Make Your Product Photos AWESOME!

Ok, a customer is searching for that perfect gift and your item is one of the many items their search query found.  Now how do you get them to actually click on YOUR listing instead of so and so's who sells something similar?  With an awesome photo of course!  Now, I may be an artist and have a degree and all that jazz but I am not a professional photographer, I don't even know how to use Photoshop (gasp!).  The good news is that you really don't need to either, you don't even need a $600+ fancy pantsy camera.  A simple point and shoot digital camera with 7MP or more will do just fine.  I am partial to Canon cameras and they're pretty inexpensive, packed with cool features and super trustworthy.  I have a Canon PowerShot SX100IS with 8.1MP and it cost me about $200 several years ago, the newest model is of course better and is pretty close to the same price I paid. Enough about that though, first make sure to dust off your camera's manual and brush up on what all those buttons actually do, it's always easier when you're completely comfortable with your equipment.

Now that you and your camera are now friends we can talk about lighting.  You can set up a lightbox or use natural lighting.  I always prefer natural lighting because it is, well, natural.  You can check out this handy DIY tutorial on how to make your own lightbox if you prefer, or buy one.  The only downside with natural light is you are at the mercy of mother nature.  She doesn't always cooperate.  You don't need to be outside, all you need is a sunny window or at least bright, indirect sunlight.  I use a little cubby box shelf system in my daughter's room which has a south facing window.  I get the best lighting in mid to late afternoon depending on the time of year; a little earlier in winter, later in summer.  A little trial and error will tell you what's the best time of day for your particular situation.  There shouldn't be any jagged shadows or harsh direct sunlight in your photo.  The same goes for shooting outdoors, aim for mid morning or early evening if outdoors so you're shooting in indirect sunlight.  Change your position to the sun if shadows are taking over your photo.  Your lighting should be bright enough that you don't need to use a flash.  Flash is fine for snapshots, bad for product photos!

A leaf dish that I use as my photo prop.  It fits the earthy theme of my items.

You are more than welcome to use photo props but they shouldn't take away from your item, they should be neutral along with your background.  Examples would be a neutral colored cloth like linen, a jewelry bust if for photos of jewelry, a muted color plate or mug, sand, light colored wood (your deck or side table perhaps), or even a sheet of white paper.  Try different things till you find what you like, just make sure your item takes center stage!  The key is to be consistent however in the use of your props so that your shop photos harmonize as a whole.  It'd look a little chaotic if say one item has a bright blue background, another has a green cup, and another has driftwood.   Also, have a little fun with creative angles and don't forget a close up shot if it's applicable to your product! 

Example of a BAD photo prop.  Too busy and it takes away from the item.

Too dark

Better

Now you have photos, what to do with them now?  Most cameras and computers come with basic photo editing software of some kind.  I personally use Windows Live Photo Gallery to make all my initial alterations.  If you have a PC and don't have this great tool, get it, it's free.  Again, I'm NOT a professional, if you know how and would prefer to use Photoshop by all means do so!  All I ever tweak is brightness and color temperature (this may or may not be an option in some editing software, it changes the warmth, red, or coolness, blue, of a photo, it may be listed as "tint" and let you mess with the red, blue and green in a photo).

Before Fotofuze.  It's acceptable.

Once I have my photos through their first round of tweaks I have one more trick up my sleeve to get the crisp white (or black if you prefer) backgrounds that look like I paid a lot for software and have a general sense of what the heck I'm doing.  I use this super awesome FREE online photo enhancer, Fotofuze.  You can link up your Etsy shop to it and it will import all your listings for you!  It's easy to use, just watch the little video that pops up and you're ready to start fuzing!

After Fotofuze!  Awesome!

This is just what I do for my own shop.  Everyone has different needs and there's lots of advice out there!   Below is a quick link list of great articles and blog posts loaded with additional tips!  You can also check out my shop for more examples of how I use my photo prop, angles, close ups etc.

Etsy's Guide to Photograghy - basically everything you ever needed to know all in one spot!
Photography Lesson's I've Learned - a quick tip resource from Handmadeology
Time Saving Product Photography Tips - Some creative ideas for good shots from Handmadeology
The 5-C's of Photo Styling - Great tips on getting professional looking photos in no time

The 365 Project: Weeks Nine and Ten

I have some catching up to do on here!  Week nine at Picaboo was about finding light and understanding exposure.  I also had the above photo featured in Picaboo's blog as well!  I've been getting featured quite a bit, yay happy dance!

I'm not going to get all technical on you but understanding how to adjust the lighting on your camera is a good thing.  You can go all manual and adjust your ISO, aperture, shutter priority, etc if you please but although I'm not an "auto" kind of person I don't feel the need to fiddle with every setting either.  The easiest way to adjust lighting is with that little +/- button on your camera.  The + side of the meter on your camera's display will lighten and the - side will darken.  Easy enough right?  You'll want to pick a setting that has a good balance of light without being overly shadowed or so bright it loses detail.  

I had fun with this week's pictures!  The one on the very top is my favorite photo prop for my Etsy shop listings.  I also took a shot of some scrapbooking stamps, some basil seedlings in my window, doves on a telephone wire and an air plant on some river rocks.  Once I figured out how much that light meter can help you out if it's set accordingly, things got so much easier!  Why hadn't I messed with it sooner?   We got a ton of snow that week, so I had to get a shot of the heavy snow on the spruce trees behind my house and also of my dracanea plant with the morning light filtering through.

Latte anyone?

For week ten the theme was shapes and the challenge was picking a lens.  My Canon isn't the kind with interchangeable lenses so I skipped that part.  Again, I got a photo (the one above of the coffee cup) featured in Picaboo's blog!  Another happy dance!

This week wasn't too hard either since shapes are everywhere!  The hard part is narrowing them down!  Kaylie helped me a few times too with her orange star sunglasses and her triangle crayons.  The shiva shell slice beads were a wonderful swirly shape and the black and white of the jars I admit I took several years ago at an abandoned house, but it has lots going on there!

The apple was a great curved shot and of course I totally love macro!  For my last photo I purposely over brightened to capture the linear shapes of Zoe's whiskers in the light.  She's such a good photo subject :)

Of course I can't forget to show you some treasuries!  Here's a few of the most recent:

I'm Happy I Broke My Old Photo Prop Because....

I absolutely LOVE my new one!  Tragedy struck when setting up for a jewelry party.  I had my green glass leaf wrapped in a tablecloth ironically to keep it from getting broken.  I forgot it was in there and CRASH, a million green slivers flew across the floor!  I was mad of course for my own forgetfulness but had that not happened, I'd of never found these beauties in Sumiko's Etsy shop! She sells out of California and makes the most GORGEOUS nature inspired ceramics, I want them all!  Check out the pretty 2-piece antique blue hydrangea ceramic leaves I just got in the mail today from her!