How Do You Choose a Photographer for Amazon Product Images?

If you're looking for an Amazon product photographer, knowing how to create a clean product image on a white background is important.

But honestly, that's the bare minimum.

Amazon has specific image requirements that your photographer needs to understand, but good Amazon product photography goes way beyond checking a few technical boxes.

Your images are basically your digital sales team.

They need to show the product clearly, answer questions, communicate important features, help customers picture themselves using it, and give them a reason to keep scrolling through your listing.

So when you're choosing a photographer for Amazon product images, don't just look for someone who can take a technically good photo.

Look for someone who has a plan.

Your Amazon Photographer Should Understand the Entire Carousel

One of the first things I look at when planning an Amazon photoshoot is the full image carousel.

I'm not thinking about seven individual images. I'm thinking about how those images work together.

What does the customer need to see first?

What belongs on white?

What needs to be shown from another angle?

Where does lifestyle photography make sense?

Is there a feature that's difficult to communicate through photography alone?

Would an infographic help?

And are we actually using each image to tell the customer something new?

You don't need seven versions of basically the same product photo just because Amazon gives you space for multiple images.

Each image should have a job.

Product-on-White Photography Is Only the Beginning

Your main Amazon image is obviously important. It needs to clearly show the product and follow Amazon's current requirements for that product category.

But that's only one part of the listing.

Once someone clicks onto your product page, you have an opportunity to give them a lot more information.

Additional ecommerce images can show different angles, packaging, what's included, size, texture, ingredients, features, or details that aren't obvious from the main image.

Then we can start bringing in lifestyle photography to give the product context.

Show me how it's used.

Show me who it's for.

Show me what it looks like in real life.

A strong Amazon carousel should help take away some of the uncertainty that comes with buying something online.

Infographics Can Be Really Helpful... Until They're Not

Infographics can be incredibly useful on Amazon.

They're also really easy to overdo.

Sometimes a product has a feature that is difficult to communicate with photography alone. That's a perfect opportunity to add a simple callout, measurement, benefit, ingredient, or other piece of information directly into the image.

But there comes a point where an infographic has so much information that nobody wants to read it.

Tiny text everywhere. Arrows pointing in six directions. Icons. Paragraphs. Badges.

Suddenly the image that's supposed to make the product easier to understand is doing the exact opposite.

When I'm planning an Amazon carousel, I want to figure out what actually needs to be communicated and then determine the best way to communicate it.

Sometimes that's photography.

Sometimes it's an infographic.

Sometimes it's both.

Not every image needs to scream every selling point at the customer.

Look for a Photographer Who Thinks Beyond Amazon

This is something I think brands sometimes overlook when hiring an Amazon product photographer.

Yes, we're creating images for Amazon.

But are you only going to use them on Amazon?

Probably not.

Your ecommerce product photography might also end up on Shopify, retailer websites, wholesale materials, catalogs, ads, emails, your homepage, social media, sales presentations, or somewhere you haven't even thought about yet.

Photography is an investment, so I want the images we create to have as many useful applications as possible.

That's why I ask about the bigger picture before we start shooting.

Different Product Images Have Different Lifespans

This is another thing worth thinking about before hiring a photographer.

Not every image we create is going to have the same lifespan.

Your clean product-on-white ecommerce photography can often work for a pretty long time, especially if the packaging doesn't change.

Those images are usually versatile, too. You might use the same clean product image on Amazon, Shopify, a retailer website, a sell sheet, a catalog, or an ad.

Lifestyle photography is a little different.

Lifestyle images may need to be refreshed more frequently as your brand evolves.

Campaigns change. Trends change. Packaging changes. Your target customer may change. Your brand's visual direction may change.

That doesn't make lifestyle photography less valuable. It just means we should think about it differently when we're deciding where to put your photography budget.

A good Amazon photographer should be thinking about both the short-term and long-term value of the images they're creating.

Your Photographer Should Understand Your Brand Too

Amazon has rules, but that doesn't mean every Amazon listing should look exactly the same.

Your photography should still feel like your brand.

A premium product shouldn't suddenly look cheap because it was photographed with generic lighting and no attention to the brand.

A fun, colorful brand probably shouldn't have a carousel that feels sterile and corporate.

And if someone moves from your Amazon listing to your website, it shouldn't feel like they just landed on a completely different company's page.

That's why brand consistency matters so much when we're planning ecommerce photography.

Amazon requirements give us the boundaries.

Your brand determines what we create inside them.

A Recent Ecommerce Shoot with American Vinegar Works

Recently, I worked with American Vinegar Works here in Worcester, Massachusetts to create updated product imagery for their sales channels.

Rather than only thinking about the immediate image needed today, we approached the photography with the larger image library in mind.

Where will these images be used?

Which ones need to be versatile?

What should be photographed cleanly so the brand has those assets available for different sales and marketing needs?

That's the kind of planning I want to happen before shoot day.

Because once all the products are packed back up and the set is broken down, realizing we should have photographed something differently is a little late.

What Should You Ask an Amazon Product Photographer?

Before hiring someone, I'd ask more than, “How much do you charge per image?”

Ask how they approach an Amazon carousel.

Ask whether they create both ecommerce and lifestyle photography.

Ask how they handle infographics.

Ask whether they're familiar with Amazon's current image requirements.

Ask how they maintain consistency across multiple SKUs.

Ask whether they're thinking about other platforms where you may need to use those images.

And ask what they think your current image library is missing.

A photographer asking you good questions is usually important too.

If someone doesn't ask where the images are going, what you're selling, who you're selling to, or what you need the photography to accomplish, it's going to be pretty difficult for them to build an intentional image library.

Don't Just Hire Someone to Take the Pictures

This is probably the biggest takeaway.

When you're comparing Amazon product photographers, obviously look at their portfolio. Look at image quality, lighting, consistency, reviews, experience, turnaround time, and pricing.

But also look at how they think about ecommerce.

Can they take a technically correct photo of your product?

Great.

But what's the plan for that photo?

How does it fit into the rest of the carousel?

What does the next image communicate?

Which assets can you reuse elsewhere?

Which images will probably need to be refreshed in a year or two?

And how does everything work together to help someone understand and ultimately buy your product?

Those are the conversations that should happen before anyone picks up a camera.

Prospect Street Studio creates strategic Amazon product photography, ecommerce photography, lifestyle imagery, and product image carousels for brands in Worcester, Boston, throughout New England, and nationwide.