Automated Product Photography: Is It Really The Future?

Updated on January 21, 2023 in Photography by Nishant Shrimali

The future of eCommerce and eCommerce product photography is always in the limelight in the world of store owners. The trend has kept its pace and has turned towards automation in the past few years. That is if you are working in the product photography industry you must learn about Automated Product Photography in-depth. That is when PixelPhant decided to dig deeper and share this amazing article.

But before any further discussion, let’s understand what automated product photography is.

What is Automated Product Photography?

Automated Product Photography means automating the process of product photography through robots and various photography step-ups. This is done to boost productivity and complete the work much more effectively.

It will also play a key role in boosting the eCommerce, with the high-quality product images that to in a much quicker turnaround time. 

But what are the present-day challenges that one may be facing in product photography that automation can help with? Let’s have look.

Product Photography Challenges Today

When we talk about product photography for eCommerce, it’s unfair to compare it with other styles of photography. Here, you need to maintain high-quality standards, at a minimum budget that too at a quicker turnaround time. 

With so many variables in consideration, here are a few product photography challenges:

Consistency

There is only so much perfection a human can bring to the table consistently. That is every product must be captured from the same angle, from the same length, in the same lighting condition, with precise camera settings.

It is much harder said than done when you have about 500+ products a day. Most of the things can be corrected in post-production by PixelPhant as soon as possible, but it’s always better to start the process on the right note. Right?

Turnaround Time

If someone manages to deliver the product images that to with perfect consistency, what about the time it will take? As you might already know that Product photography for eCommerce is a time-consuming task. 

Only after the products are captured can be forwarded for post-production to PixelPhant. But until then the products will take space in the inventory, hence increasing your cost of inventory every single day.

Keeping Up With New Trends

Sometimes back, all an eCommerce needed was high-quality images. Today? Well, you need high-quality product images along with 360-degree functionalities, videos, and everything that can allow customers to interact.

It’s pretty hard to keep up with the trends if someone sticks to traditional product photography gears.

This is why welcoming Automated product photography can be helpful.

Scalebitly

The number of products a human can capture vs the number of products a robot can capture has no match. That’s the harsh truth. This means when compared side-by-side Automated product photography delivers the same result but at a much faster pace.

Components of Automated Photo Studio

Before we learn about the benefits of Automated product photography, here are some common components of Automated Photo Studio. 

This will help you learn what all types of equipment you get in one single studio, giving us a much better understanding when learning about the benefits.

Learn that Automated Photo Studio is an integration of hardware and software to ease most of the manual work.

Here the hardware has a turntable, surround lighting, multiple cameras and can be found in various sizes.

If you have basic knowledge of photography, you can easily control the whole system through the software.

All you have to do is place the product on the turntable, choose the template that best fits the requirement (or add manually) and the software will adjust the lighting positioning of the cameras and camera settings automatically.

Moreover, once you have fed the input, all you have to do next is to swap products once they are captured.

Benefits of Automated Product Photography

Now that we have covered the components of an automated photo studio, it’s fairly much easier to understand what are the benefits of introducing automated product photography. Taking the challenges of product photography, let’s see how automation can ease your work.

Consistency

Automated Product photography brings a high level of consistency for eCommerce photography. The settings remain unchanged and you can always choose the same template to set your camera positioning, lighting, and angle of your product photography.

All the images remain highly consistent even if they are shot after a long time.

Turnaround Time

With the synchronized automation of hardware and software, the overall turnaround time of the product photography is comparatively super quick and easy. Moreover, once the settings are saved it merely requires any manual actions rather than swapping products from the turntable.

This boosts up the productivity of eCommerce, as you can always get the post-production of your images done with 24 hours (or less) with PixelPhant.

Cost Efficient

Working with professionals with high-level equipment can help you get some amazing product photography shoots. But it also comes with a hefty price tag which must be taken under consideration.

Automated product photography and automated photo studio drops the cost-effectively. Hence making it easier for new eCommerce to gain high-quality product photography at the best price possible.

Keeping Up With New Trends

It would be no surprise that the automated photo studios are equipped with best-in-class technologies and can keep up with every trend in the market. Be it capturing the product in high-quality, a Gif, a 360 photography, or anything which can today’s eCommerce need.

Scalability

With the high-end technology by your side, the ability to capture all kinds of formats, and do things quicker the scalability with Automated Product Photography is much much higher.

Packing Up

The article showcases the use and the benefits of automated product photography for eCommerce. But that being said, machines can only perform repetitive tasks at their best. They are made to reduce the manual work and focus on creatives. If one wishes to shine out as a commercial photographer, there is and will always be scope for creativity to grow. And no automation can take place of a human mind.