Taking good quality pictures of clothing can be tricky. The battle to eliminate or control harsh shadows can seem endless, and soft, even lighting can be a real problem. Figuring out how best to display the clothing so it appears appealing to shoppers is also a challenge. Here are a variety of tips to display your clothing for great results ranging from the most basic folded display to the most professional fashion model. There are some simple techniques which even amateur photographers can use to obtain excellent results with minimal effort. The following examples show several basic setups as well as a more elaborate fashion model set-up that should allow photographers at all levels to achieve results they can be proud of.
The easiest technique to learn and have success with, is shooting clothing flat. Some great examples of flat or folded clothing photography can be seen online at GAP kids and L.L.Bean web stores. This is the last technique we will focus on in this tutorial. Keep in mind that these companies hire experienced photo clothing stylists to spend countless hours fussing over the tiniest layout details. A great deal can be learned from studying their final layout selections. The first technique covers use of a live fashion model.
The folded technique has some basic limitations worth considering. We are shooting from 'above', so we have limits as to how high we can raise our camera safely, using a horizontal tripod. If the clothing is large, the edges may inadvertently get cropped from the cameras view if the camera is too low. For a dress you may need to raise the camera to a height of 6' to 8'; although by 6' you may find you need a small step ladder to see through the viewfinder. Large chains ie. L.L.Bean have tall, sturdy scissor lifts, with large format cameras mounted on them specifically made for this purpose. These allow the camera to be raised to almost any height. Now lets look at some specific situations.
Full body shots of live models or mannequins requires large lights. And, although they may seem more difficult to work with live models should really be shot with strobe (flash) lights which will freeze any motion. Our Fashion and Clothing Photography Kits have a choice of large continous lights for shooting folded clothing or strobes for live models.
Taking your own photographs allows you to personalize your project with project-specific or business-specific photos, and can save you from having to purchase stock photography. Preparing your list of needed images, how you frame the photograph, and the filters you utilize can help you take good photographs.
Consider the site usage. This one is pretty straightforward but somehow people always seem to forget it: think about where the photo is going to be used on your website. If you want a nice, wide image slider on your homepage, consider the fact that you need the photo to be wide. It might be tricky to capture website screenshot on an entire URL correctly. With our full page screen capturing option, it can't be any easier. Also small web thumbnail or website snapshot could be captured using our API too. Every website screenshot is processed real-time, so you do not have to wait in the queue until previous API call is.
Photos that have the subjects at an interesting angle, or photos with the subject in focus and the background blurred, or photos of a subject on a white background are more interesting than those that are not planned and just taken at whim. To get some ideas on composition, browse through photos, go to artist's websites and look at their composition to learn what you like and different ways to compose a photo.
Nowadays, most digital cameras can offer you a variety of options, and even those of us who aren't professional photographers, can use one of the middle-range SLR's without much trouble. I have used two digital cameras to take photos for several projects and I would recommend either one to those looking to take their own photos for marketing materials and websites. Both cameras took high quality photos suitable for print materials. You are able to set up the camera for manual functions or this camera can be used to take really good point and shoot automatic shots, if you aren't big on manipulation. Take a look at the Nikon D300 and Canon EOS 5D and read some reviews to form your own opinion.
If you are going to take photos for print, something a little higher quality than the smaller pocket digital cameras is necessary. However, if you aren't interested in taking your own photos, but still want to add some visual appeal to your printed and web materials, there are several options for purchasing royalty-free photos, just be sure to carefully read the license restrictions before purchasing the rights to an image.
There's nothing wrong with using your cell phone to take photos either – with the quality of the cameras on these devices increasing each year, you can get excellent photos for use on your website or social media.
Different projects require different resolutions and sizes of photos. If you plan ahead, you can use your photographs for multiple purposes.
Taking Photos for Print Materials
If you know that you want to use a photo for print purposes, it is best to take it at the highest resolution and size possible. You can always reduce the resolution and size of a photograph, but you can't increase it without losing quality.
Format
Some cameras allow you to take .RAW versions of a photo, which allow you the most flexibility when modifying it. RAW photos are extremely large (in terms of file size) and will take up a lot of your disk space.
If you don't think you will need to modify the image too much, you can take a photo in TIFF or JPG format. TIFF format is better if you plan on modifying it several times and saving it. JPG's condense the file every time it is saved, thus you may lose a little bit of quality each time. TIFF images are also best for printing because they are in CMYK format, whereas JPG's are in RGB. Most printers use CMYK format, though they can usually print a JPG without much trouble. Talk to you printer or read their file instructions prior to beginning your project. BMP's are also an option, but this isn't something I commonly use.
Resolution
When placing an image in a document for printing, the resolution usually needs to be 300 dpi (dots per inch), though you can sometimes get away with a dpi of 150. Again, discuss this with your printer, as this also depends on project size. If you are printing a large display, something around 10 feet in width and 6 feet in height, and will have a photo that is going to be 3 feet large, you will need a very large size and high resolution photo. Taking a photo that was taken at a size of 1 foot square with a 300 dpi resolution will probably not work very well, but because as you enlarge it to 3 times its normal size, the resolution becomes only 100 dpi. At that size, poor quality will really be visible to viewers of your display.
Photos for Web Use
Images for use on websites can (and should!) be much lower resolution. The larger the file size and the more dpi, the longer it takes the file to download. I usually recommend putting images on a website that take less than 3 seconds to download. Most people will not wait much longer for a page to load on their browser, and you may lose potential customers if a large part of your website is missing when they look at it.
Photos For Websites Free
Resolution
Best Photo Websites
Recommended resolution for web images is 72dpi. There are ways to pre-load images giving you a little more flexibility on the size of the image, but always check your site on multiple browsers before publishing it.
How To Take Photo Of Website
Resources For Reducing File Size
We use tinypng.com to reduce the size of images on websites. Their free version allows the upload of up to 10 files, maximum 25 MB, at a time. You can purchase a license for the paid version to remove the restrictions. They also have a plugin for WordPress that allows you to reduce the size of images within the platform.
Take Photo Of Website
Photographs for Multiple Purposes
If you are in doubt of what products you may want to use the photos you are taking for, it's a good idea to take at the highest resolution and largest file size. You can always reduce the file size later for a specific project.
