Better Product Photography

I am in no way a photography expert. You will not find any photography terminology here. I don't have a fancy camera where I can fiddle with settings that I don't understand. I do have a fancy video recorder that I bought to record my amazing son while he was running. It takes mediocre still photos. I have a fun, tiny Cannon point and shoot. I'm sure if I looked I could find manual settings, but I don't want to. Using it would require taking the memory card out and putting the photos on the computer and all that is a time consuming pain. My current go-to camera is my iPhone 7. It takes really great photos when I take the time to take them.

In 2017 we market our hand made goods visually on the internet. A great product photo will sell your product and a bad one will lose a sale. You can write amazing, inviting copy. But you and I both know that people don't read product descriptions. Great photos are key if you are serious about online selling.

Here are what I consider to be the essentials of good product photography. It is going to make people who are actual photographers cringe, but this post is not for photographers, it's for non-photographers, for mamas who are trying to sell stuff on Etsy and Shopify and Facebook.

1. Light. Light is the most important. Not the flash on your camera. I don't even know why they put flashes on cameras. They almost never help the situation. Turn the flash off. Figure out what the sunniest room is in your home and what time of day it is the sunniest. Plan a photo shoot. If you want to take photos outside, use morning or evening light. Noon light will not work in your favor.

2. Background. I don't want to see your house and neither do your customers. Set up against a plain wall with nothing that will distract from your product. I bought a black curtain at a thrift store and hung it on a wall. I can also use it on a table and take photos from above.

3. Movement. Don't do it. Move that is. Your photos are probably blurry because of movement. Prop your camera on something and set the timer so that tapping the screen doesn't move the phone at all. I highly recommend you get a tripod (I actually bought mine in a thrift store.) I bought a phone tripod adapter and a bluetooth remote for clicking the photo. I bought them as set and they were $11.95. here is the one that I bought on Amazon.

The background in this photo is obviously NOT the thrift store curtain. I have upgraded.
At the beginning of this year, I committed myself to taking the best photos I could for my business. I know there is room for improvement, but I also know that I have come a long way.