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Top Professional Furniture Photography and Photo Editing Tips

Author: Kathy Butters
by Kathy Butters
Posted: Sep 09, 2021

It is true that purchasing or selling furniture requires effort and as eCommerce depends highly on product photography, it is essential to showcase the product to the target audience to grab their attention. Product images on the eCommerce platform not only derive sales but also increase business ROI, and therefore furniture photography plays an important role for selling furniture on the eStores.

If you are one of those who are planning to either launch or elevate your furniture business on the eCommerce platform, then opting for furniture photography and furniture photo editing services can be your best bet to stand out in the competitive market. Most of the time, professional photographers face real challenges while going for furniture shoots and these include insufficient lighting, congested space, etc. There are even times when even the objects are hard to fit in the shot in their entirety.

Always keep in mind it is not how well you take furniture shots that attracts your target audience but optimization and professional product photo editing plays an important role. While there are many guiding photography principles shared across product categories, you should majorly focus on some of the unique steps to optimize different kinds of listings.

As it is essential to display your product in the best possible way we will be sharing a few furniture photography tips that will not only help you take high quality furniture product images but will also help you streamline your workflow. After going through this article you will even get a basic idea of how to effectively arrange and shoot furniture even if you do not know how to take product images or have zero experience in the field.

Professional Furniture Photography Tips

1. Set Up Your Studio

If you're shooting for furniture items, the most important aspect that you need to take care of is setting up your studio properly. Ensure that whenever you are conducting a furniture photoshoot you use a comparatively large space to capture the products so that they won't look congested. Choosing a large space for your furniture photoshoot will help you and your teammates take the shots from different angles and corners of the studio. Also, a bigger space won't let you and your teammates feel crowded while working with equipment and space eating products like furniture.

The next thing that you need to focus on while setting up a studio for a furniture photoshoot is studio lighting. There are times when you can use a bit of sunlight in order to give naturality to your images, so make sure that there are enough doors and windows in the room which you are setting up as a studio for your furniture shoot. Also, you can create an artificial lighting environment by using the required materials to have a good impact on the entire process. To ensure this, keep some necessary equipment like softbox lights, umbrella lights, backdrops, table, chair, etc in the studio.

2. Prepare the Furniture

After you are done setting up your studio will all the necessary equipment and surroundings you need to ensure that the furniture that will be part of the photoshoot is ready before you can actually start the photoshoot. Even the smaller details of the furniture are more important while conducting a furniture photoshoot and therefore, you need to remove all the unwanted scratches and dust from the products that will be part of your photoshoot. Removing the unwanted scratches and dust from the products is more important than you might think so it's advised to properly clean the object before the photoshoot as the customers won't get attracted towards the product if it is not properly cleaned or is dirty.

Another important thing that you should take care while preparing your furniture for the photoshoot is to avoid hiding any imperfections if there are any in your products that you are about to shoot. Hiding imperfections can be a risky business as s9meone or the other can see them and therefore you should rather fix the damages first before actually conducting a furniture photoshoot. Also, make sure that your furniture looks nice and polished before the shoot.

If you will avoid hiding imperfections, your furniture will look nicer at the time of shoot, and you also won't have to put extra effort after the shoot to hide the imperfections. To ensure that your furniture looks the best at the time of shoot, you can even connect with a cleaning service for professional service as removing old stains by yourself can be a risky affair.

3. Choose the Correct Lens

The next important thing that you need to do while conducting professional furniture photography is choosing the correct lens for your camera that is capable of providing decent framing and won't distort the photo. Therefore we will recommend you to use a prime lens as it provides good sharpness to the images but comes with limitations as you will have to move yourself or your camera quite often during the shoot which will require even more space for the shoot.

If you think that you will need to move around to take good shots during the shoot, you can pick a high-quality zoom lens like 24-70mm can be a good choice. Again try avoiding a wide-angle lens here as it will distort your product in the images.

