Expert Tips: Photo Styling 201

Shauna and Maddy, from The Style Lab, are back with another set of photo styling tips to help get your shop in Pin-worthy, Instagram-able condition.

If you missed their first post, be sure to check it out for some extra help. In this second guide to photo styling, the ladies cover how you can best appeal to shoppers browsing your store. Your product photos may now look amazing, but are the pictures telling a story that appeals to your ideal customer? Here are a few things to consider to help draw in the right person.

Know Your Audience

It’s very important that you understand your customers and potential customers. Really, really understand them. Research the colors, patterns, and other design elements that appeal to your intended customer. Some colors subconsciously signal trustworthiness, femininity, or exuberance. The same colors that appeal to teenage, hipster boys probably won’t draw in affluent, 30-something brides-to-be, even if the image is well-composed.

Put it in Context

Another way to appeal to a particular demographic is to build a world for your product. Hint at the life your customers live or want to live. Check out our Shooting Star Piñata. On its own it shows the product details, but for the main image, showing the piñata in a decorative lifestyle setting appeals to shoppers looking for unique decor. While the project is cool on its own, putting it in the context of a well-styled living room helps shoppers imagine it in their own home and get emotionally invested enough to make a purchase.

If you don’t have an entire room to use for your product, you can still create an appealing environment. These photos for Anchors Aweigh Sea Salt favors to appeal to two different demographics. The first appeals to a foodie - the addition of the rosemary, cutting board, and white marble help make the bottles feel apart of a bright, airy, modern kitchen even though you don’t see anything more than small part of the surface. The second image appeals to a bride who wants to use the bottles for table numbers or escort cards. Simply adding numbers to the same bottles puts them in wedding context, and can make all the difference.

Hopefully, these basic tips are giving you some new ideas and inspiration for reaching your target market. For one-on-one, in-depth styling lessons, check out The Style Lab’s course dates and register for an upcoming class. And be sure to check out our latest Store From Scratch video about shooting products.