How To Photograph Your Items

Etsy Holiday How-To #4: Photographing your items

Add to My Profile | More Videos

This video, put on by the wonderful folks at Etsy Labs, covers some basics for taking excellent photos of your products. You can't sell very well if people can't see what it is you are selling!! Remember, when people are searching for an item, they have a lot of photos to look at before they click on "the one", if your item is perfect, but doesn't stand out amongst the other pictures, then it will easily fade into the background.

I had an Etsy Labs shop critique done (yes, I got very lucky that day!), and the tips they gave me for my photos were to:

1. DO NOT USE FLASH!!! It is e.v.i.l. Use natural sunlight as much as possible. So I did that, and it was too bright. I just used the Quick fix in my very simple free photo editing software to tone it down some. If you need a Lightbox, there are plenty of tutorials to make one, see HERE for a great tutorial.

2. USE A TRIPOD!!! I haven't done this yet, as I have found my tripod, but not the attachment for the camera. But I am getting desperate to have less fuzzy pics, so maybe I will have to tape the camera on!

3. USE THE MACRO SETTING!!! It looks like a flower. Find it. Use it.

4. USE NICE BACKGROUNDS!!! Crop your first thumbnail pic to be close, but for the other 4 features have fun with the backgrounds. Don't lay something on a bed, couch or eeek... the floor! Try different backgrounds like a distressed book cover, or tea stained journal pages, simple cardstock in pretty colors, pose it with a figurine or plant. Don't have a lightswitch or outlet in the background if you are taking a modeled shot against the wall. Have fun, take lots of angles and experiment!

5. Photoshop is nice and expensive!! FREE photoediting software like GIMP and PICASA can do a lot of what Photoshop can. There are lots of Gimp tutorials and Picasa tutorials online to use these programs too.