Product Photography (Rob Sleath 2 of 2) - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Hello and welcome back to Amazing FBA. Today we're diving into part two of the interview I did with my wonderful business partner, Rob Sleath. Last week we focused on product photography for sellers and products new to Amazon. This time we'll be covering strategies to use with professional product photographers.





How to Choose a Product Photographer

Photographers have many of different specializations. It's important to choose a photographer that's familiar with the Amazon ecosystem, one who understands the relationship with customers you want to have, and one who has experience in exactly what you want to have done. It's vital that you choose a photographer that knows what you want, even if you don't entirely know what you want.



Most of the successful outsourcers I’ve worked with have been brighter than me, and have a habit of managing upwards. It's essential to surround yourself with people who can provide guidance in their area of expertise even if that guidance may be contrary to your initial expectations.



Quality product images should achieve a few simple but vital things. First and foremost they should achieve increased click-through rates for your products. Next, they must provide an accurate visual representation of the products size, color, material, and features. Finally, excellent product photos should limit future negative reviews that could arise due to improperly reproduced characteristics of your item. In 2018 very few people can even find the features and details, let alone read them. Your images need to tell the entire story for your listing.

How to Tell a Story That Sells With Product Photographs

If you want to tell a story properly through visual imagery that will lead to successful listings in the Amazon marketplace, it starts with competitor research. Head over to the listings, find out what's working, and more importantly, find out what's not. Identify the misconceptions regarding your and your competitor's listings. Look at the questions. Questions can be a gold mine for informing what you should be showing in your photos. How many come in a package? What is it made out of? How big is it? All of these questions can be answered with quality photography.

Justifying the Cost of Professional Photography

Go on Fiverr; have a look at what they have to offer. The services that you'll find from low-cost providers aren't going to give you the results you're looking for in the Amazon marketplace. In fact, when you factor in all the add-ons and feature up-selling you'll need to create a listing, you're probably going to end up paying just as much money as you'd pay a professional, but for an inferior product!



Costs don't exist in a vacuum. It's imperative that you compare any money you're spending on photography with costs elsewhere. Giveaways and PPC won't gain you a thing if your product photography doesn't convert sales. The main image in your listing is likely the most important thing about that listing.

Producing a Main Image That's Impossible to Scroll Past

People often feel restricted in what they can do regarding their main image. The background must have a white background. The product has to fill at least 80 percent of the field, and the current resolution is up to 2,000 pixels. It's a good idea to take the pictures in a much higher resolution in case things change concerning images in the future. If the image is going to be viewed on mobile (which it likely is), it should be taken in portrait. Pictures displayed in portrait appear bigger on mobile devices.



The most crucial factors in creating a quality image that converts sales are identifying the properties of a good product image and communicating to your photographer how to reproduce them. Sit down,

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