The best way to get potential buyers to notice your jewelry is by taking phenomenal pictures. It’s a key indicator for potential buyers of, not only the quality of your work, but if it’s something they’d actually wear.
Below are the top eight Etsy jewelry photography tips to help boost your sales:
1. Lighting:
Almost every serious Etsy seller swears by natural light for several reasons; it doesn’t give off the yellow hue many artificial sources do, you can usually find a schedule that works for you, it’s free and readily available. You don’t need all the extras that professional photographers use to get the best from the light you do have, experiment with homemade light boxes, mirrors, and white paper to bounce extra light off of your pieces. Many sellers have found that your windowsill often provides enough light, but depending on your yard, outside on a slightly cloudy day may be the right fit for you. Don’t be afraid to try new techniques.
2. Details:
The macro setting is probably your best bet when attempting to render small details, if your camera isn’t great at close-ups consider picking up a macro lens specifically for your Etsy store projects. Try taking the picture from different angels or placing your work in different spots to catch as many details as you can.
3. Creating a background:
While many photographers will take their images on plain or neutral colored backgrounds, consider using slightly patterned backgrounds to make your work stand out from the competition. Of course, you don’t want some over-powering Zebra stripes, but something like shapes or an ages piece of paper with script could be a nice touch. A model is also something that would be worth considering.
4. Interesting subject positioning:
Instead of placing earrings side by side, consider placing them in a way that they interact with one another. Same thing goes for sets if you sell any. Making the objects interact” with each other is a lot more interesting and esthetically pleasing than taking your “standard” picture.
5. Take multiple shots:
When posting your pictures on Etsy, it’s important that you have more than one angle to show potential customers to help them decide if it’s something they want to buy or not. Beyond that, it’s important for your purposes too. You can go through and pick the best shots from each angle/part to display to store visitors. This helps ensure only your quality pictures are uploaded.
6. Consider how it actually looks
If your pictures are great, but they look nothing like the real piece, your customers will go from being ecstatic to disappointed within the time it takes to open the box. There is nothing worse for a seller than bad reviews. Consider how accurately your photos depict your work before uploading them, if the color is slightly off in one, but spot on in another then point that out. It’s not just about your quality, but also your honesty as a sell that’s important.
7. Use a photo editor
When your lighting isn’t always ideal, and your angles aren’t always perfect (which often happens in the real world) it’s helpful to employ an editing software. This will help your images come across as more professional looking when the additional background noise is eliminated, and your images are perfectly cropped to display your subject just right. If your work isn’t being exceptionally photogenic and isn’t looking quite like it does in person, you can always play with contrast and brightness to try to bring it up to speed. However, be careful not to go into over-editing mode to avoid the point made above.
8. Consider purchasing a remote shutter
For shiny jewelry that catches the camera (or you) in the image, consider buying a tripod and remote shutter to limit what can be caught in its reflection. This will allow you to move you and your camera out of the proximity before you snap you shot.
Beyond the tips above, it’s also recommended by many full-time Etsy sellers that you attend a photography class or two to brush up on some more technical aspects of photography.
Have Etsy jewelry photography tips we didn’t share above? Comment and let us know about it.
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