Though we recommend you to use a professional-grade camera and lens while conducting a furniture photoshoot, it is even possible to shoot with a camera that your smartphone has if you do not want to spend lavishly on the expensive camera and its equipment. Nowadays, even smartphones come equipped with high-quality cameras and lenses that will not only make you shoot quickly but will also provide high-quality product images.

4. Use a Tripod

One of the most important furniture photography tips is using a tripod at the time of the shoot. Most professional photographers while shooting try to avoid using tripods as they limit their movement but it is a fact that using a tripod is actually beneficial in conducting photoshoots.

It is crucial to use a tripod especially if you are conducting a furniture photoshoot or are shooting any still life product. A tripod keeps your camera stationary editing so that you get consistent shots throughout the shoot. Avoiding shaky and blurry images is very important in professional photoshoots and a tripod not only keeps good care of that but ensures the optimized settings for the camera in low light.

By using tripods you will get consistent and risk-free shots while capturing a long exposure with full control. You can surely feel the accuracy of the images that you have clicked at the time of photo editing using Photoshop or any other tools. Also, a tripod plays a major role in letting you take close shots accurately as focusing on detail is quite important while conducting professional furniture photoshoots.

All you need to do is set your tripod in front of the furniture you need to capture and then angle the camera slightly down towards your product. If besides angling it down, you will try to shoot from the straight-on position, there are chances that you might miss important aspects of the seat or back.

5. Shoot from Multiple Angles

One of the most important things that you need to keep in mind while conducting furniture photoshoots is that you should not avoid taking multiple shots of a product from numerous angles. Capturing a product from multiple angles ensures that you get good captions throughout the photoshoot. Using such a technique can be beneficial for you as initially, you have no idea which shot of yours will be the perfect one and also you can explore the best positions of the furniture that your customers will definitely like.

Do not just take one image of a product and rather try to show your customer more of your product via the clicks to grab their attention. Do not just take the shots from multiple angles but also zoom in on detail wherever possible. Try taking the shots from the front, back, each side, and 45-degree angles.

Besides taking images from various angles, you should also add detailed images wh8ch are capable of highlighting specific aspects of your furniture including fabric patterns, wood grain, etchings, and engravings. Always keep in mind that the more angles you will use to capture the products, the more details you can show of your furniture to the customers. This will ultimately help your potential customers make quick purchasing decisions by just looking at the image of the furniture.

6. Include Human Touch

Making humans part of your photo shoot can be a good idea instead of just clicking pictures of the products alone. It is a fact that including human faces in product photography can be more exciting as it enhances the charm and glow of the products that you are shooting. All you need to do is try to include individuals or multiple persons in your frame while you are taking shots of the furniture which will have numerous advantages besides just adding a flavor to your photoshoot.

Including people in your furniture shoot will let your potential customers see the furniture with people sitting on it which will help them connect well. Also, including humans in the photoshoot will add extra value to the product that you and your team are capturing. In total, you get to provide an attraction to the audience that also conveys information to your customers with respect to the usage of the products as well. For eg. If you are shooting a recliner or a sofa, then shooting it alone will keep the shot incomplete, and adding family and couples will look more engaging and bring more outcomes with respect to the shots.

7. Use Limited But Correct Props

Usage of props as a part of your photoshoot completely depends on what kind of images you want to capture and how you want to present them over the internet in front of your audience. Props can be a good choice if you want to provide more of an environmental and real look to your target audience. Props also increase the attraction of the customers and keep them engaged as they add texture, color, and contrast to your product images which ultimately enhances the look of your furniture piece.

If you really want to use props in your images, then there are various options that you can go with. You can pick a colored pillow or a textured throw to create the desired environment. Also, if you want to keep it natural, plants are never a bad idea and they are also trendy. All you need to keep in mind while adding props is that you should not go overboard on anything. Just try to keep it simple by using minimum props as using much of them can actually distract your audience from seeing the actual product for which the shoot has been conducted. Remember that you want to enhance your product, and not want to distract your customers by making them see other fancy stuff. Therefore just one right prop can do the needful.

Most e-commerce photography focuses on the product and doesn't need extra propping. Customers want to see the item as it comes.

8. Use Fill Light

Whether you have a ventilated space with doors and windows for natural light or you are using flash, you’ll also need a bit of fill light too for your professional furniture photoshoot. You can get fill light for your studio by either using bounce cards, reflectors, or even a second light. Keep in mind that the use of th3 fill light is just to avoid shadows made from the main light from looking too dark.

Also, using fill light is crucial as you can control lights in your studio with it. And you can add dimension to your furniture photography with fill light.

9. Optimize in Post-Production

After you are done shooting your furniture, now it is time for post-production. You can increase the quality of your images and optimize them as per your target audience by a little polishing with tools like Photoshop. These tools will help you remove image imperfections, dust, fingerprints, and other marks that you do not want to include in the image as they aren’t part of your product.

Also, try to soften highlights which have been created by strobe lights while you shoot reflective materials like metal. When you shoot large products, it is almost impossible to remove the highlights but you can soften them and open up shadows to create a cleaner and high-quality picture. Always remember that never try to get rid of all contrast, highlights, and shadows, as these are the only elements that help your customer visualize the material of your furniture.

After your shoot is done, you can even add shadows to ground your product. It is true that adding natural and reflective shadows can create realistic depth that won't distract your customers. If you feel that post-production work is not your cup of tea or you do not have enough time for it, then you can even outsource furniture photo editing services to save time and money.

10. Use the Correct White Balance

White balance is equally important as compared to the other aspects that we have discussed till now with respect to conducting a professional furniture photoshoot. But choosing white balance can be quite challenging as the white balance setting that a photographer needs to choose depends entirely on the lighting conditions that you have set up for the shoot.

Suppose if you're shooting your furniture in natural light, then you need to set the white balance of your camera to "Auto". In product photography, your whites and colors need to be accurate and it is crucial that your colors read as close to what the eye sees.

There are numerous ways to get the proper and much-needed white balance for your product photography but the best is to get a grey card to set the white balance. You can easily purchase a grey card from online eCommerce stores or can visit your local photography shop to get it instantly.

A Grey card is basically an inexpensive piece of plastic or cardboard that is tinted to 18% grey. In order to get the proper white balance, all you need to do is just take a random shot of the grey card facing the lens and then you can use this shot to get the correct white balance for your entire shoot.

11. Remove the Background

To remove the background from your image or not completely depends upon how you want to present your product in front of your target audience. But for furniture photography, it is recommended that you remove the image background and rather use a white background to present your product in front of your customers.

Keeping white background in your images is one of the standard ways to display your products in e-commerce so that the focus of your customers always remains on the product and they do not deviate. Keeping white background ensures that there are no distractions that can take the viewer’s attention away from what you’re selling.

But there can be some challenges as if you are already shooting on an all-white background and want to make it look white in your images, then things can actually get complicated. Therefore it is best to use different background and after clicking the photos you can remove the background and use a white background that will look much more professional with respect to your product. You can easily replace your current background with a white background in Photoshop with the "clipping path".

If you feel that removing the background and adding white background takes quite a bit of skill then you can even outsource furniture photo retouching services to the professionals for a reasonable price and can prevent imperfections and headaches. Your furniture pictures will look polished, professional, and consistent once you will receive them back from the professionals.

To Conclude

One of the major factors of driving more sales for your eCommerce store is uploading good-quality product images. While shooting your product make sure that you take sufficient time to click bright and high-quality pictures that can actually attract and engage the audience.

In this blog post, we have discussed the most important furniture photography tips that will help you take professional and high-quality pictures of your furniture so that you can upload them in your eStore and attract a larger audience. We assure you that if you will either learn or document our tips, you can get some of the great product images for your store or website.

Knowing the lens you used, the distance between your tripod and product, the steps you took in post-production, and other details will help you maintain consistency from product to product and shoot to shoot.

About the Author

Kathy Butters is well-known as a professional blogger and writer. She likes to pen down about photo editing, portrait enhancement, photo color correction services and the power of the right tools and techniques in making the image enhancement easier.

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Author: Kathy Butters

Kathy Butters

Member since: Sep 07, 2018
Published articles: 5

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