When I first signed up for Etsy, little did I know that I would soon learn more about photography than I had ever expected.  One very important aspect of selling online is presentation of your products — since shoppers cannot physically look at your items themselves, you need to do that for them via your photos.  So becoming proficient with your camera is a must.  You don’t need a fancy shmancy camera to do this, just become very familiar with the camera you have.

When taking photos, clarity and crispness are extremely important.  No one wants to look at a blurry photo, and if you can’t get people to look at your photos, how will you get them to buy your things?  Utilizing the macro setting on your camera is going to help immensely with this.

Good lighting is also a must.  Natural indirect sunlight works very well, as well as white light.  Also, becoming familiar with the white balance function on your camera will help show “true” colors.

Lastly, show your item from a variety of angles and distances so that your shopper can get a complete picture of your item.

– Jess // ClineCreations

Building a photo box is easy – all you need is a cardboard box (or if you’re super handy, you can build one out of wooden dowels), a clear plastic tablecloth or paint sheet and 2 60W desk lamps.  I bought all of my supplies for about $25 at Home Depot.  The secret ingredient lies with the lighting – make sure you use DAYLIGHT bulbs…it makes all the difference in the world in your photos!

–Timeless Inspirations

One very important tip is to have good product photography.  Don’t clutter up your product with a busy background.  Take some time to see how the experts do it.  Look in magazines and catalogs for a similar product to yours and pick up some tips.  If your photo doesn’t look good no one will look no matter how great your product is!

–Julie Magers Soulen Photography

One of the most important tips for new etsy sellers that I have (speaking as a seller and a buyer) is to use all your pictures to show details like the back, the clasp, seams… Think about the things you would be checking if you were buying in person, that’s what I want to see a shot of.
–Colie

When taking pictures outside in direct sunlight or in shade the colors in your photos may be either washed out by the sun or too dark from the shade.  The quickest way to lighten or add color back into your photos is to use a picture editor with the “brightness/contrast” feature such as photoshop.

–Afriquelachic

Whenever I talk to a new Etsy seller, we discuss pictures.  You need to have a picture with a large amount of dpi’s so when the customer clicks on the picture, they can see it larger.  Don’t put a busy background into your picture and edit it with sharpen, strengthen the colors, and sharpen again.  Add the picture to your blog and tell your story. How was the piece made?  What was your inspiration?  Anything else interesting?  That helps the customer fall in love with your work.

– Susan Lambert

Some of the most versatile and inexpensive backgrounds to use when taking your product pictures are items you already have on hand – a brown cardboard box, brown paper grocery bag or kraft paper!

Any of these will give a neutral, elegant, zen-like and ‘eco-green’ background for just about any color item.

–Virago Creations

Better Photography really is worth the aggravation. A few tips:

# Read your camera manual! This helped me immensely. I grabbed a coffee & spent an afternoon  figuring out *many* of the modes & tricks.
# Find the light. You DO NOT need sunlight, in fact sunlight can make photos look too bright & leave too many shadows. This is probably the biggest thing I’ve learned. I take all of my photos on a table near a window sill on very dreary & rainy Oregon afternoons. But since I account for the white balance (see below) it works!
# Manual Mode. I almost always use this. It can be found on the little dial on top of the camera. It allows you to adjust for white balance (to get rid of that pink hue. Or the blue or gray or whatever it may be) the link above gives great explanation on modes. *This discovery was the second most important thing I did to improve photos. Auto mode doesn’t cut it.

– Quiltish

Apply your artistic talents to your photography. If your photograph is a work of art, Etsy browsers will click to see more.

–Macies