Skip to main contentSkip to footer
E-Commerce photography courses are a necessity for merchants who can’t afford to hire a professional product photographer and need to take their own images. However, there are many e-commerce photography courses available online, but not all of them are truly valuable.
E-commerce photography courses cost money and take up your valuable time. Your current photos are working well enough in your ad campaigns, and you aren’t sure you need to take classes. But are e-commerce photography courses actually worth it?
The best platforms for e-commerce photography courses are Photigy, Pro EDU, Shopify Compass, and Karl Taylor. A good E-Commerce photography class will teach you about taking better photos, which will get more shares on social media, promote your brand, and lead to higher conversion rates and more sales.
In this article, I’ll explain how e-commerce photography courses can help your online business. You’ll learn how photos sell items and build brand recognition. And I’ll give you links to three e-commerce photography courses to become a better product photographer.
Table of Contents
Why E-Commerce Photography Courses Are Worth It
Professional photographers generally work within niches. For example, the skills required for wedding photos are different from those used by sports photographers. Product photography is a learned skill that requires a specialized approach and equipment.
You can learn these skills through trial and error. But it’ll take many trials and a lot of errors to master the art and science of product photography on your own. The time and money you invest in a good e-commerce photography course can save you wasted hours and earn you many more sales.
6 Great E-Commerce Photography Courses
If you want to learn photography, you should study with photographers. Seasoned industry veterans with decades of experience behind the camera teach these classes. They know how to take pictures that look good and bring in sales.
Here are our recommended courses:
Photigy
Does your e-commerce store sell jewelry? Photigy has a bundled set of classes on photographing jewelry. And if that’s too rich for your blood, you can buy their 5.6 hour tutorial on Jewelry Photography for E-Commerce.
Are you just getting started and can’t afford professional photo equipment? Photigy can teach you how to take professional-quality photographs with your iPhone. With the extra money you earn from those photos, you’ll be shooting with a DSLR in no time!
If you’re serious about taking the best possible e-commerce photos, Photigy will teach you the skills. A Photigy membership ($390 a year or $39 monthly) provides access to over 600 tutorials on advertising photography. Individual courses run between $45 and $195.
And if you’re looking to become a professional product photographer who offers services, Photigy also has a certification program that teaches you every detail from start to finish. In fact, we were featured! View our success story here.
Best Photigy Photography Classes for E-Commerce
Pro EDU
Product photographer Tony Roslund offers you a complete guide to product photography and retouching. Catalog photography, photography for small businesses and startups, big-budget ad photos—you can master them all.
Pro EDU’s 20+ hour Product Photography course puts you on the scene at 11 different photoshoots. And for $599, you get 24 months of access to all Pro EDU’s tutorials on photography, CGI, and photo retouching with Photoshop and Lightroom.
Pro EDU requires a bit more commitment than either Karl Taylor or Photigy. The cheapest Unlimited Pro membership is $399 for five months of access. Individual courses cost between $39 and $249.
Best Pro EDU Photography Classes for E-Commerce
Shopify Compass
Shopify Compass offers numerous free classes for active and prospective Shopify sellers. If you want to learn more about product placement photography, their 2-hour video course will teach you the basics and help you create better images.
Shopify’s photography class won’t provide you with the detailed instructions or expert pointers you get from the other courses. It’s a basic class for beginners and an excellent place to start.
If you want to improve your skills on a low budget, classes don’t come cheaper than free. Two hours of learning from a photographer with over 18 years in the industry is an excellent way to improve your product photographs.
Best Shopify Photography Class for E-Commerce
Karl Taylor
After over 20 years as a professional photographer, Karl Taylor decided to open an online photography school. For $19 a month, you can learn how to shoot everything from automobiles to cosmetics and from packshots to electronics.
Your Karl Taylor Education membership also gives you access to live workshops. New tutorials are added monthly, so the members can always stay updated on the most fashionable photography styles.
Karl Taylor also offers many other classes that e-commerce photographers may find useful. Models can be an important part of any advertising campaign. Taylor’s classes on portrait photography and fashion photography can help you capture subjects at their most flattering.
Best Karl Taylor Photography Classes for E-Commerce
How Good Product Photos Help Your E-Commerce Business
Here are just a few reasons why your online store needs professional quality photographs of your products and why taking an ecommerce photography course can make you a more successful seller.
Buyers Rely on Photos for Purchasing Decisions
Online customers can choose between many online stores and sellers. And their choice frequently comes down to the seller with the best pictures. According to Justuno, 93% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on visual appearances.
An eBay Research Labs study found that image issues like poor lighting, cluttered background, and bad composition led to fewer sales. Clear, well-lit images with a clean background led to more sales and greater customer confidence. So, if your site has mediocre pictures, you’ll lose sales to shops with professional pictures of their items.
To succeed in online sales, you must provide customers with attractive high-resolution photos. And the best way to get those photos is by learning how to shoot them yourself or hiring a professional product photographer like us.
Photos Help You Build Your Brand
When you see golden arches, you think “McDonald’s.” When you see the Eiffel Tower, you think “Paris.” Good product photographers use striking visual images to set their e-commerce store apart from other shops selling similar items.
Branding helps you differentiate your e-commerce business from your competitors. Brand-name products command a price premium over generic offerings. And an established brand enables you to develop customer loyalty and repeat sales.
By using consistent lighting and backgrounds, you can create a mood and image for your brand. Ideal-use photos with attractive models draw more attention and customer sales. A class that teaches you these skills can soon pay for itself.
Good Photos Get Shared on Social Media
Social media users regularly forward and repost striking imagery. The more impressive your product photos, the more likely people are to share them with friends. These engagements can bring in more customers and boost both sales and brand awareness.
According to Marie LaFrance of marketing company Dash Hudson, Facebook drove 40% of traffic for e-commerce brands in the 4th quarter of 2020, and 66% of Instagram users seek interactions with brands on the app.
Content shared by friends and family resonates more strongly with viewers than advertisements popping up in their feed. If you know how to take unforgettable photos that go viral, you can expose your business to an enormous audience of prospective customers.
Final Thoughts
Photography courses require a time and money commitment. Getting the right tools for professional-looking photos can be a big investment, but if you want to succeed in e-commerce, your photographs will make all the difference.
Our favorite courses have been from Photigy, both from a technique standpoint and also because of the concepts learned. Alex teaches you how to create your own lighting modifiers that compare to professional solutions, which come in handy when you need to get results under pressure.
The better your photography, the more sales you can achieve at higher price points, not to mention the word-of-mouth effect, branding, and customer loyalty it brings for you.
These classes will help make you a better photographer and better understand how professionals create moods and effects with perspective, lighting, and other techniques.
