Notes
Photography is an art that is hard to get right. On today’s podcast we talk to the experts on how to get the best photos in front of your consumers on Amazon to increase sales. Jeff Delacruz – President of POW Photography or Products on White Photography. I’ve personally used their service and recommend them to my clients as the go to place to get professional photography.
- Just to qualify you guys to my audience, I’m sure it’s impossible to count how many photos your studio have taken, but can you share your background and why are you guys the experts in this?
- Pictures on White Photography name came about because of the importance on white.
- How did POW start? 2010 in midst the last meltdown.
- What makes a good photo?
- What is pleasing
- What encourages someone to click my listing photo
- Tent light kit vs Studio approach
- Product on white background is bare minimum.
- How do I win that click and make my photo standout?
- How do I light it?
- Common photo mistakes
- Can look at a product before even putting it on set.
- Color number for a wine glass – 250.
- Light density. Black cards on the side. Reflection of the black card.
- Basic starting point
- Light sweep
- Trying to do it as an amateur as a professional is not possible.
- How to balance lights.
- What types of photos should be on an Amazon listing?
- One thing I like about your website is it has tutorials on how to order the right photos.
- Survey the Amazon competition and shoot lookalikes.
- Progression Amazon sellers go through
- Get to market as fast as possible
- Once up start optimizing
- Hardest product to shoot and why?
- Liquor decanter + glasses
- Easiest product to shoot and why?
- Bottles
- 200,000 photos in past 10 years.
- Beauty products.
- What should clients ask more from you or photos they should obtain than are not as common but should be?
- Biggest question we get – do you shoot lifestyle images?
- We do, but it’s challenging.
- Started service 6 months ago “Amazon Lifestyle Composite Photos” Or “Stock Composites” We retouch it so the item matches the scene. $150 per photo.
- Biggest question we get – do you shoot lifestyle images?
- Funnest product to shoot?
- Hard light shot for beauty products. Created a whole new lighting style for us. Background called “hard light”
- Types of photo styles.
- Perfect listing:
- Main image photography is most important. Stand out from competitors.
- Pitfall: Front, back and side. Nobody cares about that.
- Better: Features, what makes it sell. Is it tough, really big? Show call outs. Really sell me why.
- Obviously sellers should pay for high grade professional shots, but are there any hacks or shortcuts they can take?
This photo guide has all the specs and recommendations for images on Amazon.
Summary:
- Photos should be 2000×2000
- Jpeg
- 7 photos per item
- Main photo on white cropped so item is 85% of image (Prevent white space at top and bottom of product, so that item looks bigger in search results)
7 Photo Shots you can take:
- Main image – on white.
- Back image – labels etc.
- Close up shot to show a feature
- Infographics -Photos with text and key features
- Lifestyle- Makes you feel you’re using the product, or how and where you would use the product
- Aspirational -Humanizing the product in use to show social gain (photos of humans)
- Video (Requires EBC / Brand Registry)
Unedited Transcript
spk_0:
All right. So I’ve got a treat today. I’ve got my old high school buddy Sean holes joining me. We’re going to talk about Cove in 19 in India. He’s stuck in India right now, running a team of developers, and we’re gonna have fun talking about e commerce in the future as it relates to the Amazon, India E commerce and general. All right, so now joined by Sean Hall. Shawn, it’s good to talk with you. Um, over the years, we’ve kind of kept in touch here, and our journeys have taken us to other sides of the world. So right now, as I understand it, you’re in India. And what was it? Just a couple days ago, India announced it’s completely shut down. So I’m sure our listeners would love to hear and understand what is going on over there.
