3D Product Visualization vs. Product Photography
Photography and 3D visualization are not inherently adversaries. Find out when one or the other makes sense here.
Overview and Current Developments
First things first: Photography and 3D production (CGI) are not inherently adversaries. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, both disciplines even work closely together.
This article explains when one or the other truly makes sense, with a special focus on product marketing.
| Strengths | Weaknesses | |
|---|---|---|
| Product Photography | - Low barrier to entry - Inexpensive for single images - Images with people - Landscape images and environments | - High manual effort - Limited applications - Dependencies, e.g., location and weather - Poor scalability for large product quantities |
| 3D Rendering | - Very high flexibility - Quick ROI due to high reusability - Make the invisible visible - Minimal logistics | - Product must be digitized once initially - Authentic representation of people is difficult - Special software required |
Whether online shops, manufacturers, or large retailers: anyone who wants to sell their products must present them perfectly.
Competition in product marketing has grown steadily, and unique selling propositions are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. Practically anything can be ordered and bought from anywhere; a product from Germany often has many versions available from Asia at competitive prices.
Through dropshipping and platforms like TEMU or Aliexpress, many products at bargain prices with inferior quality have further diluted the market.
Tough Competition from Global Low-Price Providers
The good news: sellers and product marketers of quality products have gained increasingly better and newer options in recent years.
What showcases and catalogs were in the 20th century are now animated and static pixels. Be it AR demos of products or virtual trade fairs. Especially 360-degree product images and 3D views have become a new standard for some product segments like shoes, furniture, or fashion.
Show What You Have: With Visual Content That Makes a Difference
Making the high quality of your own products visible virtually can be a great competitive advantage.
Physical products that are presented digitally as they truly are before purchase stand out from the flood of offers and demonstrably lead to fewer returns.
Professional product photography on one side and 3D visualizations on the other offer exactly these possibilities.
The demand for digital, visual content in retail also continues unabated. The online share of total retail sales in Germany has been on a growth path for years. While it decreased in 2022, experts attribute this primarily to the Corona effect with above-average growth in 2020 and 2021.
It is clear: those who create digital and multifunctional product visuals are very well positioned for all applications in the digital world.
Standards in Product Marketing Are Shifting
A key keyword for success in eCommerce: User Experience. Parallel to the online shopping boom and the decline of brick-and-mortar retail, the smartphone has transformed into a place with thousands of virtual shop windows from countless providers. And the easier and better customers can find their desired product in this overwhelming offering and examine it completely, the more likely they are to stay and make the final click.
Surveys and studies show the high importance of product images and visualizations for product marketing: clear product images are the most important element for 87% of online shopping experiences. The number of returns is also directly related to the quality of product visualizations, as a survey by the market research company GWI shows. According to the survey, 42% of respondents would recommend using better product images to reduce the number of returns – only optimizing product descriptions was more important to customers.
Also interesting is the revenue development of both economic sectors: While revenue from photography and photo labs according to Statista surveys was declining or stagnating in the 2010s, market observers for CGI services predict significant growth.
A New Aid for Product Visualization
Traditional photography – with staging, shooting, and post-production – is frequently used to present products. Developments in photography have not stood still here either; for example, 360-degree views can be suggested in this way: a product is placed on a turntable and illuminated from various perspectives to create the impression of an all-around image.
Example of a simple 360-degree view through photography, as found in many online shops. The shoe can be seen all around, but the view is jerky as it consists of several individual images:
And as already touched upon, it's not about one technique being fundamentally better than another. Rather, the 3D revolution offers fundamentally new possibilities. For some manufacturers and shops, photography will continue to be the method of choice.
Example of a 3D-generated, freely movable view that can be easily integrated into online shops. The tire can be smoothly seen from all sides because it has been digitally and faithfully reproduced:
What Can Product Photography Do Today?
Product photography – or rather: professional photographers and Photoshop designers – creates emotionally appealing images for product marketing.
Light, shadow, colors on one hand, and environment and perspectives on the other, must be well-planned for a shooting to achieve the desired results. Although some post-processing can be done on the computer, if even one perspective is off, a reshoot may be necessary. Photography fundamentally captures only a single moment with a very specific setup, which may need to be recreated to produce comparable images.
This is how professionals for lifestyle and premium products still work and are likely to continue to do so. Especially landscapes and people are significantly easier to capture in an authentic and emotional image with a camera.
The spontaneity in a photo shoot, capturing something unplanned, is also a particular advantage that plays a role in product photography when people are in the picture. However, CGI and 3D are also making their way into the apparel industry. One of many examples is the collaboration between Hugo Boss and Adobe, which started at the end of 2022.
If the visual content for the product is only to be shown short-term, a sustainable and long-term strategy for product images plays a lesser role, so classic photography often has an advantage here.
In the mid-segment of consumer products and especially in the lower segment (cf. dropshipping), so-called 360-degree photo boxes are now also used. Here, additional technology for the camera or product photography comes into play.
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