Improving Photography

[Former_Member]

Hi All
I know how important photography is to selling online. How did you all get better at it? Did you just learn by doing? Take a class? Online tutorials?

Thanks a bunch!
Deanna

[Former_Member]

Use at least 2 nice white lights to help reduce shadows. I like the Ott lights. The more you practice taking photos, the more you will learn about photography and get better at it. Also get a decent camera that allows you to change flash settings and set the auto-white balance. I always turn the flash off, but then I have to have alternate sources of light. Always keep the background uncluttered.

[happywrap]

Hi Deanna,

I learnt from reading lots of advice in forums and blogs about it, (do a google search for product photography tips) and then trying things out. It takes time and perseverance. I just kept tweaking things and testing out the advice and suggestions. It's an ongoing journey and there's always more to learn when it comes to photography!

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much for the responses. I did purchase some lights so I hope that helps. I researched some product photography tips tonight so tomorrow I'm planning on taking some new pictures for my shop. This is all a steep learning curve :D

[Former_Member]

Practice, practice, practice.

[MarleyMylesArt]

Hi Deanna, I need to improve my photos - time has been my main challenge - making the time to really get them done! But it's one of my goals and I know I can keep improving them. I tried to use as much natural light as possible, which is better at different times of the day depending on where you are shooting. I have also found using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom really helps to tweak images - it's very simple to use and you can correct white balances in your photos etc. in batches to save time :)

[nonamewoman]

I have learned a lot just by looking at others sellers pictures :)

[LinenSpace]

I practice a lot, make lots of shots in different lighting, different angles, on different backgrounds. I also use editorial soft - mainly PhotoScape, sometimes GIMP. And yes, I agree with Renata - other sellers' pictures can give valuable lesssons.

[VonnesHandmadez]

I uses Pic Monkey to edit my photos.
Currently learning to use FotoFuze to enchance them.

Both applications are free and easy to use.

[maydaylabels]

For your items, it is less about staging and more about getting the color right (that is, making the photo look true to the item). That necessitates a lot of natural light. It will also be easier to edit the photos to the true colors if you have a gray card or white card in the photo before you crop it - then you can edit the neutral tone to match the gray or white, and it should bring the rest of the colors more closely in line.

[ManmadeKnitting]

I love taking photos but when it comes to products shots, I seem hopeless at it. I think it takes time to get it right, I did buy a light box to help although I do need better lighting.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the additional responses. I will have to check into the gray card or white card for sure. I agree that getting my lighting right is the most important part of my shop.

[Former_Member]

Practicing almost daily made me improve my photography skills. I do struggle sometimes since I still don't own a studio but I'm happy with my latest photographs.

[KiltedWoman]

I contacted a couple etsy sellers I admired and asked for help. One taught me about photo editing and the other told me to use indirect natural light. Since Fall this has been a problem since I work nights and never see the sun!

My photos are still too dark on some monitors but much better than when I first started.

[Former_Member]

Depends a lot of what do you sell, and how real the colors need to be. I used all possible programs fotofuzze, picasa, and so, butnsomething always was missing. Finally I go to a point where Imput some money on the side and bought a nice camera, and the differnce is huge even the worse pictures look better than what I had before, beter colors, better focus. I have notmput my new photos yet, so you can see, but my advice to you is get a good camera as soon as you can afford it. A lot of places offer 90 days return, so if you dont see difference you can return it!

[tinoiseau]

I've been working on my photos recently and I can already tell a difference in my views and favorites. I've got a small table next to a window that gets indirect light in the morning and afternoon, so I set up little vignettes there and so batches of product photos. I started with my holiday items, so I used holly branches and pine cones as my props. I took all of the "propped" photos one after another, then took photos of my items alone on the table. I still took multiples of each shot, and tweaked things slightly, but it really didn't take long at all.

I edit them slightly (mostly brighten and bump up the contrast), then save them on Dropbox so I can upload them from wherever I am. This also makes it easy to upload the photos to Instagram, which automatically posts them to my FB and Twitter. Hope this helps!

[GreenMarthaBoutique]

Lots of natural light, a reflector (big piece of white cardboard) or two, lots of practice and a little bit of staging. Try to get the colors right directly rather than post-editing them. Learn to work with your camera to get the best possible results, you'll spend much less time editing.