8 Beauty Products Photography Best Practices For 2023

Beauty has a price. Luckily, they’re often posted online. With similar products across the board at a similar price, consumers can be confused about what to get. The kicker?—Product photos!

According to statistics, 75% of online shoppers rely on product photos when deciding what to buy. So, if you want to elevate your beauty product photography, stick around!

In this article, we’ll be covering:

What makes beauty products photography great.

Best practices.

And, tips on how to streamline editing.

What Makes Great Beauty Products Photography?

There are an infinite number of ways to take product photos for beauty products. You can even take stock photos online and call it a day.

But, if you want to compete, you need to consider product staging, backdrops, and other essentials such as:

Get the lighting right: Lighting defines how we perceive a photo. There could be several lighting sources or even just one. But you should always diffuse lights that are too bright and angle the light so it hits the product where you want it to.

Mix and match products: Product photography demands you to focus on a single subject. However, when it comes to beauty products, there are sets that complement each item. For example, make-up kits include everything from brushes to lipsticks.

Polish products: Clean your products. Handling products could leave fingerprints, oils could make dust stick to a product, and there could be blemishes left unchecked. Ensuring these are cleaned helps you minimize editing.

Follow the aesthetic: Be consistent with your theme or aesthetic. This goes for every item in the shoot. There should be consistency in the lighting, color schemes, and even props used in the shoot.

Shoot at the highest resolution: Beauty products are typically small. But, they carry intricate designs that make each unique. You want to capture these details as much as possible at the highest resolution to work with the photo better, especially during editing.

8 Tips To Make You A Beauty Products Photography Pro

Now that we know what it takes to make quality beauty product photos, here are eight tips you can draw inspiration from for your next photoshoot.

Show Off The Brand USP

USP (Unique Selling Position) is your brand’s mission and vision. The product photos you choose to shoot directly reflect your brand.

This encompasses everything from how you position your product, the background, the complementary hues of the props, and much more.

For example, if your brand is known for natural products, adding the ingredients a product is made out of can help customers better understand what you’re trying to sell.

Photograph Specific Details

As mentioned earlier, beauty products are no bigger than the size of your palm. But, they do come with lots of minute details that make them unique.

22% of customers return products that don’t look like the image. As a photographer, it’s your job to present an accurate representation. One of the best ways to do so is by using an image upscaler.

Experiment With Different Lighting

The way the light hits at a certain angle and even the way shadows are created with each crevice adds a different tone to the product photo.

So, experiment with variables such as the strength of the light, its distance from your beauty product, and how diffusers or reflectors are set up.

But remember, consistency is key to any shoot. When you find the balance of lights and shadows, stick to that.

If you don’t have the equipment, natural light is the best source. However, harsh sunlight might lead to bad shots. Diffuse it with a curtain or alternatives such as T-shirts or printer paper.

Use Props

Props complement your main subject. The key here is to find props that can make your subject stand out more. They can fit the theme of your shoot or add layering and depth.

For example, a sunscreen brand might add sunglasses, palm tree leaves, and a few water droplets in the mix to emulate a summer vacation vibe—perfect for the product.

Try Different Backgrounds

Despite their size, beauty products come with them a sense of prestige, especially those with classy or luxurious packaging. So, follow that motif with your background!

Brands can use specific colors to get a consistent brand image but there will be times when the product itself is better shot in another. Another tip is to use textural backgrounds to give depth to the product, especially in closer shots.

Use A Mixture Of Flat Lay, Lifestyle, and Packshot Photos

Packshots are mostly found on eCommerce sites like Amazon. These are photographed against white backgrounds for a couple of key reasons.

Flat lays are photographs taken from a bird’s eye view. Subjects are complemented with props following certain themes. It’s a budget-friendly approach to an aesthetically pleasing photoshoot.

Lifestyles are photos that showcase how customers can use products in real life. These can be elaborate shots complete with a model, location, and style scene.

Use Eye-Catching Colors

Investing time in color theory can go a long way. Here’s a fantastic color wheel example from CoSchedule:

The colors for your background should complement the product or your model’s skin tone. To find complementary colors with the color wheel, start with your main color and look for its direct opposite. Or, you can go for analogous—the two colors adjacent to the complementary.

Edit Your Shots

The most important thing in any beauty product photoshoot is editing. No matter how good the raw image is, editing can always elevate the shots you took.

Beginners can find editing daunting, especially with software like Lightroom. But, there are free and intuitive tools like Pixelcut that are perfect for any skill level.

One of the most difficult things to edit is object removal. With our free tool, you can clean up pictures and remove objects automatically with the help of AI.

Key Takeaways

Product photography is an essential part of any business, especially in the beauty category. Make sure you get the best out of every shot by following these quick tips:

Highlight specific details that make a product unique.

Experiment with lighting, but be consistent once you get the right angle.

Try different backgrounds to see what fits your theme best.

Learn color theory to get a grasp of how to effectively use vibrant colors.

And, always edit your photos to enhance each shot.

With the photography out of the way, the only thing left to do is add a description. Luckily, you don’t have to think of a new one for each item, you can use Pixelcut’s product description template! So, what are you waiting for? Take your best shots with Pixelcut!

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