To share all of our successes, tell us your best photography tip!
Mine is practice! I just keep working to find the sweet spot with lighting, settings on my camera, and tweaking photos on the computer.
I use my iphone and play with it and the items I use for props and the lighting, etc. sometimes quite a bit in order to get photos to be crisp and the items to be as clear as possible.
So, a little time invested makes better pics!
I see a lot of photos on Etsy that look too bright and too far away. Even when you click on them they are so small you cannot tell what the item really looks like.
A lot of people use those sites or companies to "touch up" photos but to me they look fake, no depth, and a lot are too bright white.
Natural looking photos are best to catch someone's eye.
The white backgrounds work for most items but not all and so find a colored background that "pops" your item.
It is true that too busy backgrounds drown out your item.
However, a pretty prop in background looks nice, interesting, and can keep shops from looking too plain and boring!
Think of what you would like to see if in a real shop!
Also, customers like to see that you pay attention to details and put time and thought into your shop!
Terri - nice tip about wearing white when shooting silver items! How many times have I gone thru a whole shoot only to find out my bright red blouse is in every reflection! LOL
Don't rush the photography just to get your listing up for sale. I have been known to wait a day or two to get the right outdoor lighting. I try to be consistent in my pictures. Never use a flash.
Bev, my tip is the same as yours. Practice makes perfect! I also make sure the lighting is right. My Galaxy S5 Cell phone takes better pics then my camera. I also use photo editing Apps on my phone to help perfect the pic.
Natural lighting or a light box is best. No direct sun and don't photograph in a room with deep colored walls! Use manual focus of you have a good camera - it provides a nice center of focus with blurred backgrounds. Best of luck!!
I am not a professional but enjoy taking pictures almost as much as making earrings... Like mentioned in the previous post, indirect natural light is the best environment to take pics. I also love the play between direct light and shadow and how it changes the looks of the item.
Yes, Photoshop or a similar tool is absolutely necessary!
Tips that have been very helpful to me with jewelry photography:
White balance Light box - for me, easier than natural light Tripod Delay timer - no camera movement when you press the shutter Some shot that shows size perspective
For small items we use the Foldio light box. We just added a 24" LED light panel to our kit. great for really directing diffused light. Lightroom. My best tip? If you are thinking of buying an infinity light table, don't do it. It casts a green tone on everything. Much cheaper and better quality to go to photo store and buy a roll of backdrop paper & stands. When or if it gets dirty just tear it off and unroll more.
I agree, the best time of day for me is 3-4pm, indirect light and my canon camera setting at 'sports'. I find this gives me clear crisp shots to make up for any slight movement I make. This helps even when I am using a tripod. Just depressing the camera causes a very slight movement.
One thing is to not go too crazy with Photoshop editing. You want your items to look natural, and it would be a shame to ship something out and have customer feedback that the colors were way off. My first few items suffered because I tweaked the saturation too much, and once it was pointed out to me, I re-edited them and made them look more like real life colors. The other thing is to establish a style with your photos. Try to make them look similar so that when a customer sees one item, and then sees another, they will recognize it as yours from your photography and posing style.
A cloudy day works best for me. And some days I just cannot get a good photo on some items, so I just put them aside till that perfect light day come just for them. i could not photography one silver item for a month and finally the perfect cloud hid the sun and "Wall-la" perfect photo. I have a portable light box in my wish list at amazon, so hopefully soon I may become a little professional.
When i photograph my shiny silver jewelry I wear white, use a white cover for my phone, put the phone/camera completely INSIDE the light box, use the timer and close the front cover of the light box before the timer goes off & snaps the photo. i also wrap the legs of my tripod in something white (a paper towel will do).
This is what I have figured out for my jewelry: Light box (in front of a window) 4 clip on lamps with daylight bulbs Aperture Priority (Av setting on my cannon) Macro on White backgrounds
I agree with Bev, BTW Congrats for the spotlight feature!!
I think my best tip would be practice, practice and practice. I have found that I have improved over time, what I initially thought was great was..........well yuck city in comparison with what I do now. A good combination of the right lighting,angle, camera focus and editing tools, you can do wonders. But it does take practice.
