how to photograph clothing for your shopify store

welcome to proper worldwide where we,give you the proper tools to do what you,do best,my name is roxanne roncal i am a,creative entrepreneur and digital media,marketer,i help artists and small businesses,build their brand on a strategic level,and then tell their stories online,i'm mike leisure i'm an art director and,i'm an artist and in the past i've,worked with men's contemporary,fashion i've worked in streetwear and,even skate brands,and we worked with a lot of different,ecoms from,startup to well-established brands so,we wanted to figure out how to help,people and i know you landed on this,video because you want to shoot your,ecommerce photography you want to get it,done now,but before you shoot put your camera,down,and we have a couple points that we want,to go over that is going to help you to,not do the work twice,i can tell you from experience we've,done this before we have shot an entire,line of clothes,and then realized that didn't work,because we didn't think about a couple,of things beforehand,so to avoid all those get you on the,fastest track to getting your products,sold,but if you really want to shoot and you,don't want to learn anything about this,and potentially do more work there's,also some quick tips and tricks,later on in the video i have a timestamp,there for you to skip forward to that,part but highly recommend watching this,part,it's up to you are you still watching,good anyway,down there and let's get back into it,when it comes to econ photography,it's always very tedious and repetitive,work but it must be done so how do we do,it well,the first thing you want to do is create,consistency in your online shop,for professional looking sites,consistency is one of the most important,things,if i land on your page and i see a top,and then i see something else,and then the background colors are like,the color temperatures off of something,it's going to look a little amateur to,me,and so the first thing is consistency of,your background,is it a pure white is it an off-white,how closely can you get them to all,resemble,and you can do that by clipping um you,can do that by,shooting on a specific background and,always having the same settings but how,you do that is up to you,all right so when i was recording this i,think i went too quickly and i want to,show you the difference between,uh clipping and then having a background,here is a background right so it retains,all the shadows,and the lighting that was shot in it,originally and if we switch over here to,the clip version,you'll see that the background is now,gone it's,on pure white so no shadows and that's,what that looks like,i'd also like to take this time to note,that,if you do clip something you can,actually add in,your own shadow when you come back in,and that,can look pretty bad if you don't do it,correctly but,it looks as good as you want it to look,if you put in the time for it,next is the size of your photo do we,want the dimension to be square,vertical you're going to have to,establish that and i think too a lot of,times you can take cues from wherever,your actual site is,some of them allow you to have your own,sizes and some of them have,preset sizes whether you're on,squarespace big cartel,shopify whatever the case may be take a,look at that before you decide on,whatever you're doing because that can,also change,how you work next is the size of your,product,it sounds dumb but really take a look at,how large,your span is if you're selling just,candles fine but also even within,candles maybe you have a tea candle or,maybe you have a large wax candle,the height of these things is going to,change how you shoot them,and how they fit on your store after,you've figured out the height and width,of all your products and how much they,vary,you should create a template that tells,you the,maximum width or height of each product,and that is going to allow you,to create the consistency that you're,looking for another thing i forgot to,mention,is utilizing a zoom feature within your,ecom store,and depending on the website that you're,at it has different,capabilities or requirements shopify for,instance requires you to have,at least an 800 by 800 for the zoom,feature to be enabled,and then you're going to think about,quality and things like that,as you're you're working on this lastly,as far as,things to consider and creating,consistency,in your online shop is the file size,now file size is really important,because one it will determine how,fast your site loads and we all know,we're,impatient millennials or people in,general really,true and if something takes longer than,a minute or even 30 seconds to load you,will likely,lose a customer i think even faster than,that i think we've gotten so,impatient because sometimes when you're,like you wait for three seconds you're,like,i've been waiting for 30 seconds for,this to load but it was really only,three seconds,so uh things to consider the smaller the,file size the faster loads you know this,but also the lower your file size,the lower quality your uh photo is gonna,be so you're gonna have to find that,sweet spot,you're gonna have to do some testing,you're gonna have to look at best,practices and also,where you're at sometimes uh the base in,which your store is at will also tell,you the best sizes,next we're