- Easy Canva hacks for professional product photography and photo illusions
Easy Canva hacks for professional product photography and photo illusions
Level up your product photography with these simple tips
Technology is making it easier to surprise and delight your clients. Using Canva, you can remove photo backgrounds, improve your backdrops, make images overlap or pop out of frames and even appear to be three-dimensional. With these techniques, you are sure to stand out from your competition.
If you’re keen to learn more about product photography, read on to discover tips on how to use Canva’s advanced editing techniques.
Background Remover
To utilize Canva’s premium feature, the Background Remover, you’ll need to sign up for a free trial or purchase a Pro(opens in a new tab or window) or Canva Business subscription(opens in a new tab or window).
To use the tool, open a blank design (1080x1080px) and upload an image of the item you want to sell. You can do this by going to your Elements tab, clicking on ‘Upload files’ and choose an image from your desktop or camera roll. To access the Background Remover, simply go to ‘Edit image’ and click on ‘Background Remover.’ It’s that easy!
Once you’ve removed your background, you can further enhance your image by adding a more interesting background. Go to your Elements tab, search for the type of background you want and drop the new photo into your design background. From here, you can get creative with filters to give your image an editorial edge.
How to remove photo backgrounds and create on-figure designs
Your clients want to know how they should experience your products. With creative photo backgrounds, you can show them exactly how to use your product or the problem your product will solve for them. For example, featuring a running shoe in the foreground of a basketball court, or a model wearing a necklace.
If you’re intending to sell your products online through platforms like Etsy or Ebay, Background Remover will come in handy.
To get started, begin with a blank design (1080x1080px). Upload a photo of your product into Canva by going to the Elements tab, clicking on ‘Upload files’ and choose an image from your library. For the sake of our example, we’ll upload a photo of an off-figure necklace. It’s best to select an image of your product on a solid colored surface so that the Background Remover can easily differentiate between the item and the background.
Once your product image is uploaded in Canva, you can search for an image of a model or background. To stick with our necklace example, click on the Elements tab and search for ‘woman clavicle model.’ When selecting an image, it’s important to choose something that won’t detract from your product. You should ensure the model doesn’t already have jewelry displayed and the background of the image is free from distractions or overpowering colors.
For a three-dimensional effect, resize your image and position it in your layout. Move the necklace image on top of the image of the model by clicking on the ‘Position’ tab and bring the necklace image to the ‘Front.’ To make the necklace stand out even more, you can add a drop shadow by clicking on ‘Edit image’ with the necklace selected. Click on ‘Shadows’ and add the necessary position and transparency of your shadow. Voilà! You have an on-figure product image that can be used across your social media platforms.
How to make your products look three-dimensional
Canva makes utilizing advanced editing techniques a breeze.
A popular advertising technique is making products ‘pop out’ of the frame.
Our tutorial video at the top of this page takes this ‘pop out’ technique a step further and shows you how to make a person, or item of clothing stand out from the rest of your image.
How to overlap images and text to create depth in a design
An overlapping technique can make for a visually intriguing design. Using overlapping, you can situate your text in front of or behind your product and background elements. This technique gives depth to your design while ensuring your text can be easily read. By utilizing repetition in your text you can give your design balance.
To start, select an image from your Elements tab search results and add it to your design as a background. Duplicate the image and remove the background of the duplicate using the Background Remover tool. This will allow you to isolate foreground elements. Now, align the transparent background image in your design (this should be your product image) and apply filters to give your design some flare.
For a full demonstration, watch our layering tutorial in the video at the top of this page!
Still want to dive deeper into product photography? We discuss how to set-up compelling compositions, edit your work and sell your designs like hot cakes in our tutorial here(opens in a new tab or window).
Written by
Susan Villemaire
