Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Photographing for Etsy

I’ll admit it, photography is not my strong point, as much as I would love it to be. I use an 8MP Canon PowerShot A590IS, which is still just a point-and-shoot but probably capable of taking much better pictures than I manage to produce. I've made my own (budget) lightbox using instructions I found on the internet, and I recently bought some clip-on work lamps and daylight bulbs, which have helped somewhat. Here are some pictures of my current set-up for photographing my jewelry for Etsy…






Yep, those are indeed my running shoes that the lamps are clipped on to...

Some of the photos on Etsy are PHENOMENAL.  Check out Sea Unicorn for an example for this (ok, so she's a professional photographer as well as a jewelry maker...)  Most sellers on Etsy work really hard to take the best possible photographs of their items.  As well as trying to help potential buyers get a feel for their items through the computer screen, the prime way to get into Treasuries and onto the all-important Etsy homepage is through excellent photography.  Mine is certainly a work in progress.

6 comments:

  1. i thought your photos were just FINE.
    so FINE in fact that, that is why i am wearing your necklace RIGHT THIS MINUTE.
    good luck with your new project.
    c

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  2. You are very sweet Chrissy ;) My photos have definitely improved with time, I want to take them to AWESOME eventually though. Someone on the Etsy forums called them "great" the other day, so I guess I'm heading in the right direction at least! :D

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  3. Awesome idea! You're so clever! The running shoes are a nice touch :p

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  4. Ha thanks Emily! The shoes happen to be just the right height for clipping the lamps on to ;)

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  5. Thanks for posting this for our e-course!!! I too have seen something similar on the internet, but I couldn't find my reference. You've made my day - because now I have your instructions!!!

    Sending a smile, Chris

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  6. Thanks Chris! Sorry the instructions aren't spelled out in this post, but you can pretty much see from the pictures that it's just a cardboard box with windows cut out in the sides and top, white paper tissue, and white card for the background. The lamps and daylight bulbs I got from Home Depot. That setup, the macro setting on my camera, and a mini-tripod to steady things are what's getting me through!

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