Lifestyle Product Photography Ideas That Resonate with Target Customers
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Lifestyle product photography is a powerful tool for standing out online. You can grab the audience's attention and connect super fast with visually appealing real-life scenario images. Audiences can visualize themselves using the product. In this article, I will explain everything you need to know about lifestyle product photography with 15 eye-catching photography ideas. Without further ado, Let's Start!
What is Lifestyle Product Photography
Lifestyle product photography refers to a photography style where you capture story-driven images with real-life scenarios for customers to envision how the products fit into their lives.
With visual storytelling, the product photos portray the product's functionality, usage, visual appeal, and relevance in the target customer’s life. Builds an emotional connection and drives conversion and sales. For example, taking the perfume image with its ingredients as props, helps the customers understand what the scent is made of.
How Lifestyle Product Photography is Different From Product Photography
Though lifestyle product photography is product photography, both are different.
“Product Photography” is usually done in studio lighting with a simple background, focusing on highlighting product design and features. The audience can see the product clearly and understand the details. However, it does not show what situations customers can use it in. You can use product photography for e-commerce product listings and catalogs to ensure visual consistency in your images.
On the other hand, “Lifestyle Product Photography” is done both indoors and outdoors in natural lighting, ensuring customers understand how to use the products in real life. Photographers use appropriate settings, backgrounds, props, and models to create relatable photos and demonstrate product usage and features, building brand identity and emotional bonds with customers. You can use lifestyle product photography for visual storytelling, social media, and advertisements.
A good example of product photography and lifestyle product photography is Paris Laundry. On their website, they have featured both types of images.
Why Lifestyle Product Photography is Important for Your Brand
Now you know what lifestyle product photography is and how it differs from product photography, but why should you implement it for branding? Here are the reasons.
- Present Products in a Relatable Way: Using relevant real-life settings, props, and models, lifestyle product photographers represent products in a way that customers understand their features and usage clearly. For example, a cafe setting can be used to promote casual college clothing.
- Enhance Customer Engagement: Every lifestyle e-commerce product photo looks different and tells a story, grabbing the target audience's attention by delivering the message and enhancing engagement.
- Practically and Emotionally Connect with Target Audience: Showcasing how the product photos fit into the customer's daily life creates a sense of loyalty, reliability, and emotional bond.
- Boost Brand Reliability and Credibility: With lifestyle product photos you can showcase to the audience that you are providing products they need in their daily life and fulfill their needs, increasing brand reliability, trust, and credibility.
- Increase Conversion and Revenue: Lifestyle product photos beautifully portray the need for products in customers' lives, enhancing conversion and sales.
What You Need to Do Lifestyle Product Photography
Before learning the best lifestyle product photography ideas, you need to know what are the essential elements you need to use for a lifestyle product photoshoot. It will help you understand the ideas better and apply them to your business.
- Select a Location: Lifestyle product photography locations vary based on your products. Thus, choose a setting or create one that portrays the product's purpose to the target audience. For example, if you are selling winter shoes, use winter setting to show the product features, usage, and quality.
- Natural Lighting: Natural lighting is the best choice for lifestyle product photography, as it brings a warm and natural vibe to the image. You can take authentic product photos early morning or in golden hours when the sun provides a soft and flattering feel. Do not take the product in the direct sun or when it is at its peak like noon, the image may turn white and low quality.
- Use Props and Models: Use appropriate props and models that complement your product, keep the audience's attention on the product, and highlight brand uniqueness.
- Mirrorless Camera and Tripod: Use a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a high-quality and carriable tripod for taking stable, sharp, and detailed influential product shots with ease.
- Post-processing Tools: Lifestyle photographs are needed through post-production. Use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to make necessary edits and take your image to the next level.
15 Lifestyle Product Photography Ideas to Stand Out Your Products
Let’s get into the main part. In this section, I will tell you the best and easiest lifestyle product photography ideas you can incorporate into your business.
Appropriate Background
Many e-commerce stores like Amazon use plain white backgrounds. However, in lifestyle product photography the background selection is unlimited. You can use different types of backgrounds that highlight the features of your product and complement it and entice the audience to feel, Man, I need it!
For example, the below image's yellow backdrop perfectly complements the model's clothing, creating a nice and warm look that the audience loves to see over and over and try in summer for vacation or school.
Play with Colors
Experiment with different colors and stand out online. You can use various colored backgrounds, props, professional product photo editing, or anything that highlights your product features and brings them to life.
The below image is the perfect example of lifestyle branding with colors and telling a story. The combination of pink flowers and cards creates a romantic look and increases the significance of the couple's rings in the image.
Appropriate Theme
Create visuals following a theme and convey your brand message like a pro. For example, if you are promoting summer clothes, do the photography in a setting that complements the summer clothes like in a cafe, library, streets, garden, and more. Make narratives that resonate with your audience and make them want to try your products.
Low-angle Shots
Take low-angle engaging photos to make the product a hero in your images. For this lifestyle product photography idea, set the camera on the ground and upward it, making the subject appear bigger than its usual size. You can use a simple/relevant background and take the image keeping the focus on the subject and its details.
Bird's Eye View
The bird's eye view is a high-angle overhead shot. The images provide a feeling you are looking at the product from above. Though the products may look small in the frame, it is a unique lifestyle product photography idea to look at the product's detail from a different angle.
For example, the image below is the perfect example of a bird's eye view. The image of Rose Spa Natural Cosmetics showcases the details of the product clearly from above with all the necessary elements in the image.
Negative Space
Negative space is high-impact photography where products stay at the center, creating target customer engagement and keeping their focus on the subject.
There are two ways you can do negative space lifestyle product photography, you can keep the product in the center or place the product in a way that guides the audience's eyes in the subject. Use backdrops and props that complement the product. Here is an example.
Rule of the Thirds
Using the rule of thirds for lifestyle product photography is one of the easiest ideas you can try for the photoshoot. Set the camera to third grid mode and place the product according to the vertical and horizontal lines. You can place the product in the center or follow other lines. Ensure the image looks well-balanced and has visual storytelling.
Add Dynamics
Take creative visual storytelling images by adding dynamics. Dynamic photos are super cool as you can freeze the moment and bring the products to life with your creativity, enhancing target customer engagement and conversion.
For example, in this image, the water, the red dress, and the model's expression, playing with lighting and shadow create a great influential product shot that attracts customers' attention and makes them want to purchase the dress.
Take Relatable Shots
Capture visual storytelling shots that consumers can relate to and connect with. You can try this lifestyle product photography idea with props and models in outdoor and indoor shooting. For example, a couple enjoying a picnic wearing your brand clothes or organizing the product with relevant props ensuring customers can understand the purpose of the product.
Focus on the Product
Take e-commerce product photos keeping the focus on the product. You can apply this lifestyle product photography idea using models and complementing backdrop and props. You can also use yourself as a model.
For example, the image below is promoting shoes. The photo is a stunningly beautiful conversion-boosting photo example as the scenario complements the shoe color, keeping the focus on the product, and showcasing how it would look on the customer.
Play with the Shadow
Use impactful shadow as a prop and add depth and dimension to the image. However, ensure the shadow does not look harsh or deep. Soften the shadow in professional product photo retouching and ensure the image looks visually appealing and stands out.
Use Product Ingredients As a Prop
Take lifestyle relatable photos using product ingredients as props. According to the ingredient's color, use a background that complements your prop and product. Here is an example that will help you build consumer connection.
Use Props That Complement the Product
You can use any type of props for lifestyle product photography, ensuring the props complement the product and keeping the focus on the product. For example, if you are promoting winter casual clothes and your target audience is college students, use elements that represent winter like winter fruits, and others. Also, a background that highlights the clothes features.
Take Multiple Shots and Present As a College
The more product perspective you show your customers, the better you visually communicate and drive conversion. Thus, take multiple images from 5 to 6 angles and styles to ensure customers can see the details from all angles. After perfecting the image with color clipping photo editing, present the images in college format to your target customers.
Product in Action/Use Model
Use a model to show the product usage, ensuring customers can relate to the products and imagine if it would fit into their lives. For example, if you are selling shoes and your target audience is businessmen and women, you can use an office setting to showcase the purpose and usage of your products.
Last but Not Least - Do not Forget to Perfect Your Images in Post-Production
Lifestyle product photography is fun and creative but the images need top-notch retouching. Due to using different camera settings, outdoor and indoor settings, natural lighting, props and models, and other elements, you need to check the image thoroughly and edit it to make the images visually appealing.
So, what do you need to edit in lifestyle branding photos? Retouch dust and dirt, adjust the lighting and color according to the scenario, reduce noise, remove background and unnecessary elements (if they do not complement the product), soften the shadow, and retouch the model’s skin, clothing, and jewelry. Upon editing completion, check the image quality. If you like the final look, publish it and improve sales.
However, if you are busy taking lifestyle consumer-centric shots and do not have time for detailed photo editing, hire a professional photo retouching agency. Check out this article on the top 5 photo editing companies to choose the best one to highlight your brand style and enhance target customer engagement. That’s it for today. Adieus!
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Faria Ahammed Juthi
Hi, it's Faria, Content Executive from Color Clipping Ltd with a passion to contribute knowledge sharing more simply. Keep learning and growing with us.
