ECommerce photography is changing, with more pressure and less budget but there are great rewards to be had. Richard Harvey from Canon UK, Duncan Taylor of EME Digital and Sam Shearer, MD of Ortery Inc, discuss First, some facts. Ten years ago, around 12 percent of retail sales were online. Today its about 30 percent. The importance of the online channel is greater, but the content production budgets havent grown at anything like the same rate, Duncan Taylor, MD of EME Digital, explains. For the people charged with enabling that growth, it has been a story of delivering more for less: more content needed at higher quality, produced more quickly, for less money. He continues: Many companies have brought production in-house. Outsourced eCom photography still exists but the trend has been to bring it in-house. Only the high-profile shoots get the full agency or a sub-contracted photographer these days; regular eCommerce production is handled at the office or perhaps in a part of the warehouse.

Content is changing

The pendulum may be swinging back to lifestyle photos, Sam Shearer, MD of Ortery Inc, predicts, but in a different way, where consumers circle what they want and make immediate purchases on the platform that showed them the picture. But there is more junk content out there than ever before, he cautions. The spoils will still go to the companies that have the relationships and ability to show the product in a professional manner. Influencers will not want to pass off their leads to companies showing ugly product shots Has video become an important element in the creative mix? According to Canon UKs Richard Harvey: Definitely. People want to see how a dress moves, how the folds are, what happens when you sit down in those trousers, whats the sound of a handbag being opened? What does it sound like when you close a car door? ©Audio, video and stills: its all coming together, and the next step will be virtual, with AI content increasingly helping and enhancing. Video has grown enormously, Duncan confirms, Short form especially. It being so simple to switch a high-quality stills camera to a high-quality video camera. That is echoed by the photographer switching to the videographer. Plus, its easier and cheaper to host and incorporate video nowadays. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.imrg.org/wp-content/uploads/Amazon-Model-Video-1920-x-1080.mp4"][/video]

Source: Amazon Video Production, eme Digital

He continues: The other major area of change over the past ten years is imaging technology “ AR, Photogrammetry, Virtual Production and LED Stages and most significantly AI. The people who drive many of these projects are more likely to be technically able rather than creative photographers. And there can be pain in that. This is where a partnership can really help. Richard was a photographer before joining Canon UK 20 years ago. And now, in his current role, he visits retailers to advise staff on equipment set-ups, best practice and even styling. Generally, my role involves product training to help staff achieve a good knowledge of the equipment, he explains. And if you needed a reason to use Canon its colour. Getting that bit right is essential, because thats the backbone of eCom. If your orange dress doesnt match your orange handbag, it gets sent back. Duncan agrees, adding: The sheer volume required these days also presents problems. Theres frequently such a huge amount of stock to be photographed and retouched in such a short time, that the basics need to be right straight away, like colour fidelity. Without that worry you can work on the other challenges, usually volume. A thousand products per day needed online within a two-day deadline as an example.