We forget. We live with our products, we know the care that went into their design and manufacture. We know their features inside and out, and recited them for years, sometimes decades. We know where they were successfully deployed and used.
Our prospects, potential first-time clients, know none of that.
All they have to go by is the product type, our brand if they have a strong opinion about it, and product images. Let’s talk about that last part.
Your product images are your products when you sell online. What should those images – and those products? – be for successful ongoing sales?
Before all else, your product images must present the product in an enticing way. Your product is important. (Why else would they buy it?). It is among the best alternatives for the solution they want, and the images need to communicate it.
Next, you have options: regular photography, professional photography and 3D renderings. Regular photography (you and a smartphone) is quick, free and can look good. It’s enough for some applications, especially for one-off objects, secondary or non-professional sales.
Professional photography makes your product and company look – yes – professional. It is not just about showing the product – modern smartphones and basic DSLR cameras are good enough to show what the product looks like.
Professional photography is about implying professional design, workmanship and service. It is about an implied guarantee against product failure or being left in the cold after placing an order. It also provides good flexibility in terms of lighting, image mood and most production (photo touchup).
The costs – extensive and expensive equipment and setup, involving multiple people, a fitting location that needs to be booked or rented, physically controlling and managing lighting and, often, dealing with weather.
It is inconvenient for photographing larger objects like industrial equipment and vehicles, and is very inconvenient for photographing sequences of similar objects like different models or colors of the same type of product.
Before all else, 3D rendering allows for complete and precise control of every aspect presenting your product. Everything that was an expensive and time-consuming challenge with photography is under complete control with 3D rendering. Precise control of lighting. Light color, direction, intensity, shadow control along a series of properties like softness and color. Product position, including exact positioning of series of items (e.g., the same object in different finishes).
Different product finishes and colors. Derivative products like products including some and excluding other features. Ability to stage any kind of location, from an office to a construction site to the lunar surface to the sea to a rock and back.
Ability to go back to existing 3D scenes to make small adjustments without having to restart the project from scratch as with photography. Much easier – and sometimes simply possible – to make renderings of largerequipment, vehicles and facilities. And it makes it possible to show those larger items without everything else in the background getting in the shot.
Besides things that are easier than product photography, certain things are only possible with 3D renderings. Expanded (exploded) views, cutaways, partial transparencies are all exceptionally useful for technical products for brochures, instructions, manuals and websites. It allows your prospects to understand, and remember, that people need to understand in order to buy ™.
In short – using 3D renderings is much more flexible, much easier, and more streamlined. Often less expensive, and often quicker to produce. Just email us the files and let’s talk.