A real pain-point of new FBA sellers is the constant startup expenses, hence why many seek cheap Amazon photos. I’ve found some affordable options.
In this post, I’ll be quickly sharing my experiences towards how I’ve been able to achieve a reasonably high-quality photo reel on my listings, without breaking the bank. For less than $100 USD, I have great quality photos on one of my listings.
Yes, I have also used professional photo studios. They are expensive, and I understand that not everyone has a huge amount of capital in their early stages of building an Amazon business. I do hope you find some value in this guide.
Let’s begin.
Use your smart phone
You’ll be surprised at the power of your smart phone to produce very high quality photos. Whilst I do have an impressive camera, I’ve chosen to use my smart phone to take the majority of my photos. Uploading my photos to Amazon is simply easier.
I would recommend that you upgrade if you’re using a phone that is 2+ years old. Check with your accountant, as you may be able to get a tax deduction on this.
Cost: $0 if you already have a newish phone.
The sink / bathtub method
This is a little-known trick. You don’t need an expensive photography studio who charges $400 per hour. Nope. Just your sink, or preferably, your bathtub and some good lighting.
Don’t have a bath? You can hire a hotel for $120 per night which has a white porcelain bath, and this is especially handy if you’ve got 20+ products to photograph. That porcelain white is quite vibrant, so be sure to not catch reflective light with your photos.
Cost: $0 if you have a bathtub already
Purchase a white table cloth
If you don’t have a bathtub, or you’re not comfortable with this idea, then I’ve also done the white table cloth trick. Find a well-lit room with natural light and place your product on the white table cloth.
Generally speaking, the product should pop out quite well. I found this trick to work very well with darker items (black, brown, dark red etc) as the colours are in polarity.
Cost: $20 at your local homewares shop
Purchase a cheap Amazon photo kit
There are kits on eBay and Amazon that can give you a decent amount of lighting if natural lighting is insufficient for you. Simply look up ‘studio lighting kit’ or similar.
I would recommend 2 lights minimum. These also take up quite a bit of space even when packed away, so not a good idea for those with limited storage such as the laptop lifestyle crowd.
Cost: $99 with coupon codes including delivery.
More lifestyle shots, less studio
Whilst we’re all looking for the perfect ‘money shot’ which is the #1 image that customers see with the white background, many sellers think their remaining photo reel needs to be perfect. It doesn’t. You don’t even need to have them done in the studio.
Consider outdoor shots on the grass, in the forest or at the beach if you have a product that suits this scenary. Alternatively, those selling kitchen goods on Amazon can rent an upmarket Airbnb for a couple of hours to take high quality photos straight from the iPhone.
Cost: $0 to $80.
Use cheap software tools
Whilst you may be unhappy because your ‘white background’ isn’t all that white initially, there are plenty of software offers that can clean up the background so that your product pops.
Background Burner, for example, does a good job. Their professional plan for eCommerce sellers is quite affordable too, especially if you need to process lots of photos.
Cost: $0 (free version) to $54 (annual version with 20 photos monthly)
In summary
Selling on Amazon is an expensive and some-what risk exercise, as many sellers are realizing. These minimal costs for cheap Amazon photos, luckily, are just something that you’ll inherit once.
There are professional studios that charge $1,000+ for a full photo reel. You don’t need to spend that much unless you have the capital available and want to dominate your category.
Many people are still have low quality photos on Amazon. Your photos are the closest that your customer will ever get to your product, so ensure they are as high quality as possible. Consider upgrading to a professional standard once you’ve got some decent sales volume under your belt.
