Boost Your Ecommerce Fashion Photography With These Background Ideas
White backgrounds for ecommerce are soooo yesterday. To be engaging on ecommerce sites and social media, your products need to leap off the screen, here's how...
Use On-Trend Colours
Colours can play a huge role in your product images, but choose wisely. You need to ensure your colour choice fits your product and branding.
White or grey is the safe option. However, they don’t always work well with lighter shades of clothing as the contrast is too low. Likewise, if your garments are darker in colour, be wary of using backgrounds that are too similar.
We like earthy tones which are on trend currently, thanks to the Pantone Colour of the Year – Mocha Mousse.
Built Structures
You could add some walls, ledges or indents into the background. This can add depth to the image and give you the opportunity to play with shadows. Combine with hard lighting to give background structures impact and bring drama to an image.
Certain structures can give your model posing options, such as leaning on a wall or corner. Plus you can introduce textures such as brick patterns or panelling.
Shadows
Lighting can be used to illustrate the background of an image. It can give images a lifestyle feel by mimicking natural light through a window. Think about the time of day your garments would be worn, or even the season, then look to replicate this with the lighting. An added benefit of dark shadows is that they can give the image a moody atmosphere. A lighting set up called split lighting can create this by casting half the model's face in shadow.
Composite Images
There’s always the option to place a digital background into your image. These are not as good as the real thing, but allow you to save on your budget whilst creating the look you want. It can be especially helpful when your desired location would be impractical or too costly for a shoot. The technique allows you to be creative and show your product anywhere. Helpful for shooting garments out of season or placing them in remote locations.
Build A Set For A Full Lifestyle Look
If you are looking for premium quality images that sell a lifestyle, building a set is a great option for you. This can be anything from a full outdoor scene, to a simple wall depending on your budget and the images you want to achieve.
A set gives you the ability to depict a full scene, appeal to your customers’ lifestyle, and strengthen your branding across your images. Sets can be fully customised, allowing you to control the background far more easily than a location shoot. Use props to help you develop narratives around your product. This will add realism and make your images relatable to your customers. A professional stylist is useful when selecting props for realism or a particular aesthetic.
Sets are great if you're adding video to your shoot as well. It can be quick and easy to capture content once everything's set up.
Grahame Gardner Case Study
Graham Gardner wanted a collection of fully immersive lifestyle images for their website.
Learn how we worked with their team to create a custom room set to photograph their spa and beauty workwear range.
Location Shoots
A further option is to book a location for your shoot. If you can source a perfect backdrop for your images, then it can make them highly relatable. Location shoots can create additional challenges because it isn’t a controlled environment. This can sometimes incur unexpected costs for assistants, catering, and travel. However, sometimes it's worth the reward. Just remember that the external environment could be recreated in a studio and is often less nerve-wracking on the day!
Things To Consider
There’s plenty to consider when planning your creative direction for a shoot. Much of what is possible will come down to your budget. Here's some things to include in your plan.
Consistency
You should think about where the images are going to be published. Consistency is a big factor for ecommerce websites, and the background is a huge part of this. A mismatch of styles, colours or locations may be jarring for some customers on your website. It is sometimes best to choose a style and stick with it for a season or two, before changing.
Signalling
You can purposely change backgrounds to signify how your product fits in the marketplace. For example, your higher end products could use a background that signifies luxury. The key is to think about your brand, competition, and customers, and not just your shoot in isolation.
Social First Images
Images being produced for social media will need a different approach to ecommerce images. Here you will need to stand out in your customers' social media feed as they scroll through their phones – not an easy task! So think about how you can make your clothing range pop out of the screen – bold colours, dynamic poses, accessories, and props can make the difference. Be sure to keep it on brand, but don’t be a afraid to experiment and be bold to capture the attention of your customers. You could also consider behind-the-scenes videos to add extra interest by building your brand in public.
Your Theme
An advantage with fashion photography, is that you can align your garments with a season easily – this should be your starting point for selecting a theme. Think bright colours for spring/summer collections and earthy darker colours for autumn/winter. Props can be chosen to align with these seasons to build on the theme. The next step is to think about what your customer base is interested in. A little research can go a long way.
If you have a large enough budget for set building or location shoots, pick somewhere that best aligns with the aspirations of your audience. For example, luxury clothing could be photographed in settings such as grand hotels, manor houses or picturesque gardens. Gym or sports settings are perfect for active wear ranges. Workwear should be photographed in the working environment it's designed for. You can soon piece together a shoot by relating the background to your target consumers.
Achieve The Look You Want
Our Production Managers will help you commission all elements of your shoot, be it a set build, sourcing props, or selecting digital background images. We can even help you decide on your concept!
Take a look through some of our portfolio images to see if there’s any photography styles you prefer.
