Online, customers cannot touch your product. Your photos and descriptions do the job your hands would do at a market stall. Clear photos make people trust you, reduce questions and cut down on complaints. Shop and sales adverts in Ghana increasingly ask for photo and video skills, and online merchants list product photography and descriptions among their core tasks.
Taking good photos with a phone
You do not need an expensive camera. You need light, a clean background and a steady hand.
- Use daylight. Shoot near a window or outside in shade. Avoid harsh midday sun, which makes strong shadows, and avoid dark rooms.
- Use a plain background. A white wall, a clean cloth, a sheet of paper or a wooden table. Remove clutter.
- Fill the frame. Get close so the product is the main thing in the picture.
- Take several angles. Front, back, side and a close up of details like stitching, texture or the label.
- Show size. Place the item next to something familiar, such as a hand, a phone or a coin, or show it being worn or used.
- Clean the lens on your phone with a soft cloth before shooting.
- Keep it true. Light editing to fix brightness is fine. Do not use filters that change the colour, because customers will complain when the real item looks different.