How to Make Your Bed Look Like a Magazine Cover

Good bedding products combined with effective photography can make your products more popular in the market. In today's digital age, capturing attention and generating traffic means more business opportunities.

It's not just about having the most luxurious bedding or the trendiest accessories; it's about presenting your bed products in an appealing, clear, and visually attractive way. The question is, how to do it? As someone with over three years of experience in graphic design and the bedding industry, I can offer you some practical advice. Follow this step-by-step guide for beginners to make your bed look perfect, just like a magazine cover.

Step 1: Find Suitable References and Analyze Them

The first and most crucial step is to visualize what you want your bedding arrangement to look like in the end and then find corresponding references. Typically, we use well-known brands' arrangements as references, analyzing them in terms of color scheme, composition, lighting, and bedroom accessories. Let's take one of Pottery Barn's styles as an example.

By closely observing these three photos, we can draw the following conclusions:

Color Scheme: The colors are harmonious and unified, with the furniture in the photos mostly within the same color palette, dominated by whites, grays, and browns, and not very bright (low saturation).

Composition: The shooting angle is the front of the bed, near the window of the bedroom, and the photo includes two nightstands. It's important to note that the photo should have a sofa or curtains to break the overly symmetrical feel of the front view and avoid the photo looking stiff.

Lighting: The main light source is near the window, with soft lighting (it's worth noting that such photos are usually not taken in actual bedrooms but in photo studios, so the window may not be natural lighting but rather lighting from photography lights). There may also be other secondary light sources in the photo.

Bedroom Accessories:

The furniture in the photos is mostly solid colors but full of texture. For example, the nightstands and bed frame are solid colors but have obvious wood grain, and the carpet and sofa roughly appear to be the same color but can also show texture upon closer inspection. The same goes for the bedding.

The nightstand, as the second area to attract attention besides the bed, needs decorative items to draw the viewer's gaze and keep them engaged for longer, such as plants, books, photos on the wall, bowls and cups, candles, etc. It's important to note that there should be spacing between the decor items, dont put them too close.

Step 2: Analyze Our Existing Resources

Generally speaking, due to limitations in funds and space, it's difficult for us to perfectly imitate the feel of a brand. But don't worry, let's start easy and try to imitate. According to the order of ease from color scheme, bedroom accessories, composition, and lighting, conduct a first analysis of our existing resources and summarize what we can and cannot do.

Color Scheme: Taking the above references as a goal, we need to keep the furniture mainly in whites, grays, and browns, not very bright (low saturation). Can we currently own or purchase most of the similar furniture?

Bedroom Accessories: We need solid-colored and textured furniture, and the floors and walls cannot be fancy. Do the floors and walls of our shooting location meet the requirements? If not, do we have carpets or wallpapers to cover them?

Composition: Now try placing the camera or phone in the position where the camera in the reference photo might be and see if you can capture the same feel (often commercial photographers use cameras positioned far away, so to capture the same composition, we need to ensure our shooting location also has enough space).

Lighting: This is the hardest step to replicate the reference photo. In short, try multiple times, such as opening the curtains and turning on the bedroom lights, to see if you can achieve a similar feel. If not, consider purchasing photography lights (lighting issues are quite complex and can be initially learned from YouTube videos). Or, more practically, let's move to the next step and choose a new reference photo.

Step 3: Find New Reference Photos Based on Our Resources (Optional)

After practical attempts, we will have a deep understanding of our existing resources. For example, the walls and floors of the shooting location may not suit the style of the reference photo, and there may be no carpets or wallpapers, or there may be no readily available bedding and furniture that meet the requirements. Of course, the more common situation is not having a suitable shooting venue and being unable to replicate lighting conditions. Don't be discouraged, as we've already made progress. After the previous attempts, we have a preliminary impression of what kind of reference photos might be more suitable for us.

Since everyone's shooting conditions are different, I provide some easier-to-achieve reference directions:

• The composition of the shoot should preferably be partial, so there are fewer things to consider, such as venue and accessories.
• If acceptable, the light source in the reference photo should preferably be obvious and simple.
• Find ways to compensate for inadequate shooting conditions in post-production.

Here are some reference photo ideas I found on Pinterest that are easier to achieve in terms of shooting:

• This type of photo focuses on decorative items, reducing the reliance on environmental arrangement.

• Photograph stacked pillows, which are convenient for post-processing in Photoshop later.

• Photograph close-ups of the bedding and add text later to imitate the feel of a magazine.

Step 4: Try Multiple Times and Summarize

Although this part sounds simple, it's not easy to do. It roughly falls into the following three steps:

1. Try several arrangements for the bedding.
2. Compare with the reference photos and summarize the advantages and disadvantages (it's best to write them down in a notebook or on a computer).
3. Go back to step one or find new references.

It's important to note that after finding a suitable reference style, it's best to try it multiple times before moving to the next reference style. This can avoid wasting too much time in aimless attempts.

Additional Suggestions

To make your bed look like a magazine cover, it's basically three steps: Find references, Try, and Summarize. To make your attempt smoother, I'll give you some of my own experiences next.

• A portable photography light can save you a lot of effort, and generally, adjustable color temperature LED lights can be very helpful (preferably battery-powered; believe me, it will be very useful if you engage in photography long-term).
• Learning to use Photoshop is really important; remember to keep the raw data of the photos for easy color adjustment in post-production.
• Use Pinterest to find reference photos instead of Google, as Pinterest is better at finding images.
• Find bedding photos you like on Instagram and follow bloggers you enjoy to make finding references fun.
• If it's a hobby, enjoy the process, but from a commercial standpoint, consider using the supplier's photos directly, as the time and money required for shooting are indeed significant.

About Pingio Home