spk_1:
Hey, Steve, Thanks for having me Great to, uh, catch up again. What is going on out here is it’s a good question. Some of us want to know that, too. There’s there’s, ah, been a lot of sudden movements. There was one day that things were open and that was, I think, the 15th of March or maybe just before that. And then everybody who had businesses got together and said, Wait, what’s actually happening? Including, you know, some of the politicians. And then it wasn’t almost overnight. Um, shut everything down and it was shut down to the degree my, my, my mom and my sister were planning on making a trip out here to visit me, and and a day or two before their flight came, all international visas got canceled. So and then they also said, Hey, you can’t leave either. Um, so you got
spk_0:
your family not get to you, but you can’t get to your family.
spk_1:
Oh, yeah. And they can’t even ship because my mom being my mom, you know, she was, like, coming. I’m gonna send you supplies. I mean, to send you supplies and so hee
spk_0:
underwear over there. Sean, they don’t have your son because it’s true. So it’s difficult, I’m sure. Sure,
spk_1:
it’s been Ah, a little chaotic. And and it’s been disheartening. You know, I’m, uh, Christian oriented guy, and it’s been really disheartening actually to see on the street, because when you have, um, as there’s over a 1,000,000,000 people in this country, right and a lot of vulnerable people. But many, many, many deep hole only a day’s wage and they can pay for their food and maybe get some lodging. Or or they live in slums, right? But these people assumes that lock down happened. They’re out there starving in the streets and and that’s been hard for me to sit, sit up here and feel good on instagram and doing the whole quarantine at home thing. Because, um, I’m seeing people just outside my window, you know, on the streets, suffering and dying because they can’t they can’t make any money. And then beyond that, it’s difficult because when they can’t make money, what’s happened is they’re trying to migrate back to their villages so they can eat least eat. But you’re getting massive congregations, and I mean, while we’re social distancing over here, people privilege, I should say these migrant workers air huddled in bus stations and there’s hundreds of thousands of them and they’re going to actually be infecting each other. Think about this and then taking it back to rural India, where there isn’t medical access, so it’s a huge problem, and it’s as a humanitarian that’s been kind of what I’ve been trying to over the last few days say, Hey, it’s nice being in the ivory tower, But how can I, um how can I help these folks out there? That’s that’s been one of the things that’s been eating at me.
spk_0:
That is rather difficult. I mean, I’m in the Georgia area and it’s, you know, testing is not even really a thing right now in the States. There’s, ah, you know, a lack of testing. But most of the government shut down. Most businesses have shut down except essentials, but the culture is totally different over here. Where is what you kind of talked about with the migrants? Um, culture in India? There’s literally hundreds of thousands of people that air stranded right now. Is that Is that true?
spk_1:
Yeah, it’s true because the government realized that they were going to go back to rural communities, and they said it became a social media disaster because everybody was looking at these bus stations saying, Wait a second, we’re about to send these back to rule India, so it actually got worse, and that once the people got to the bus stations, they didn’t let the buses leave. So really, you just have these well, which makes sense. You don’t want them crossing borders into places that are there gonna take this virus, especially after what they’ve been through with the crowding like you don’t want them to go. But at the same time, you now essentially have, and I don’t want to like, really over use this word. But it’s It’s like a concentration camp of migrant workers, and they’re just stranded and they’re in a situation that’s highly ineffective for quarantine or controlling this virus. So I think India is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s I was looking the numbers and 20 days ago, I think March 10th the U. S. Had 1000 known cases, which is where India’s at now, and that has now gone up to 160,000 in the U. S. So 20 days from now, what I’m interested in is to see if India has surpassed us numbers and I’m I’m pretty sure that they will.
spk_0:
I think it’s a question of testing, you know, in the US, the numbers have got to be five x up to 10 x, what they truly have been reported because you mean you get to be in, like in I C. U unit right now to get a test in the States and most most part, so who knows what India’s health care infrastructure can do? But, you know, it’s interesting that they announced that 21 day shut down instead of 14 which is what kind of the U. S and money other countries lead with. And then we all know that 14 days gonna turn into 30 and more, but they’re
spk_1:
talking about they’re talking about extend this 21 day after three months. Um,
spk_0:
that’s that’s gotta be a totally new world you’