7 Best Product Photography Angles For Better Online Product Representation

Updated on December 10, 2022 in Photography by Alifiya Mustafa

Product photography is done with the aim to attract the eyes of the customers and encourage them to make a purchase. Therefore, you must know the best product photography angles to make your photos look professional, unique, and attractive.

Now, before we get into the product photography angles, let’s learn the basic foundation that you must understand to master different angles, and they are – photography viewpoints.

3 Basic Photography Viewpoints

1. Low shots

Low shots are taken from slightly below the eye level. These are captured by either keeping the camera at the bottom level of the product or by kneeling down a bit.

This viewpoint is often considered when capturing portraits or model photos, but understanding this viewpoint is required to understand the basic angles. Low shots give focus to the lower area of the subject and direct the eyes to move upwards when looking at the image to reach the top.

2. High shots

Opposite to the low shots, high shots are taken from slightly above the eye-level. You must know that it isn’t the same as flat lay photography where the camera is capturing the complete 180 degrees straight from the top.

In high shots, you can always notice a tilt. It first focuses on the top area and then leads the eyes towards the bottom. Again, high shots are more popular with model photography.

Such shots are taken to enhance focus on the facial features, hide unwanted imperfections like double-chin, or are most often used for makeup photography.

3. Eye-level

Eye-level shots are where the subject meets the eye – usually straight. There’s no tilt or positioning of the camera when handholding. The most common example of eye-level shots is your passport photograph. A similar viewpoint must be kept in mind when capturing product photos.

7 Best Product Photography Angles

Now that you’re familiar with the 3 basic photography viewpoints, you can easily play around with them and leverage different angles.

Master these 7 best product photography angles to represent your products in the best way possible.

1. The front angles

The front angle is the most common and required photography angle. It’s about capturing the clear, straight shot of the product from the front.

The viewpoint used here would be eye-level. It’s most important for packshot photography, toys, and every physical product.

It focuses on how the product looks, the details, and what’s written on the label. The front angle is the ‘win or lose’ angle since it’s the image that clears the head of the customers, gives them an idea of your product, and influences their buying decision.

The images shot with this photography angle also need to be your primary product photos on the website. So, you must capture this angle professionally and clearly to give the best first impression.

2. The back angle

The back angle will again be shot straight from an eye level. The back shot is taken to give the customer an idea about how the product looks from the back.

If it’s packshot, then customers would like to read the details at the back including ingredients or warnings. For apparel photography, it becomes highly important to capture the back angle to show the customer the style of the back in a dress, t-shirt, or jeans.

Make sure that the product is placed with a ‘spot-on’ back angle and there’s no tilt hiding the back edges or the written content.

3. The profile angle

The profile angle is necessary for the products having enough volume or girth. For example, if you’re capturing an image of a sleek shampoo bottle, then it may not be necessary to capture the profile angle.

However, this photography angle is important when you’re capturing footwear, apparel with side details, or a storage product whose sides determine its storage capacity.

The profile photography angles must also be taken when shooting wearable products on models. It gives the idea to the customers about how the product will look from all sides after wearing it.

4. The 45-degree angle

The 45-degree angle is the sweet spot in photography angles. It offers the best of both worlds – front and profile shots.

The 45-degree angle is the only angle that allows the customers to look at the product from most directions in a single frame. It is a shot between profile and front shot that allows the customers to see both angles at once.

Along with product photography done in studios, such photography angles are also popular for vehicle photography, real estate photography, and furniture photography.

5. The Top angle

The top photography angles are captured from a high-level angle of 180 degrees straight. In this, the product can be placed in different positions such as standing or lying down, but the position of the camera remains the same.

There should be enough distance between the subject and the camera to fit the whole scene within the frame. It is also called flat lay photography when you lie down the products and capture images from the top.

The top shots are necessary for products having details at the top like stuffed toys and hats, or when the shape of the object is cylindrical such as water bottles, camera lenses, and containers of beauty and skincare products.