going to cover some tips and,tricks if you are shooting on a budget,tip number one if you're shooting,clothes you can shoot them hanging,if you don't have a studio to shoot your,flats in or whatever you can take them,and then put them on a hanger find,something cool a wooden one a metal one,not the one that's uh in your closet,that's plastic potentially not even the,wood one that is nicer,because you're gonna want something,really really nice for the camera,but even those ones can do if you know,what you're doing and if it fits the,clothes correctly,all right so this should go without,saying but i'm going to say anyway,make sure you lint roll all your clothes,make sure there's steam so you don't,have to deal with that in post today,we're working with my homies brand,uptown rebel they're based out of las,vegas it's a mass hallucination shirt i,really like this thing,but we're going to go ahead and shoot,that just kind of test it out and see,how it looks,um did you notice we were talking about,hangers i only have a wood hanger but i,have like two different kinds we'll test,how that looks,uh but first let's go ahead and steam,everything and then roll it,obviously if you have an industrial,grade steamer it works,very nice very fast but i got this one,off amazon,it's like a pure steam uh it's a nice,little travel one but it works,gets things done you don't need super,high professional stuff to get this done,but obviously the better your equipment,the easier things are,next i'm gonna take this into the studio,we're gonna get that done,let's go take these photos alright so,like i said,we've got uh two different types of,hangers right,this one i'm kind of annoyed with,because it has this bar here,and so what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna,swap out for this other hanger,and this one doesn't have the bar so i'm,thinking it'll look better but we'll go,ahead and see,oh and then make sure you don't stretch,out the neck like i am right now,great so personally i like this one,better,uh so we're gonna go ahead and go with,this one let's take it to the studio,okay so now we're not in a studio but,we're in a spot i have a white wall i,just set it up with a pen,i'm hanging it right now what's,important,is that you style it correctly you want,everything to drape as nice as possible,i kind of like to have the body of the,shirt a little more in,or out in front of the arms and then i'm,gonna,flatten out the arms here so they're,going to be some natural things that are,occurring,you might want to pull down a little bit,just to,have it look right and then there's,going to be like these natural things,occurring but sometimes that looks cool,you just have to figure out what works,for you,so what we have here is the photo that i,took on the wall earlier,so you see i've already edited a little,bit so i'm going to go ahead and take,this,into photoshop right now as soon as i,get it into here,i'm gonna size it up and then i want,everything to match up to these lines so,these are things that you learn,as you go and uh you'll notice that,there's lines and you wanted to fill out,the whole thing,so there's a lot of different ways you,can do this you can stretch it,you can blend it blend would look,something like this where you use the,mixer brush and just get that all in,there and again this isn't going to get,you the,super crazy consistency but if you're,shooting in the same place with the same,white balance and then you're using the,same,filters as you go in then you should be,good,okay so this is one way of doing it,right the other way,the cheat way of doing this is,rasterizing it,and then you can actually just,stretch it out this is going to stretch,your pixels you do,only have a certain amount before it,starts looking bad so be,very careful when you do this that's,kind of another quick way to do it,and you can see the differences here,but it does change as you can tell in,these areas,next thing you can do is shoot your,products in an environment,that could be in a garden it could be,against a concrete wall it could be,against a wooden wall,whatever the case may be you can choose,something that fits your product,aesthetic and then shoot there and then,what that's going to do,is give you a little bit more wiggle,room in consistency,still you're going to want your exposure,to be about the same your contrast,and the size of your product but now you,can play with it so that your whites,aren't always the same,but that's up to you i have a,friend of mine his name is john and he,runs,a company called humble chains and he,also sells,rings but that's gonna come soon but,just as a test i want to use this to,show you how you can,shoot a bunch of different places and,then,utilize that inside your ecom store and,still make it look good,so just as a test we'll throw in a,couple right now so you see what that,looks like,let's imagine we're selling some single,rings and then we're selling,some bundles of rings that you can buy,together let's start with maybe this one,so we're gonna size this up with rings,things might be a little bit different,so,i'm gonna go ahead and set a new guide,here or,i guess i can move this guy down,and i want all the rings to fit pretty,big in here because i want people to see,it right when they go on and i don't,want it to have to be too much of a zoom,situation,okay