Photography

[Wirelings]

Photos are possibly the most important thing on Etsy. Photos should show your product in a artful way. People are going to judge you on your photos before they ever set foot in your shop. People with dark, blurry or even uninteresting photos will get passed over. This isn't eBay. People aren't looking for the best prices on products they already know and want. They're looking for quality and photos that look cheap will make your products look cheap.

And don't just fix your display photograph and call it good enough. People actually do scroll through the rest of them.

One of the points of great photography with a white background is to get into treasuries. Treasuries are excellent promotions. I've had several sales on my Wirelings shop from cat themed treasuries.

The problem with white background in photography is that you can go too far and your pictures get stark. The solution to this is two fold:

1. Use a light box. You can make your own out of cardboard using these instructions: www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox These aren't hard and fast instructions. I use a much bigger light box I made out of that foam poster board and two 1000 watt daylight bulbs (those are IMPORTANT) in shop lamps that clamp to the top of the box. Daylight bulbs don't cast yellow light so you spend less time trying to adjust the yellow out of your picture.

2. The best tool (and only tool) I use for photography is GIMP. It's free. Download it here: www.gimp.org/ Once you do the only tabs you need are Colors and File. Colors will help you adjust brightness and contrast. I bump up the contrast to about 40 and the brightness to more or less 35 depending on the picture. I don't usually need to adjust the color but if you're not using daylight bulbs you'll probably need to. Then you use the file tab to save.

There are good tips all around here: blog.etsy.com/en/2013/the-seller-handbook-archive/ and this is where I started learning. Their advice on photography is priceless.

[Former_Member]

Awesome. Thanks for posting this! I need to fix my photos. I have known that... Any tips on just using a phone camera?

[Former_Member]

Here are some tips for all cameras:

Clean the lens. Over time the camera lens can collect lint (and fingerprints) and create a blurred image. Just give it a good wipe with a clean cloth. And check for scratches while your at it. If you do have scratches scrap the idea of photos. You'll have to fit a replacement lens or get a new camera.

Avoid subjects in low light, at least if you want them to be consistently lit. The small sensors in camera phones cannot run at high ISO speeds (i.e. high sensitivity to light, permitting indoor photos without a flash) without introducing large amounts of noise. In most circumstances, this precludes indoor photos other than in the best-lit places.

Avoid bright reflections, and other "hot-spots". This will either force the camera to under-expose the rest of the shot, or cause the camera to blow out the highlights on the brightest parts of the shot. The latter is worse, since it is sometimes possible to extract details from parts of the image that are too dark, but impossible to recover blown highlights (since there is no detail therein to extract). On the other hand, this can be used to artistic ends, such as with bright light streaming through a window. People pictures will look best in diffuse lighting such as open shade, under a cloudy sky, or in bright artificial light. Try to include bright colors, which will show up well, rather than a range of light and dark areas (which will both lose detail).

Set your phone to its highest picture quality and resolution. You might end up taking a shot that someone may want to publish in a magazine or a blog; you won't be able to do this if you only have a low-resolution version of the photo.

Turn off picture frames. A normally great shot may be ruined by a cheesy frame or background. Halos are something that I particularly don't like. But to each their own.

Turn off any other effects. These include black-and-white, sepia tones, inverted colors, and so on. These aren't as necessarily as cheesy-looking as frames and have their place; nonetheless, these things are much better done in photo editing software later on than on board the phone. People on Etsy don't want to look at a vintage vase in sepia. how will they know what color it actually is?

Set the white balance, if your phone supports it. The human eye usually adjusts for lighting, and so white appears white in any kind of lighting. A camera, however, will see that a given subject is redder than normal under normal incandescent household lighting. Better camera phones will give you the option to adjust the camera for this. If you have such an option, use it. If you're not sure what setting to use, experiment.

Use your flash judiciously. If you find yourself using a flash because your whole scene is insufficiently lit, you're probably taking photographs indoors in poor light. Don't do this, and go back to the first step; a scene lit entirely by your flash will look un-natural, since on a camera phone it is not typically possible to aim the flash anything but directly ahead (i.e. you can't bounce it off ceilings or walls, as with dedicated flash guns for SLR cameras). On the other hand, a flash is a good option for filling in shadows in harsh sunlight. I've found that flash is never acceptable and you shouldn't need one in a light box

Frame your shot. Make sure that everything you want in the shot is in the picture, and ready to be captured. Some phones show the entire viewfinder, meaning that what is on the screen is exactly what will be captured in the image. Other phones, however, only show what is in the middle of the image, but will capture more than the viewfinder shows. Err on the side of putting too much empty space into your picture; you can always crop it later.

Take several pictures. You might only take one photo of each view to save time only to find that they're blurry. And putting everything back up takes more time than if you just took some extra shots.

