequins and placed just by the windows to attract buyers, nice and professional-looking pictures of your products will attract prospective buyers to your business page and website.
One of the ways to make your products look a lot more interesting and attractive is to use props in your product photos. Props are physical items included in pictures to provide more detail to the subject of the photos, provoke emotions, provide a theme, and for aesthetic purposes. Props used to be actual items used in photos, but in recent times, people buy false items to be used as props for their photography. For instance, there are false books and magazines used just as props.
Below are some of the reasons to include props in your product pictures.
Props make your product look more interesting.
It used to be cool to just have a picture of a product on a dull white background but these days, that would only make your product pictures look uninteresting. These days, product pictures have to have more going on to catch the attention of people. Props add more detail to your product photography and are generally great for the aesthetics of your pictures, but two major reasons to include props in your product photography are because they contextualize your products and evoke emotions in consumers.
Props contextualize your products
Props help add more detail to your product pictures. A recent innovation is to use items related to the product or items for sale as props, this helps provide more context to the product pictures.
They evoke certain emotions in consumers.
Props evoke certain emotions from the consumers of product pictures. Photographers can, with the use of props, plant an idea of what the product is used for and how it can make prospective buyers feel. For instance, in a picture where the subject is a nice dress, using a glass of red wine and a colorful magazine as a prop in the picture helps plant the idea of luxury in consumers. Potential buyers can then picture an image of them wearing the said dress, sipping from a wine glass, and reading a magazine.
It is also important to know what kinds of props will go with what kind of products and what placement is acceptable. One must also be wary of adding so many props that it distracts from the actual product in the picture. Like with many other things, less is more.