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Friday, March 14, 2014

Day 9. Product Photography.

I’m selling online most of my jewelry, which means my customer cannot touch or wear the product. That is why product image is so important – this is the only way for me to show how good it is. I’m constantly looking for a better way of making pictures; I want my customer to feel the beauty of the product just by looking to its image.

The following image I had when I just started, perhaps in the “before Etsy” times. I like it. However, it does not give the whole picture. For instance, looking to this image I have no idea what clasp look like or what the real length of the chain.


I’m glad Etsy exists because it gives me ability to add up to 5 images for the same jewelry. I’m almost always utilizing all of them and am trying to show my product from different angles with as much details as possible. 


I think pictures on a model are always good. At least, based on my statistic on Facebook I always got more views for the model images. Working with a model is not as easy as it looks like. I hope the 21 Sample Poses for Photographing Women article may give you some insights on the poses and angles that work the best.




Lighting is very important for a good picture. I was experimenting with different types of lights and so far the best pictures I made are on the natural sun light. I have to admit though, that I do not have professional equipment (except a light box) and have no plans to invest a lot of money into it. But if you do, take a look to the Table TopStudio site – this is quite an interesting guide on how to use artificial lighting in jewelry photography:

Using natural light is a bit difficult for me because there are only so many sunny days in the year (I’m in New Hampshire). Usually, I perform a photo session only once in a while, when weather is cooperative and I have a good light. Sometimes several of my items are sitting and waiting for a good weather to be photographed. I make 20-30 images of the same product in different angles, using different backgrounds.

Background is another complex question. It is better to have a monotone background, but a plain white is too boring to me. I love more some sort of a texture, may be a piece of fabric, where each pleat adds shadow…



Also I’m trying to avoid making all images look alike. It is easy to fall into this trap: when I found a nice angle and a contrast background and the picture look just right, I’m naturally trying to use the same “environment” for several of my products. And each of them look very good, but when I’m posting those images on Etsy and they place all of them on the single page, all my nice looking images become one mediocre image where eye cannot recognize individual objects. I think this is better to use slightly different angle and position, so every image distinctly recognizable even on a page with a dozen similar images.

I'm really interested in your opinion. Here are 4 pictures of my bracelet, which one do you like most?


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Thank you!

6 comments:

  1. Love your articles! Thank you for sharing. Wish you luck and many happy sales on Etsy!

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  2. I love the first picture of the bracelet, the background is nice and white and the colors come out so well!

    However number 3 is great for proportion!

    You really make wonderful items!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a very good post. I do like the pieces on the dummy, the colors are vibrant and lovely, but I agree if you can have a real person model it is better. Though I have to say I had a customer tell me once that putting the jewelry on a person before selling it is gross. She was the only person that ever said that, so I guess it was something weird to only her.

    http://wwww.melissasjewelryandgems.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post.....I like the white background the best because it shows the colors better and is less distracting. I also think you models looked great.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing the info:)
    I love 3rd pic!
    Visiting from All About BlogSpot.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very nice post. This post is very helpful and effective. Thanks for sharing.
    Clipping Path Asia

    ReplyDelete

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