Product Photography

I am at last getting back into things after moving Down Under.

As I have been spending a lot of time recently researching and learning about the art of Taking Good Photos of my Glass Beads and Jewellery I thought it only fair to share the resources and tips I have found so far. 

There are many valuable Resources for product photography on www.etsy.com.

 

In particular take a look at www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/etsy-success-sydney/ where you will find a recording dedicated to Product Styling and Photography.

 

I also love www.beadphotography.com which gives great tips for shooting glass beads.

Things that have worked for me so far

Marco mode (the flower on your camera) – before I discovered this I couldn’t even take a photo of my jewellery!

Light – This seems to be the most important (and difficult thing to get right).

I have found that making sure the main light source is behind the item I am trying to shoot does help.

Use Natural Light – either early morning or late afternoon. This must be Diffused with something like tissue paper to keep the lighting soft and reduce harsh shadows.

Backgrounds – I have tried to use interesting backgrounds that compliment / contrast my work.

My conclusion is that as soon as I upload them to Etsy or similar, however interesting they might seem, they are merely an unnecessary distraction.

 

White seems to generally work best.

I have tried using a Book to help to give the viewer an idea of size. This does seem to be effective – I just have to watch what words are in the picture!

Partial Product Shots – you know the ones in the thumbnails on Etsy that only show you a part of the product …… but oh how they entice you to click on the picture to see more.

 

 Focus – Maybe this is just me, but I love those photos which show part of the product or the background out of focus. This gives a sense of interest and depth.

 

Using a Larger Aperture (such as f stop 2.0) and considering where the camera is focussed seems to be helping me with this one.

Use a Tripod (the cheapest I could find) and the Self Timer on my camera. This has helped to reduce camera shake and hence unwanted fuzzy pictures.

Photo Editing – another art that I have yet to fully master. GIMP (free to download at http://www.gimp.org/) has probably all the features I am ever going to need.

I always Crop my photos to ensure the viewer can focus on the product and not have to hunt for it with lots of unnecessary background.

I also tend to Adjust the Brightness, contrast and Colours to ensure the picture is as clear and accurate as possible and will stand out from the crowd in a page of thumbnail search results.

The final and most important question is however much you love your photos ask yourself the question….

Yes, but Would You Buy It?….

Thank you for reading. I would love to know what works for you.