Within the world of fashion, a product photographer will often have to work on footwear, whether trainers or smarter footwear. As a commercial photographer, it is important to understand the best approach to this kind of project and we’ve put together some helpful tips. It is our belief that by following key pieces of advice, stunning footwear product photographs can be created that customers will love.

Lighting and Background

There are some fundamental rules to keep in mind when choosing the lighting and background for your shoe photography. Firstly, many of the e-commerce stores require a plain white background so it is advisable to get some shots set up like this. Furthermore, as an experienced product photographer, you will know that a white background does offer some very stylish, clean crisp shots that clients will love.

A fantastic investment that any commercial photographer can make is buying a lightbox. This is a handy set-up of a surface, lighting and background that means you have a ready-made location from which to shoot your new shoes.

Equipment

Away from lighting and background, an important tip for every commercial photographer is to set up your camera equipment properly before getting started. This will depend on the type of shoe you’re shooting but as a product photographer, you will likely have the kit needed to shoot all options.

One extra tip here is to make sure you have a reliable, steady tripod as you will want to get the sharpest images possible without risking any unwanted blur.

Consider the angle

You may well have to take a couple of shots from standard angles, such as above or alongside as part of the e-commerce process. However, if you truly want to engage with viewers and tell a story then you need to think about angles.

If you take a moment to explore social media, you will see images of shoes from almost every angle and direction, always focusing on the key details. Perhaps it is a trainer with a unique type of sole or a pair of heels with an open section at the front? No matter the features, you will want to have shots from all sides as well as interesting angles.

Editing

Editing a photograph can never replace the benefits of taking the perfect shot, so make sure you take as many shots as needed before you get to the editing stage. However, once here then spending some time to get things just right will make a product photographer stand out from the crowd.

It may be that you want to remove the background from the shot of your shoes, adjust the colours or create a realistic shadow for the shot. As a commercial photographer, this should be within your skill set to achieve and really will add extra quality to your images.

Summary

Fundamentally, the tips for shoe photography will transfer easily to other forms of product photography but it is always important to remember that each product, brand and customer has unique requirements. If you disregard these then you will simply not deliver the best results for your client.