So you signed up for our Onsight app in order to create your custom mobile catalogue. Before you even think about anything else you need to provide your mobile product catalogue with great images that showcase every angle of the product as well as highlight the quality of the product. You don’t need to be a professional product photographer to create good mobile catalogue images. Just following some easy steps to make your products shine.

First of all, a good camera is needed. It does not need to be an expensive camera as a simple point-and-shoot digital camera will do. Make sure, though, that it has a decent amount of megapixels (10 to 14 megapixels is what most quality cameras have) and good zooming abilities. Unfortunately, taking pictures with your camera phone is not an option (even though it may seem to be the easiest option) as their quality tends to be inferior.

In order to take the mobile product catalogue photos you need to have your camera, two bright lights on stands or simply lamps that can stand upright, a white sheet and a table. The use of a white sheet is the most common but you can use any color (think black or grey) that you think will highlight your product best. A tripod is also recommended but it is not a necessity. Without it, you just need to keep a steady hand.

Push the table up against a wall where you can then fasten the sheet to the wall. The sheet should be long enough so that you can fasten it and still have a bit left over to drape over the table. This “drape” will be underneath your mobile catalog product.

If you are using a tripod, place the camera on the tripod at a position that is not directly in front of the product but slightly above it. When not using a tripod, simply hold the camera at an angle that is slightly higher than the product and not facing directly at it.

The lights should be placed next to your camera but exactly where you place them will depend on what effect you want to achieve. Some prefer that one light is the same level or slightly higher than the camera. With these lights you have the opportunity to play with shadows and highlights. You can even add a third light hanging from above to illuminate the product even more.

When actually moving on to taking the catalog photographs, there are a few points to remember. Position the product in such a way that you highlight the features that you most want the consumer to notice. Of course, one can take numerous photographs of the same product but with different angles but there are some product photos that will be more featured than others. Also, different photographs will suit different clientele. The clientele determines what angle will be best to showcase the feature they require.

Make sure to write down the image numbers and the corresponding product numbers or IDs to keep track of what you have already completed. This will help you immensely when uploading your mobile product catalog later since you can then simply check which images correspond to which product and quickly locate it.

Creating beautiful images beforehand will make your mobile catalogue even more spectacular once it is published to the Onsight mobile sales app.