You wear many hats as a business owner. You will fill in multiple roles when you start and build a brand from scratch. You are not alone. This is totally how most businesses take off.
DIY or Hire?
You handle all the planning, research, contacting of suppliers, and many more. However, you have to be smart when deciding what things to do yourself and what you can leave to the professionals.
For example, you can handle all the social media work in the first few weeks of your business. Learn how to put up your ads and create your own graphics. But when the orders, inquiries, and calls come pouring in, you need to have someone else take over.
No one is discounting your ability to learn and master something. But there are some matters better left in the hands of professionals. Sometimes, you can’t do it yourself or it’s just more cost-efficient to hire.
Say you want to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). You can then hire a search engine optimization (SEO) service provider to help you build a website that can close leads. The best thing about these providers is that they’re always one call away when you need to up the visibility of your website. This is something that you can’t do yourself, so you have to ask for others’ help. As they say, if you can’t do something, pay someone else to do it.
But there is also one consideration to consider when deciding if you will do something yourself or you should hire. Aside from the costs and your own ability, you have to ask yourself if you are willing to do and will enjoy this. Take product photography, for example. If you like taking photos, you may also enjoy taking pictures of your product.
For this one, you don’t even need a professional studio setup. Thank modern phone makers for the kinds of camera phones people have nowadays.
DIY Product Shoot: All You Need
Lighting
Photography is all about lighting and the manipulation of it. There is a basic setup you can follow, which is the three-light setup. Quickly look it up online, so you understand how it works.
It’s straightforward, and you just need three light sources strategically positioned to produce the lighting condition you want. Basically, there is a key light, the main light course. Then there is the fill light and the backlight. You can move them from time to time if you are not satisfied with the lighting. Make sure you manage the shadows and the glare.
If you want to maximize the resources around you, a spot by a window is also a great place to take photos. Utilize the different kinds of lighting the different times of day allow.
Phone Camera
You don’t need to have the latest phone in the market to take splendid product photos. Thanks to technology, even mid-range phones can give your crisp photos. You can always experiment with the pro mode of your phone camera to tweak settings like ISO and focus. As professional photographers say, cameras don’t take pictures; it’s the photographer that does.
Backdrop, Product, and Accessories
You can be as creative as you can with the backdrop or go with a more minimalist route. It all depends on the aesthetic you are trying to follow. It can be plain-colored paper, a wall, or some grass.
Furthermore, one ordinary household object can give you aesthetic results: a mirror. Get any mirror that is at least the size of a document paper. You can position the mirror on the ground facing the sky. Put your product on top, add some accessories you want, and finally snap a photo.
Your phone will be included in the photo, but make sure you are far enough so you can crop the reflection of that. Use an editing app to erase all the elements you want to remove.
Editing Apps
These days, mobile editing apps are so powerful that you don’t even have to learn and use professional software to make your photos look better. You can manipulate pictures even with free mobile apps. You can remove elements, control the lighting, and insert objects in photos. Some apps even allow you to turn blurred images clearer. You can also remove backgrounds.
All you need is some time to go through a learning curve. Trial and error is your friend. After enough attempts, you will find what works for you. Again, if you are not someone who enjoys the process of taking photos, you will find this a big hassle and you’re better off hiring someone else.
