Why skin care product photography matters more than ever

The skincare market is crowded. Thousands of creams, serums, oils and masks are competing for the same audience. What makes it stand out? It might not be the formula, but the product photography.

High-quality skincare photos can instantly establish credibility. They tell customers, "This brand is professional. This product is safe. It's worth your money."

E-commerce such as Etsy product photography has amplified this importance. When customers shop online, there are no testers, no physical packaging to touch. Photography must do all the selling.

It is against this background of demand that professional skin care product photography is becoming increasingly popular. This article will tell you how to achieve professional photography results.

Preparations before shooting skincare products

Ghost mannequin photography, commonly used in e-commerce and fashion photography. And what does it take to achieve efficient skincare product photography?

1. Define the visual style

First, clarify three core issues with the brand or team:

• What is the brand personality? (e.g. scientific and rigorous, luxurious and noble, lively and fresh)
• Who is the target customer?
• Where is the image mainly used? (Official website, social media, e-commerce details page)

Next, use Pinterest or Notion to collect photography you like, color palettes, material textures (such as stone, wood, fabric), and even film stills. This board will become the visual bible for the entire shooting team (photographer, stylist, post-production), ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

2. Props and scene building

Props are the key to creating an atmosphere and hinting at the ingredients of the product. The specific choices are as follows:

Material: Heavy marble or cement slabs convey a sense of stability and science; warm wood and linen are suitable for natural organic brands; smooth acrylic or metal highlight technology and modernity.

Props: Use the natural ingredients contained in the product as props, such as fresh aloe leaves, orange slices, scattered coffee beans or dried flowers. This can visually establish the association of "natural".

Cleanliness: All props must be cleaned to a streak-free finish before shooting. Use a can of compressed air, cotton gloves, and a precision cleaning cloth to ensure that there are no fingerprints, dust, or water spots on the glass bottle and acrylic surfaces.

3. Professional equipment configuration list

A reliable set of equipment is the cornerstone of professional skin care product photography.

Camera and lens:

A high-resolution full-frame camera is preferable, such as the Canon EOS R5, Sony A7R IV/V or Nikon Z7 II, which will capture the finest details and give you plenty of room for cropping and enlarging in post-processing.

Light system:

For beginners who need to carefully observe the lighting effect, LED continuous light (such as Aputure Amaran series) is very intuitive.

But for professional shoots where image quality and power are paramount, studio strobes (such as the Profoto D2 or the more affordable Godox AD range) are the industry standard, freezing motion (such as splashing water) and providing a powerful light output.

Tripods:

A sturdy tripod (such as the Manfrotto 055 series with a three-way head) is essential. It will ensure consistent framing, allow for precise focus stacking and ensure absolute sharpness during long exposures.

Essential skincare product photography tips

Once you've mastered the basics, the following specific tips will help you take your skincare product photos from "good" to "amazing."

1. Construct a complete visual narrative sequence

A set of professional product images should be like a complete visual resume:

Main visual hero shot: Highlight the main body of the product, with a clean background and full composition. Usually used for product list pages.

Close-up of details and craftsmanship: Use the above-mentioned macro lens to shoot the precision structure of the dropper head, the smooth texture of the cream after it is dug out, and the logo engraved on the bottle. These images build trust in quality.

Dynamic texture display: This is the soul of skin care product photography. Shooting the moment when the essence drops into the water, the process of the cream being pushed open on the skin, and the rich foam of the bubble cleanser. This requires patience and high-speed continuous shooting.

Lifestyle and scene integration: Integrate products into the morning dressing table, the sun-drenched bathroom windowsill, or next to an open magazine. Give the product a story and a context.

2. Specific shooting methods for different product textures

Clear/glass bottled essence: The focus is on showing the clarity of the liquid. A backlight or side backlight can be placed behind the bottle to make the liquid "glow". Be sure to clean the bottle inside and out, as any blemishes will be magnified by the light.

