Product photos that make a good product clip

In a Clipelle ad, the product clip is generated from a single photo. The camera moves slowly over it while the presenter talks. That makes the photo the most important asset you upload: a strong one gives you a clip that looks shot for the ad, a weak one gives you a weak clip, only now it moves. This article is about picking that photo well, from whatever you already have.

What the product clip is, and what it is not

It helps to know what the step does. The clip step takes your photo and produces a short piece of video with slow camera moves: a gentle push in, a slow drift across the product. In the final edit this clip is laid over the presenter at fixed moments, with a short fade in and out, while the presenter keeps speaking.

Two things follow from that.

First, the clip shows what the photo shows. It will not turn the product around to show the back, open the lid, or put it in a hand that was not there. If the photo shows the front of a box, the clip is a slow move over the front of a box.

Second, the camera needs room. A slow push in on a product that already fills the frame edge to edge has nowhere to go. A product with some space around it gives the move something to travel across.

You can read how the clip fits into the rest of the process in from one product photo to a finished ad.

Five things that matter in the photo

1. Sharp, and large enough

The clip moves closer to the product, which magnifies every soft edge. Use the largest, sharpest version you have. A photo that looks fine as a thumbnail on your product page can look soft when the camera pushes in on it. If you have the original from the photographer or a high-resolution export, use that, not the compressed copy from a listing.

2. The whole product, with margin

Show the complete product and leave space around it. Roughly, the product should take up the middle of the frame with visible background on every side. That margin is where the camera move lives. A tightly cropped photo forces the clip to stay still or to cut off part of the product as it moves.

3. Even light

Flat, even light from a window or a softbox reads well when it moves. A hard flash with a bright hotspot and a deep shadow reads worse: as the camera drifts, the hotspot drifts with it and draws the eye away from the product. Mixed light, where one side is warm and one side is blue, has the same problem. If you only have one well-lit photo and five badly lit ones, the choice is made.

4. A background that helps

Two kinds of background work. A clean, plain one: white, grey, a single soft colour, a plain surface. Or a real setting where the product belongs: the dripper on a counter, the stand on a table, the jacket on a person. What does not work is clutter: other products, labels, a busy room. The camera move brings everything in the frame along, and the viewer has a second or two to find the product.

5. No text baked in

Promotional badges, price stickers, "New!" banners, watermarks, and any text added to the image in an editor: leave them off. Clipelle already puts captions on the whole video, and the only text that belongs on screen is what the presenter says. Baked-in text moves with the camera, is cut off at the edges, and fights the captions for the same attention. If your photo has a badge in the corner, pick a different photo or ask for the version without it.

Photos with a person in them

A photo of someone using the product is a good choice for products whose point is how they are worn or held: a bag over a shoulder, a bottle in a hand, a sweater on a body. The clip keeps the scene as it is and moves the camera over it. The same rules apply with extra weight: the person and product should both be sharp, the light even, the frame uncluttered. A lifestyle photo with the product small in the corner of a wide scene is not a product photo; the camera has to travel a long way to find it.

Orientation: portrait, square or landscape

The ad is 9:16, a tall frame. The clip is generated for that frame and laid over the presenter. A portrait or square photo, with the product in the middle and room above and below, fits that shape with the least compromise. A wide landscape photo with the product small in the centre leaves a lot of width unused and a tall frame to fill. If you have both, choose the taller one. If you only have a wide shot, the one where the product is largest and most central is the better bet.

One photo, chosen well

The form accepts a single photo for the clip, and that is a feature, not a limit. One clear view, held in slow motion while the presenter explains, is easier to take in than a flicker of five. Choose the view that makes the product most recognisable at a glance: the front of a box, the profile of a shoe, the open face of a watch. Everything the viewer needs to know beyond the look of the product comes from the spoken words, which is why the description you type matters as much as the photo. The product description guide covers that side.

If you start from a product page with Image to video through a link, the large photos on the page are collected for you and you tick the one you want. Apply the same five checks to the ticked photo; a product page often has a clean hero image and several cluttered lifestyle shots, and the hero image is usually the one.

Two photos of the same product

An invented product: a stainless steel water bottle.

Photo A was taken on a desk with a phone. The bottle stands between a keyboard and a mug, lit from a window on one side, with a reflection of the room on the steel. It is cropped so the cap touches the top edge. A sticker on the bottle says "BPA free".

Photo B is the shop's packshot. The bottle stands on a plain light grey surface, lit evenly, with clear space above the cap and below the base. No sticker.

Photo A moves badly. The push in magnifies the reflection, the keyboard comes along for the ride, the cropped cap is lost, and the sticker is a second text source under the captions. Photo B moves well: the camera has room, the surface stays calm, the bottle stays the only thing in the frame. Every shop has a Photo B somewhere. Use it.

A quick check before you upload

Run the photo through these in order; a "no" on any of them is a reason to look for another one.

• Is the product sharp at full size, not only as a thumbnail?
• Is the whole product in the frame with background visible on all sides?
• Is the light even, without a hard hotspot or a deep shadow?
• Is the background plain or a tidy real setting, not clutter?
• Is there no badge, sticker, watermark or added text?
• Is the photo portrait or square, or at least the product large and central?

When all six are yes, the clip step has what it needs, and the slow camera move will look like it was meant to be there.