6. The macro angle

The macro angle is captured from a close distance using a macro lens. Macro shots for product photography are taken to emphasize the product details.

These shots are especially taken to capture details like the fabric of apparel, textured products,  stitching on the leather bags or shoes, density, smoothness, or texture of a skincare or makeup product, and more.

7. The 360-degree angle

More than 70% of online shoppers want to explore the product in 360 degrees. This gives them the advantage to look at the product from all sides in a way that they’d be able to see in a physical shop.

To master this photography angle, you’ll need an additional setup. The most important thing you’ll need to have in your kit to capture 360 shots is a turntable.

Place your product on the turntable and let it rotate. You’ll want your camera to be steady on a tripod. Keep the speed of the turntable slow to avoid blurry images. Now, keep capturing the shots as the product moves 360.

You can combine your 360 photography in Photoshop and create a complete 360-angle view.

To give a 360-degree view of apparel, you can do it without the use of a model or mannequin with the help of the ghost mannequin technique. The ghost mannequin effect allows you to create a hollow 3D effect that gives the idea as if someone wearing the apparel.

The ghost mannequin technique helps you remove distraction, allows the customers to focus just on the product, and save the cost of hiring a model or buying and maintaining a mannequin.

5 Product Photography Ideas To Help You Improve The Angles

1. Keep distance and leave enough negative space

Doesn’t matter from what photography angle you’re capturing the image, it’s very important to maintain a distance. It does three things for you:

• The space allows you to capture all the details clearly
• Fit everything in one frame
• Gives you enough negative space for cropping, margins, and resizing in the future

Thus, when you’ll edit the images or use them in different ratios for different platforms (social media, website, third-party marketplaces), you won’t have to sacrifice the important content.

2. Keep the background clean

When talking about product photography, the best choice is a white background. The white background gives your product photos a clean, undistracted, and professional look.

You may capture the product with any background and later remove the background from product photos. The transparent background will allow you to be creative and use different backgrounds for social media posts or keep it white for your website or places like Amazon and eBay.

Other light-coloured backgrounds are also a great choice since they easily complement the products captured from different photography angles.

3. Use common sense

There will be times when you won’t feel satisfied with your images captured in the above-mentioned angles. So remember, when nothing else works, common sense does.

You do not need to stick with the respective photography angles. Be creative and experiment with various different angles until you have an angle that is complimenting your products in the best way.

4. Edit your product photos

The best product photography idea to enhance the look of your product shot from different angles is to edit them. Post-production is a crucial step before you go ahead and upload your products on the website.

Editing allows you to correct the imperfections that couldn’t be avoided during photography such as:

• Reflections and glare
• Unavoidable shadows
• Distractions in the background
• Dust and scratches
• Wrinkles on clothes
• The difference in the colour of the image
• Removal of clamps and pins used to hold the subject in place

5. Outsource post-production

If you lack the expertise or do not have time to edit thousands of product images, then it’s best to outsource post-production with a professional product photo editing service like PixelPhant.

PixelPhant’s product image editing experts can professionally remove backgrounds, create ghost mannequin effects, retouch product and model photos, correct colours, and more, and deliver bulk images within 24 hours.

The professionals here know better how to handle complex details, take care of every corner and detail, and edit photos that attract more customers.

Also, outsourcing allows you to be more creative and save yourself from fiddling with Photoshop.

Bonus Read

Understanding and mastering different photography angles can help you capture product photos professionally and beautifully.

Try different angles and experiment with new angles to capture stunning shots. And, to make your product photos look more professional and engaging, allow PixelPhant to do the magic.

Try our clipping path, photo retouching, color correction, and background removal service for free 👇.

Beautiful product images across your website.

Background Removal, Clipping Path, Color Correction, Cropping & Resize, Retouching, adding Shadows, and more.

Try PixelPhant for free
No Card Details Required