Products outdoors, photographed indoors.
An outdoor image puts daylight and a natural setting behind a product that was photographed on a kitchen table. Herofab builds it from one phone photo: the product is briefed to stay as photographed while the scene and the light around it change, which makes colour the first thing to compare.
What daylight does to a product image.
- 1
Colour shifts in outdoor light
Sun warms a colour and open shade cools it, in a scene as on a real street. A navy cap can read black, and a cream shoe can turn yellow. The product is briefed to keep its colours, yet the light on it is new. Keep one image on studio white as the reference for the true colour and place the outdoor image after it.
- 2
What has to stay readable
A natural setting is full of detail: leaves, stone, grass, sky. Against it, the logo, the label and the outline of the product must remain the clearest things in the frame. Read small lettering at full size, and trace the silhouette to see that nothing from the background is confused with a strap, a lace or a temple arm.
- 3
A setting that fits the product
Outdoors suits products that are used there: sunglasses, hats, shoes, bags, a drinking flask. A night cream or a dress watch can look misplaced among greenery. Where an open-air look is wanted in one particular place, the seller's own background image, a terrace or a garden wall, can be used in place of the built-in scene.
The indoor photo behind an outdoor image.
- Photograph the product in soft, neutral daylight near a window; the orange cast of a bulb or the tint of a painted wall comes along into the outdoor scene.
- Set it down the way it would rest outside, a shoe on its sole, a bag on its base, a hat on its brim, and shoot from the front with all of it in the frame.
- Keep hard sun off the product during the shoot: a sharp shadow across it in the source can remain and fall against the direction of the light in the scene.
Outdoor product photos, answered.
Can I choose the outdoor location?
Product studio offers outdoors as one scene: daylight and a natural setting. For a specific place, a background image of the seller's own can be uploaded, such as a photo of a beach wall, a park bench or a shop front that the seller has the right to use, and the product is placed in it. Angle and shadow are chosen as for any other scene.
Why does the product colour look different outdoors?
Because the light is different. Outdoor light is warmer or cooler than a studio's, and a colour is always seen through the light that falls on it. The product is briefed to keep its colours, and the scene still lends it a cast. Compare the result with the item held by a window, and keep a studio image in the listing so the buyer sees the neutral colour too.
Which shadow suits an outdoor scene?
The soft shadow, in most cases: it sets the product on the ground the way daylight would. A reflection belongs to polished surfaces and looks out of place on grass, sand or stone. No shadow leaves the product without contact with the ground, which an outdoor setting makes more noticeable than a plain studio backdrop does.
How much does it cost?
4 credits per image, plus one credit for 4K. The cost is shown before you generate, and if a job fails the credits are returned. The 20 free credits at sign-up cover 5 images with this tool.
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20 credits at sign-up, no card required. Images made with free credits carry a watermark.