Product photo tips for Etsy

Judging by the countless forum posts on the subject, one of the biggest pitfalls for an Etsy seller is photography. I’ve briefly mentioned this before, essentially saying you want your photos to be just as nice as the product you’re selling.
Now I’ll be the first to admit my listing photos aren’t the best in the world – if they were, I wouldn’t feel the need to change them ever few weeks or so! Honestly I must’ve spent more time changing, tweaking and updating my photos more than I’ve actually spent on making new items, eek! The thing is that when you’re putting a lot of time and effort into your shop, you do begin to notice things that could be improved a lot more than you would if you just set up shop and left it as is – it’s all about creating a beautiful brand to go with what you actually make, and it takes lots of work.
I’ve tried a number of different kinds of photos. Some have been pretty, some have been simple, and some have been downright terrible. Thankfully I usually notice the really bad ones quickly and spruce them up then and there – before eventually getting fed up with those photos and taking a whole bunch of new ones. What works and what doesn’t is really down to personal taste, but I thought I’d write down a few things that should be considered when taking and editing new listing photos.



 
What to include in the photo?

• I really love styled listing photos with the product shown in use or with other matching bits and bobs around it. One of my favourite kinds of photos for artwork is to show it on a gallery wall with other similar pieces, or perhaps on a mantelpiece with a vase of flowers and pretty decorative objects beside it. These sort of styled photos can be properly gorgeous, and work nicely in editorials and blogs – it’s all about creating really desirable scene built around your product. However, don’t go overboard. These photos can easily look cluttered and your product can get lost among all the props. Depending on what it is you’re taking the listing photo for, a plain background can be the best option to show it off beautifully. I’d suggest trying a bit of both kinds of photos to find what suits you best, and perhaps using the styled scenery shot for your second or third listing photo just to give your customers an idea of what it could look like at home, and also a sense of scale.

Party Westie print

White backgrounds – yay or nay?

• When browsing Etsy, you’ll notice A LOT of the listings have a plain white or off-white background. This is to highlight the product itself, and can give a professional, polished look to your shop. Generally speaking white does work well, and I’d suggest using it especially if your products are bright and colourful – my dog postcards and prints tend to fit into this category, so a white background helps them leap off the page. Where I don’t think this works, however, is with white items – specifically cards and prints. Firstly, taking a photo of white paper on a white background is a right old pain. Secondly, it can make your listing look washed out and easy to overlook in a search. At the moment I use a pastel pink background for my Terrier Love cards, for example – I’m bound to change this at some point, but generally speaking when you’ve got a white product, use simple coloured backgrounds to your advantage – make those photos really pop! 

Terrier Love: Border Terrier card

 Cohesiveness among your own listings

• I readily admit that I struggle with this one. When your products are multi-coloured artwork, it’s difficult to find a way to make it all match neatly. This can apply to lots of other products as well, so I’d say don’t worry too much if you’ve got a bit of a mixed bag in that department. What you can do is to rearrange your shop so that listings which complement each other are all in the same area. Also if you do use coloured backgrounds, make them the same colour or similar shades – and if you’ve got white backgrounds for most of the items but a few coloured ones here and there, I do recommend using pastel shades to keep it bright and fresh. This also applies to lighting – make sure your listing photos are ALL well lit, either photographed in natural light or using an adjustable flash gun (you don’t want full-on flash photos, they never look appealing). 

My current shopfront. Although the colours of the products themselves vary, there's a general theme of pale pink and bright white going on throughout my listings.

Thumbnails – to zoom or not to zoom?

• Another tricky one. What I’ve done is zoomed out on my cards, bags, notebooks and bookmarks, because the main listing photo in these includes a plain background. It gives a sense of these being tangible items, something you can pick up and use. This may be different for other kinds of products, jewellery for example can look a lot more exciting in a search when the thumbnail highlights the key features. On the flipside, I use zoomed in thumbnails for original art and prints. That’s because my main listing image for these is the full artwork with no border or background – I want the focus to be solely on the art. My second and third images show the tangible product, framed or on an easel, but I want that first impression to be of nothing but the painting itself. The thumbnails are zoomed in on the main feature of each painting – most of my work is vertical so it’s got to be cropped a bit for Etsy’s thumbnails anyway, so I try use that to my advantage.

Here's an example of how I use thumbnails for cards and prints differently.

Those are the key things I came up with, although of course there’s always hundreds of things that can go right or wrong with listing photos… Just do your best to show your lovely products as well as possible, and don’t be afraid to go back and redo a photo or several hundred. It’s all about trial and error with product photography, you wont find what works for you unless you give it a go. :)