• Setting up the actual product to get a good representation of it from different angles
• Finding a background that I could easily set up and break down
• Finding the optimal spot in my home to take advantage of natural lighting
• Configuring the camera for the lighting conditions I’m shooting in, and finally to
• Touching up my photos to make them Etsy-ready

That ’s a lot of different factors to tinker with, especially since time spent on stuff like this is time is time NOT spent making things that can be sold. Happily, I’ve now worked it out to a relatively pain-free photography workflow that works for almost every product that I currently make. And I think the thing that was the final breakthrough for me was using Google’s free photo organizing and editing tool, Picasa3, to prep my photos for final upload to Etsy.

If you like this before and after photo, then read on to see how you too can easily transform your poorly lit, in-need-of-cropping and otherwise dull product photos into ones that are, hopefully, much more pleasing to your prospective customer’s eye!

I’ll just assume that you either have and know the basics about importing photos into Picasa3, or will follow this link to download Picasa3 and then go through the relatively easy instructions on how to use it. Although I have and know the basics of how to use Adobe Photoshop, I use Picasa3 because it’s a lighter application that doesn’t bring my laptop speed to a miserable crawl, and it’s so quick and easy to use.

I put together a crude, soundless video (because sadly those are the only kinds of videos I know how to make) showing me using a mere five features in Picasa to transform the before photo above, into the after photo below it. Here it is, for better or for worse, followed by a written summary of what I did.

The Process
Note: I use a digital camera that allows me to set the custom white balance on it.

Not shown in the video:

• Set the custom white balance on the camera.
• Positioned product in same lighting that custom white balance was set for, and snapped away.
• Imported my photos into Picasa3, creating a new folder for the product.

Shown in the video:

1. Double-clicked to select a photo to work with.
2. Used the Crop tool in the Basic Fixes tab. I chose to keep the dimensions of the photo the same proportions as the original photo, but for Etsy you could also consider cropping the photo square.
3. Went to the Tuning tab, and used the sliders to adjust:
   • Highlights – amplifies bright spots
   • Fill Light – adds foreground light to balance photos with dark backgrounds
   • Shadows – provides additional depth or contrast by darkening shadows
4. Used the Zoom tool to take a closer look at the photo details, and repeated step 3 for more fine tuning. For me, it helps to have the actual product sitting next to me so I can make sure the colors I’m editing to are as accurate as possible, at least on my own monitor.
5. Exported the photo, making both the photo and file size smaller for web use AND adding an “eleen.com” watermark. I export my photos as 800 x 600, which makes them big enough for Etsy buyers and blog readers to take a close look at the detail of the product but small enough to make them load more quickly. The non-exported file was 4.7mb, whereas the exported file is a mere 62kb.

Other features I regularly use:

I’d say that all the other features in Picasa3 are just as easy to use as the ones above and are worth playing with to make your photo the best that it can be (without using a more high-powered tool and/or spending too much more time). Some other features I regularly use on my photos are Straighten, Sharpen and, if there’s a speck of lint I overlooked, Retouch.

That’s about it! Except maybe that I highly recommend learning Picasa’s keyboard shortcuts to help you quickly scan through and select the subset of photos you want to work with, delete the ones you don’t and move through your keepers.

More Info

For other great posts on improving product photos for your Etsy or other online shop or portfolio:

• These first two really set me off in the right direction when I first set out to work on my product photography
  • Shoot to Sell: Taking Better Photos for eBay, Etsy & Instructables by Photojojo
    
  • Photographing for Success by Etsy

• And here are some great tips from my fellow Full Time Etsy Crafters street team members!
  • A slew of tips from Mu-Yin Jewelry
  • How Do I Take My Product Photos? A Tutorial.

One of my goals this year is to bump the quality of my photos up another notch, so I would looooove to hear pointers about techniques that any of you might be using to make your photos look good too!Similar Posts:

• Figuring out how to get better product shots
• Magnetic cuteness from Button Arcade
• Promote your Etsy shop on Facebook

You cannot run, Chapstick! Resistance is futile!

