Hi, I'm going to act as a mentor because of my other shops: www.wirelings.etsy.com and www.michellesantiquities.etsy.com I don't have any sales on this shop yet but I love helping people. :)
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.
Here are some examples:
Not as good photo:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/150347767/4-large-wine-glass-set-hand-painted-in?ref=tre-2726047406-1Better photo:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/77474496/peacock-wine-glasses-set-of-2-hand?ref=sr_gallery_4&ga_search_...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:
http://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:
http://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.
I used to use one of those websites that adjusted everything for me. That worked fine for Wirelings because they are just pieces of wire. Not so great on vintage items. I wanted something softer that looked more natural. I'll never go back. This method, although far more time consuming, produces the best photos I've ever had.
There are good tips all around here:
https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/the-seller-handbook-archive/ and this is where I started learning. Their advice on photography is priceless.
If you want advice on your photos I'll be happy to help. Just message me. Also, any advice on my shop would be greatly appreciated. :)
