An excellent image of your storefront can be useful in so many ways: on your Facebook home page, in your print advertising, on your web page, in entries in competitions such as the Gifts and Decorative Accessories Retailer Excellence Awards, and even on your business cards. Professional photographer Peter Patau recently took the stunning photo of our shop shown above, and he has very generously offered to share his tips for taking great storefront photographs.

“Lighting is the key to good photography, and that’s never more important

than when taking a photo of your storefront. You don’t need a fancy camera, expensive lighting equipment or a professional photographer. You do need to think about the lighting.

You’ve probably seen the problem: Your window display looks great at night, but the building disappears unless you use flash, and that makes for ugly glare and probably a reflection of the flash in the window. On the other hand, it’s easy to photograph the storefront during daytime, but then the window is usually obscured by reflections. In addition, shooting at midday on a sunny day may create distracting shadows or an unpleasant flat light, depending on your location.

The solution is a simple trick: Bring nature’s lighting and your store

lighting into balance by shooting at either dawn or dusk, when the two

light sources balance out. (If there’s on-street parking in front of your

shop, dawn is probably best).

There’s a short time period, as brief as 15 minutes or so, in which the

early-morning sunlight and your interior lights balance perfectly, with the

interior lights creating a warm, welcoming glow, contrasting with the

cooler exterior lighting. And no shadows.

The photo above was taken right at the moment of local sunrise, but the time may vary, depending on your store’s lighting, its position in relation to the sun and the weather. Experiment. Start shooting about 10 minutes before sunrise and take photos at regular intervals until reflections start to

obscure the windows. Then choose the best.

Since your eye adapts to the light, the scene won’t necessarily seem to

change much. But the camera is more literal. You’ll see the difference on

the camera’s LCD screen.

A tripod and the camera’s self-timer will help steady the camera, but but

if you don’t have one handy, it isn’t absolutely essential. Hold the camera

steady and, ideally, find something to brace it against.”

A number of the stores shown on my Pinterest board called Shops and Shopkeepers use this photo technique to great effect. If you follow Peter’s excellent advice and get a great shot of your store, please send it to me (at [email protected]) so I can add it to that gallery of inspiring images!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder