Photos

So I've been designing (and shopping) on etsy for well over a year, but after first opening my rebeccaaccessories shop I learned quickly that setting yourself apart from the competition is critical. Now you will continually hear me repeating this, because I truly believe that how your present your shop will make or break your business.

One key element in success is the photo of your item. We all know that an amazing picture really makes the item shine..and makes the buyer mor e inclined to purchase (I know I'm a sucker for an amazingly photographed item..even if I don't need it). Here are my tips:

1.) Always, Always take the photo outside when it's sunny, or in a sunny area in your house!! I like to take mine around 10am in the morning or around 2-3pm at night. I find the sun isn't to intense and it has just enough brightness that your item will look amazing.
2.) Go out and purchase 3 white foam boards. Take them home and tape them together forming a three sided box..making sure you just tape the outside so no tape shows inside the box. This box works perfect for taking photos of your items in. You may want to have one of the images with a fun background, but for the close ups or even the clean photo look this box works amazing! It also makes it super easy to eliminate the busy background and to clean up the image in either photoshop or a paint program. You can see how my photos turned out with the white box at prettygirlhandbag.etsy.com
3.) Cleaning photos is key to make your design shine..especially if you're not the best photographer. I use photoshop for all my photo cleaning, I always use my brightness/contrast first to get the true whites white. Then after that I will use my color balance to get rid of any reds or blues that might have been accentuated in the photo. Now color balance is a little difficult if you don't have the eye to see the difference but it does wonders for an image!! Of course there are tons of other editing I and many others do, but this is just the simple version for the non savvy graphic people:P
Now get out there and take pictures of your amazing designs!