then we're gonna get these exported,and this is a lot more cost efficient,versus an in,studio shoot because you got to have all,the right lighting you have to have a,studio first of all you have to have an,all-white you know seamless or whatever,color you decided so,shooting an environment really gives you,that flexibility as far as,creating some look to your ecom store,and of course these are tips for lower,budgets,it will not make you look super,professional but if done right it will,look,very good uh but it is a great,quick start for you guys other things to,note as you work with this,you're going to notice that it's on the,hanger so if you're working with shirts,this works out very well it's pretty,easy it's a quick fix,but quick fixes do come with,their own caveats and if you skipped,ahead,then you should definitely hear this but,if you did not skip ahead you'll,remember that i said,you need to think about these things,before you actually shoot because,imagine if you had a hoodie here,and what that would look like and then,what happens if you do pants,so you're gonna think ahead you have to,think about what kind of hangers should,i use,and then really how that all fits,together am i going to have to use a,bunch of different hangers can i find,three to four,wooden hangers that actually fit the,same aesthetic and you again you have a,little bit of leniency there when it,gets to it but just,things to think about before you,actually move in and start doing these,things,the last one is a quick tip for,shooting if you are shooting at home and,you don't have flashes and you don't,have lights,you can either shoot in the sun or if,you're inside and you're shooting up,against a wall or something,use a lower shutter speed and what that,allows you to do is let more light into,the camera and then work it in post,and of course it'll need to be on a,tripod because lower shutter speed,means that it takes more time to take in,all that light,i've already set this up a little bit to,shoot and then what i want to do is make,sure that i'm on,a white balance all right so i just did,a custom,here now the iso i'm gonna set down,really low to like,a hundred but what i was talking about,is,the shutter speed here which will be the,same on almost any camera you use,if i bring it down i can actually get to,a higher exposure um,as you'll notice here i'm at about plus,point three all right so i'm gonna,set it to the two second there and then,when you hit the button it's actually,gonna wait,for two seconds and then take the photo,and that's going to ensure that,it's very still and then the photo is,going to come out looking,the way you want it to look lastly if,you need help setting up your,shopify uh john x santos is a friend of,ours and he has a great playlist of,videos on his channel that you can check,out and he'll show you how to get that,started from the ground up from the,ground up baby,to show you guys an example i have uh,manor's lv which is based out of las,vegas,a good friend of mine kenneth owns the,brand so we're gonna go through his econ,products and show you,how that works for consistency what i,did was i just went through and shot,these on a seamless,and then we lit them up and i'm now,going to,clip them out and put them onto a white,background to,ensure that they're all the same exact,white once that's done,i want to make sure that they are all,about the same size and the angles look,good,especially because when you look at it,here in the overview of all the products,i want them to look,like all the shirts are the same size,and the pants or whatever the case may,be the sweaters are about the same,height,and uh yeah so this looks pretty good,and,we're just gonna go ahead and get that,exported out and make sure the file,sizes are low,cool all right that looks pretty good,all right you guys so that is our quick,run through on,elevating your econ photography if you,want anything more on,actually shooting the clothes themselves,let us know,in the comments below and we can make a,video for you he's got some,really exclusive tips up his sleeve,just from working and shooting a bunch,of product flat lays and things like,that,so if you guys want to know about that,let us know so we don't waste our time,making videos,about things you don't care about you,can also follow us on instagram,at proper worldwide link's gonna be in,the description,and uh go on there let's have our,discussions let's uh talk about things,you like let's talk about,inspiring let's get grammy baby wow,anyway with just a click of a button in,our description,you can find yourself today for the cost,of 3.99,our instagram it's totally free to,follow,us and we provide some really dope,and resources so why would yeah we,probably have less than 100 followers,right now you could be,an early adopter you could be in there,and be like i followed them when they,had less than 100 followers,like witness this growth you know one,time,if you like this video give us a thumbs,up and,smash that subscribe,button turn on the post notifications if,you're feeling fancy,and yeah,stay tuned for more videos

Congratulation! You bave finally finished reading how to photograph clothing for your shopify store and believe you bave enougb understending how to photograph clothing for your shopify store

Come on and read the rest of the article!