Creams and pastes: Use a clean spatula or palette knife to remove the desired amount of product and place it on a marble slab or the back of your hand. Side lighting will highlight the soft, three-dimensional texture and sheen.

Oil products: Emphasize their fluidity and gloss. You can shoot the beautiful mirror effect of oil drops on the water surface, or drop them on dry leaves to highlight their moisturizing feeling.

3. Golden rules of composition and camera settings

Follow the rule of simplicity. Use the rule of thirds or center composition. Leave appropriate "breathing space".

Aperture: Usually use f/8 - f/11 aperture value to ensure the overall product is clear within the depth of field. When shooting close-ups, you may need to use f/16 and focus stacking.

ISO: Always use the camera's native minimum ISO (usually 100) to get the cleanest, noise-free image.

Shutter speed: When using a flash, the shutter speed can be synchronized (usually 1/125 second or 1/160 second). When shooting dynamic scenes such as flowing liquids, you may need a higher shutter speed (1/1000 second or more) to freeze the moment.

Challenges when shooting skincare product photos

Even with top equipment, product photography skincare can present time-consuming and technically demanding post-production challenges:

🚫Challenge 1: Perfect matting of complex edges.

Transparent glass bottles, silver reflective bottle caps, slender droppers, etc. shot with a macro lens... Manually cutting out these elements requires Photoshop experts to spend a lot of time drawing paths and processing masks, and it is very easy to have stiff edges or loss of details.

🚫Challenge 2: Creative background creation.

Making different versions of the same product for the official website with a white background, social media with a colored background, and a holiday marketing theme background means that multiple shots or complex synthesis are required, which is costly and difficult to maintain consistency.

🚫Challenge 3: Batch processing.

When you need to process dozens or even hundreds of SKU images, the repetitive background removal and adjustment work will become a huge bottleneck in the workflow, squeezing the time that should have been used for creativity and planning.

How to optimize the shooting of products with UltraPic

In the face of these problems, the AI editing professional tool UltraPic is not only a background remover, but also an intelligent post-processing center for skincare product photos.

• One-click precision background removal
• Creative background generation
• Establish a unified visual style for your brand

After a skincare product photoshoot, photographers and brands can immediately access a library of visual assets for different platforms and uses, reducing post-production time from days to hours.

Generate Backgrounds, Customize Instantly with AI

Turn photos into attention-grabbing visuals that drive sales.

• Practical styles to match your brand, for every SKU
• Create lifestyle scenes in one click for products
• Highlight products and grab attention for shoppers
• Increase engagement and conversions for your store

Get Started for Free Or drop an image here

With just a few simple steps, UltraPic can transform professionally shot skincare product photos into versatile visual assets:

1. Visit the UltraPic workbench, log in and click the Upload button to select your product image.

2. After uploading, UltraPic's AI background removal algorithm will automatically identify the main product in the picture. Usually, for common skincare bottles and jars, the system can complete the initial identification within 2-3 seconds.

✍Tips: For a large number of product images that need to be processed uniformly, you can process them automatically in batches. Ensure all skin care product photography outputs maintain a uniform canvas size and solid color background.

3. After confirming that the effect is satisfactory, you will get a clean product image with a transparent background, which can be directly used for e-commerce white background images or further synthesis.

4. Based on the product image after removing the background, go to Generate BG to quickly create skincare product photos that meet different marketing scenarios.

• Choose the background template you want
• Upload a reference image to generate a similar background style
• In the prompt, enter keywords to describe the background you want.

5. Click Generate BG and the AI can quickly generate high-quality, commercially available backgrounds based on semantics. You can choose the skincare product that best meets your expectations to shoot.

6. Then click Download.

Conclusion

Excellent skin care product photography requires careful shooting planning and efficient post-background processing.

By familiarizing yourself with the above shooting techniques and methods, and making good use of AI tools such as UltraPic, you will be able to continuously produce not only products that can display products, but also convey brand value.

In this visual-oriented era, investing in professional photography processes and tools is conducive to enhancing brand competitiveness and improving commodity sales.