Our photo shoot this morning got a little out of control when my latest creation, the Sweetheart Kisslock Frame Pouch, tried to put the lights out on props model Chapstick.

I mean, sometimes we start these shoots so early that some of us don’t get a chance for breakfast. So in some ways I can understand what drove this behavior. But on the other hand, this is a professional environment and inwardly I was quite shocked. I barely had enough time to grab Chapstick out of harm’s way before that kisslock frame came chomping down. Luckily Sweetheart Kisslock Frame Pouch was not quite angled directly towards its intended prey, otherwise it would have been “Sayonara, Chapstick!” Phew!

Well, I better take these guys downstairs for some refreshments. Don’t worry, I’ll keep them separated.Similar Posts:

• Pouches – not just for kangaroos
• A zippered card pouch phone case…wallet
• Custom made thank you gifts for bridesmaids

While they’re definitely far from perfect, I started working more on my own product photos about the beginning of summer this year. My goal was to take better photos at the outset so that I wouldn’t have to spend as much time fussing with the file in Photoshop, since my bag of Photoshop tricks is quite small and the whole experience can be plenty time-consuming and frustrating.

For example, at one time I shot photos against a red towel and used the magic wand in Photoshop to get rid of the background, and after a couple of hours for the set of photos, this is the kind of less-than-stellar result I ended up with:

Ack! The edges are ugly and you can even see a red glow on the fabric. Woops! I used the red towel because I thought that the color contrast would be easier to select using the magic wand in Photoshop, but obviously this was not quite the right approach. I’ve since switched to a white background and skipped the whole step of trying to delete the background. The result, while not perfect, is still clean and saves me a WHOOOOLE lot of time. Both shots below are taken against a sheet of white craft foam. The one on the left is taken with our Canon PowerShot SD800 point-and-shoot, and the one on the right with Jimmy’s Nikon D60 DSLR.

I don’t get the perfectly white background I originally wanted, but again, I sure do save a ton of time. I’ve got  a ways to go, but hopefully the new photographer in the family, along with help from brother-in-law, will be able to help me out! =D

In my initial research, I found a bunch of articles that were really helpful in terms of giving me ideas about lighting, backdrops and styling, among other things. I thought I’d dig these up again, which is actually a great thing for me because there are a bunch of neat tips that I totally forgot about!

TableTop Studio has a whole index of product photography articles, broken into different product type categories. I checked out the one on Clothing Photography Techniques, which offers a bunch of great examples illustrated with plenty of setup and before-and-after photos. In it, they stress the importance and value of finding photos that you like of items in your category and studying what makes the photo/styling appeal to you. That sounds obvious but I get caught up and forget to do my homework there. They also demonstrate the technique of laying your item flat on the floor, steamed and stuffed with cotton batting and/or tissue paper for added dimension, and photographing it from above. I haven’t quite gotten there with this technique, but these are a couple of my attempts (flat and minimally stuffed on left, not flat but stuffed on right):

TableTop Studio also has a blog with more how-to articles.

Then there’s Photojojo’s article on Shoot to Sell: Taking Better Photos for eBay, Etsy & Instructables. Although perhaps better suited for small objects, I really liked the section about playing with different backdrops like wood, fabric, metal. There are a couple of neat examples of jewelry photos, one set against blue leather or vinyl, and the other atop a page of a book. The tip I did try out was to recruit a cute friend to model my products! We only did this once so I need to work this back into the mix, but here she is!

Finally, Etsy had a couple articles of its own on getting better product photos:

• Shop Makeover Series: Photographing for Success
• Give Props: How to Style Your Photos

…not to mention a fun video!

Well, I look forward to making my way towards better and better product photos. Actually I have to admit, I look forward more to the end result of better product photos, not as much the path to getting there! <=P After all, my main goal is bags, baby. BAGS! =DSimilar Posts:

• Improve your product photos with a fast, free and user-friendly tool
• Attack of the killer frame pouch