What Images Are Needed to Sell and Promote Beauty Products Online?

There are a number of unique challenges that photographers face when it comes to photographing beauty and cosmetics products. For starters, the products that need to be photographed are much smaller and need high-end precision lighting. Not only will you need access to sophisticated lighting equipment, but you will also need a set of special skills to be able to light such small products properly. To make it even more challenging, most of the cosmetics products are also high gloss or transparent. Add that to the equation and it becomes more complex and time-consuming to light them correctly.

Secondly, you will need to work with macro lenses. This can cause issues with focus and might require focus bracketing. In simple terms, focus bracketing is a technique that photographers use to maximize the depth of field. They do this by instructing the camera to take a series of several photos to help make sure that the close foreground subject (in this case the beauty product) is in focus. This technique is a time-consuming and complicated process.

Thirdly, you will also need very high-quality props. As most cosmetics shots are close-ups, high-quality props are crucial since even the smallest imperfection will be visible to the eye. This makes finding good models more challenging. The requirements are different, and, frankly, the standards are higher. In short, the models need to have a natural look and their skin must be flawless. Features like their lips and nails must also be natural. While they might not necessarily have to be long, they need to have long, slender fingers if you will be photographing products like nail polish. They should also have no tattoos or piercings.

When applying these many criteria, your search quickly becomes significantly narrow. Even in a place like New York, where there is no shortage of models, it is not easy to find ideal models for beauty product marketing. For the last five years, I have been dealing with beauty products on a daily basis and it took me and my team months to sort out the best fits for our projects. As a matter of fact, we looked at thousands of models just to be able to find 400 models. And, of these 400 models, only 30 were a good fit for cosmetics.

There are a plethora of options when it comes to cosmetics product advertising. Depending on your budget, you might be able to take several different types of photos. Though, if your budget is tight, the following are must-have images. At the very least, you should get these photos taken to be able to promote beauty products effectively.

The first type of image is a hero shot. You need a great image of your products set against a white background. For this type of shot, you need a minimum of two angles.  These images are required for almost any eCommerce listing, whether it is Amazon or your own business website. Customers need to see exactly what they are buying. While it sounds like an easy shot, only an experienced photographer can make this shot great enough so that it encourages people to click on it.

Whether you are selling moisturizer, eyeshadow or lipstick, swatches are important to show your customers the texture of your product. As a matter of fact, texture shots have the highest conversion rates.

Also known as lifestyle or mood images, creative shots are the most engaging images on social media. These kinds of images are especially important if you are running ads, since engagement rate defines the price per click and conversion.

We offer several types of lifestyle images. The most common ones are creative cosmetics shots and complex creative shots. As the name suggests, complex creative shots are more intricate and require more time and skill than lifestyle images.

Using models in the shots is very important. The focus of the shot might be on the actual product, but models can help to send messages regarding target audience, demographics, mood, and actions. These kinds of images inspire confidence and help encourage your target audience to buy your product.

Nowadays, videos are big. Everyone needs to use videos! First off, it is the cheapest way to run ads. Conversions cost much less with videos and have much higher engagement rates.

Secondly, videos allow you to communicate more and deliver a stronger message. You can say so much more with videos.

Lastly, videos are more trustworthy! While videos might undergo extensive editing, it is not possible to alter the product itself significantly. Due to this, customers believe more in videos than in photos.

We have been doing this for years (we have nearly two decades of experience in the advertising and commercial photography industry to be precise). What’s more, for the last five years I have been dealing specifically with beauty products on a daily basis.

Not only do we have all the necessary skills and equipment to create stunning cosmetics images to help you promote beauty products, but, if I am honest, cosmetics photography is my favorite type of photography.

If you need help with your cosmetics product advertising campaign, you can request an online quote. All it takes is answering a few simple questions and we’ll get back to you (we usually respond in 15 minutes).