The Teckki Says

What does Thanksgiving and some photographers have in common? They can both involve shooting a turkey, and many times when it comes to e-commerce site images, some of the ones I've seen are definitely for the birds! See the photo below:

Which item would you purchase? Both pictures were taken by professionals. The one on the left was lifted from Amazon.com. I took the other picture. Why do you think the one on the left is more appealing?

O.K., I am not finished with picture I took, but most of you would not have achieved my results. One one side, you are looking at a can of cranberry sauce. On the other side, you can taste the cranberry sauce right from the page.

Let's talk turkey about photos you post on the web. If you are selling an item on eBay, or if the item is of little worth, then the photo on the right looks fine. If you are planning to operate a store, then you need to better show the customer what she's getting for her money. Pictures that convey emotion sell much better than pictures that convey "merchandise".

One thing I have come to understand in photography is what I see is sometimes quite different than what I am looking at. The picture below illustrates this point:

Often, our brains are only seeing the model on the left. When the picture is viewed, the camera reminds us what we were looking at, which is the picture on the right. They really are the same person, but the picture on the right was altered by software (See Portrait Professional and picture above).

We shoot turkeys more often that we think. But just like the food business, sometimes we can dress it up and salvage a meal. Keep that in mind when photographing images on your e-commerce sites.