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Confessions Of An Amateur Photographer by Ellen of VeroBeachGal
A few years ago I bought my first digital camera, a Kodak EasyShare M1063. Yes, I bought it way after digital came out, but you don’t fix what isn’t broke, and I loved my Olympus old school camera with film you have to load (for those of you born after 1997). Lighting, placement of the sun vs. subject, artistic impression, those thoughts never occurred to me when taking pictures. I got people in a group – snap. I saw a pretty flower – snap. Gorgeous sunset – snap. You get the idea.
Now I have a shop on Etsy and all of a sudden, I have to turn myself into a professional photographer? Aaaagh! There seems to be so much pressure to make sure what you’re selling looks terrific. Obviously, you want to sell what you’re advertising. But if you take great pictures, you could get featured in a treasury, which could in turn, make it to the home page of Etsy, which is great exposure, which could mean sales! Yay!
As a non-professional photographer, my advice is to keep it simple. For most items, a white backdrop works best. Take a look at Etsy’s home page and it’ll give you a good example of terrific photos. Determine what you want to sell and take a look online and see how others have photographed them. For me, I sell shells I’ve collected for people who like to craft with them. I also sell coastal décor items I’ve made myself. I’ll give you a couple of good examples and a couple of bad examples of what I’ve done.
First the bad example. In the photo below, I took this picture during the middle of the day on my patio table with the umbrella open for shade. It made everything look yellow. I need to reshoot these shells and repost the listing.
In the next example, I made the photo look too busy and detracted from the item I was trying to sell, in this case a shell necklace. I have a lot of beautiful plants and flowers in my garden and went wild with my artistic license. Remember, less is more. Use a simple background and maybe one prop to make things visually interesting.
Since I sell shells and live in Florida, I wanted a tropical feel to my photos and not just a white background. Therefore, I use a beachgrass mat as my background and either a pretty shell, a hibiscus flower or an interesting beach stone as my backdrop. I have learned that taking photos in the morning or late afternoon yields the best results in terms of natural light. If you take pictures indoors, try using some strong lamps pointed at the subject because the flash on the camera can cause an ugly glare. It can also make the colors of the item look different. That’s not what you want if you’re selling jewelry or clothing.
In this picture, I got up nice and close so buyers can really see what I am selling. I also make sure I take at least 3-5 pictures, from all different angles, and post them in the listing. The more the buyer can see what it is you’re selling, the more comfortable they’ll feel about their purchase.
Not only are close ups important to show the detail in what you are selling, but a good overall shot is important too. Also depending on what you’re selling, adding a ruler or a quarter to show size reference is strongly advised. Here I used my beach mat as the backdrop along with a gardenia for interest. I added a quarter to show the relative size of the shells.
As I continue selling on Etsy and adding listings, which means more impromptu photography lessons for me, I’ll be happy to share my mistakes and triumphs in the hope I can save you time and aggravation as you photograph all of your wonderful creations!