Turn on macro if you have it. (The icon is a little flower.) Close up shots, esp. jewelry always look better in macro mode. Don't have this mode? Set your phone to auto and let it focus.

Zoom it in. If you're taking photos in a light box and lean in you're going to get an unsightly shadow that's impossible to get rid of. (This plagues me.)

Take the glass out of picture frames. It helps get rid of those glare spots.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to post more later.

Hope this helps -Michelle

[Former_Member]

This is extremely helpful. My question is : what are the requirements for a camera. Do smart phone cameras work or we need something better?

[Wirelings]

Smart phone cameras absolutely work. I take all my pictures with my iPhone 5s now. However, if you're using a phone that has less than 6 megapixels you'll probably want to upgrade. When I need more than 8 megapixels I have a camera that I bought at the Goodwill thrift store that has 12 (it was only $10). More megapixels doesn't necessarily mean better. The more megapixels you have the longer it will take your photos to load and not everyone has fast internet (some people still use dial-up!).

Use good judgement. If you can't get the shot you want because your cell camera doesn't have macro or the lens is scratched etc. don't use it. But, you don't need to spend a fortune for a camera either.

[Former_Member]

Thank you. this helps a lot.

[Former_Member]

Another tip. If you don't want to use a white background because your art is too pale then don't! Just use the same background for everything. There should be a unified theme when one looks at your shop. If you have one light item but the rest are dark then use a rock/flower/etc. as a prop to rest your piece on and keep the same background as always.

Want to stand out by not using white? No problem! Try to stay away from black. Black backgrounds rarely get featured in treasuries. Instead use the lightest shade of grey you can get away with. Stick with neutrals: grey, white and brown for your backgrounds. Nothing is more frustrating then when someone has a great item to feature in your pink treasury but they used a green background.

You can also use patterned backgrounds to your advantage. If your items are large or plain or your just good at mixing patterns don't let me stifle you. A lot of people use sun bleached wood as wonderful backgrounds. Just make sure your item stands out from the background. A black cup on some sun bleached floorboards isn't going to stand out if those floorboards have large gaps/shadows in them.

PLEASE just stick with neutrals. I can't stress the importance of that enough.

[Former_Member]

How do I get the pictures I post on Etsy to show up right side up and not side ways? I take the pictures with my IPhone and when I take them they are right side up, but when I download them to Etsy they come out sideways. How do I get them to come out right side up when I download them on Etsy?

[Former_Member]

Awesome information!

[Wirelings]

If your pictures are coming out sideways or upside down you need to download them to your computer before you post them on Etsy. If you have a PC with Windows 7 you can download them to the desktop and right click on them and rotate them until they're right side up. You can also open them in paint or another program and rotate them that way. Take the picture off your desktop or the saved picture from the program and upload that to Etsy.

[Former_Member]

I keep coming back here to reread all of these awesome tips, still can't bring myself to photograph using white backgrounds over color. That would take all the fun out of photographing!

[WesanyCrafts]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/248523846/leather-pearl-necklace-brown-genuine

[Former_Member]

Yesterday I hired a model, well did a free hair cut for her services:). We did some photos inside by white wall, but really liked the outside ones so much better. Any opinions?

[Former_Member]

Although I love the way the photos look when taken outside, I find it limits the time I can actually shoot them. The good light (bright, but not too bright; not too many shadows, etc) only lasts a short time each day. Using a light box indoors with artificial light gives more consistent results and you can shoot photos at any time.

[Former_Member]

The best investment I have made so far was for this tabletop studio.

http://www.amazon.com/MyStudio-Professional-Tabletop-Continuous-Photography/dp/B0015450T6/ref=sr_1_1...

The instructions, videos, expert assistance has been priceless in helping me take better pictures - by far I still have more to learn but I feel this item has really helped me and the expertise by the manufacture has been priceless. Their knowledge and expertise is priceless.

It is pricey and it took me a whole year to be ready for this type of investment. But if you are able I highly recommend it.

I admit I am a terrible photographer -- I even taking pictures of my kids on my phone. Since receiving this tabletop studio, my editing time has been cut in 1/2. I have learned so much about lighting, white balance, iso, etc from the manufacture who provides excellent instructions, videos, and phone assistance when needed.

In a short amount of time I feel my ability to pictures of my products has been 10 fold.

HIghly recommend to anyone looking to take their product photography to the next level.

[Former_Member]

Marked this page to hopefully fix my awful photos!!!

[Former_Member]

The awesome power of my cameras Macro setting!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/240638647/feel-free-to-copy-and-use-these-art?ref=listings_manager_grid

Thank you for visiting my little shop and for clicking my heart!

[Former_Member]

hi guys

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[Former_Member]

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