How To Use Composition For Product Listings

The South African and global eCommerce market is dynamic, competitive, and constantly evolving. Standing out from your competitors is crucial, and using the right visuals is one way to do this.

Creating memorable product listings using high-quality images helps you attract more leads and improve your sales figures.

If you want to maximise your eCommerce site's potential to convert users into sales, we’ll share our top tips and tricks on using the golden rules of photography composition to create eye-catching product listings.

This will engage your target audience and compel them to make their purchases.

Why You Need Eye-Catching Product Images

Striking product images serve many purposes over and above simply showcasing your products to your target market.

They also:

• Provide visual information about the quality, features, and unique selling points of your products to customers.
• Help to engage your website’s visitors and keep them browsing for longer.
• Facilitate a memorable user experience, as high-quality images give the impression of a high-quality website and brand overall. Enhance your brand image and identity through specific colour schemes and visual trademarks.
• Allow search engine crawlers to read captions, tags, alt text, file names, and more to improve your search engine rankings.

5 Ways to Use Composition To Your Advantage

Composition is clearly one of the keys to unlocking success when selling online. Here’s how to use composition techniques to maximise the impact of your product listings:

1. Keep Compositions Simple

Simplicity is a key component of effective photography. This applies to product photography, too.

If you wish to create image compositions that truly stand out, try to keep the elements in your images as simple as possible. Instead of packing each image with different elements and items, keep a single subject as the main focus. Then, use other techniques, such as narrow depth of field, to keep your customer’s attention on the subject of the image.

The art of keeping product images simple also applies to backgrounds. Most successful brands choose simple black or white backgrounds for their product photos. This allows viewers to immediately identify what is on offer and easily interpret the message of your listing.

2. Adjust Your Depth of Field

Depth of field is a technique that keeps the closest objects in an image in focus while blurring subjects further away. Each image has a point of focus, but the area behind and in front of this point may appear sharp and clean, a phenomenon that will vary according to the aperture and distance of your camera.

Sharp, crisp images with deeper depths of field are considered to be aesthetically pleasing and engaging. This helps you to keep your subject sharp and effectively convey the message of your shot. Use this rule to highlight the best features of your products and attract your target audience with professionally-taken images.

3. Use the Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a classic, long-standing technique in image composition that guides photographers as to where to place subjects within an image.

The guideline usually places the main subject in one-third of the image frame, leaving the remaining space open or simple in style.

This rule allows photographers to divide each image frame into nine equal parts vertically and horizontally. Just think of the Instagram grid that appears when you’re uploading an image—this is the rule of thirds in action.

Once divided, you use these divisions and intersecting points as guides for where to place an image’s focal point. It enables you to enhance your product image's visual interest and appeal, helping to catch your viewers’ eyes without overwhelming them with visual stimuli.

4. Frame Your Subjects

Subject framing in photography allows you to guide and direct your viewers’ vision towards the main subject of your images. This rule encourages using creative frames and visual leads to direct the observer through your image and draw attention and interest to the primary element – your product on offer.

For instance, you could take images of your fashion products through windows or archways to create a unique frame. Or you could have a model holding a pair of sunglasses in manicured hands to ‘frame’ the product in a novel way.

You can also use props such as natural elements, stationery pieces, or other items relevant to your product as visual guides. This may be particularly helpful if the props allude to the intended use of your products. One example could be sea shells and a beach towel used as visual frames for a sunscreen product.

5. Colour and Contrast

Colour and contrast are two essential tools for creating pleasing product compositions.

The use of colour allows you to create dynamic compositions, keep your subject as the main focus, and align your images to your brand's unique visual identity. This also creates a sense of consistency, which is crucial in photography, whether photographing products or creating an online portfolio.

Most product photographers choose to keep their colour schemes relatively simple. They focus on one or two bold colours that enhance the elements of an image and strengthen its core message.

Soft pastel and neutral tones can help create a soothing and enticing visual appeal, particularly for clothing and personal care products. Contrast can also draw attention to your product. By placing a white or brightly coloured product on a dark background, you’ll ensure that it stands out.

Bright lighting is always key if you want to enhance contrast and emphasise the unique details and features of your products. Bright light and a high level of contrast are particularly useful for capturing small products such as jewellery pieces, helping to keep them centre stage in your images without losing any finer visual details.

Wrapping Up

These key composition rules will assist you in creating striking and memorable product images for your eCommerce product listings.

For the best results, remember to keep your compositions simple, use top tricks like the rule of thirds, and ensure your image frames make sense in the context of your products and their intended uses!

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