Hello Local Guides! I’m Anna, the Photo Lead for the Local Guides team.
We really enjoyed seeing everyone’s incredible photos during Eat Like a Local month! For our celebration of small businesses, I wanted to give out a few more tips—but this time for in-store photos.
These tips work for pretty much any kind of business: clothing stores, boutiques, grocery stores, coffee shops, shoe stores, hardware stores, book store—anything you can imagine!
Here are my top 3 strategies for taking photos in stores:
- Lighting is key!
This is always going to be my number 1 tip for whatever you are shooting. Lighting is the key to all good photography, but you don’t need fancy studio lights to take great photos. Learn to use the light you have, and you’ll be in good shape.
Daylight is always great, which is why airy spaces with big windows tend to look so good in photos. You’ll want to avoid taking photos in SUPER-dark places, but if you have to, the key is making the best use of available light. Try boosting the exposure in your camera app to so that others can see the space.
- Try a photo tour
Getting the vibe of a place is one of the hardest things to do. You want to represent a place accurately through good photography and really show people what it’s like to be there. One easy strategy is to try a photo tour with three different types of shots: wide, medium, and close-up.
Wide shot
Show the WHOLE space. Get back as far as you can and really try to show the entire shop.
Medium shot (or #shelfie!)
Get in a little closer and photograph a smaller area of the store. You can even try a #shelfie: It’s like a “selfie,” but of a shelf with items on display.
Close-ups
Now, get really specific and show the individual products—whether they’re shoes, shirts, records, or something else entirely. When you share these photos, you let other people know what they’ll find when they visit a shop.
- Turn on your grid
Every camera has a grid. This feature helps to keep your photos super straight and really assists with composition.
You will be impressed with your much straighter photos and see some incredible results!
All of these tips apply to phone cameras as well as professional cameras. You don’t need fancy equipment to be a great photographer, just some practice and a good eye.
One other thing: We understand you can run into challenges when you’re taking photos in someone’s business. Before you shoot, take a moment to review our community policy if you’re not sure about taking images in businesses or have any other questions about interactions with business owners.
We can’t wait to see your photos! Remember to share them with #LocalGuides, because we’re going to spotlight favorites each week right here on Connect.
