{if you’re new to savior faire or etsy- visit our first post to learn more}

taking great photos that reflect your style and represent your product well is the key to online selling.  your customers can’t feel, smell, or wear your product, so they must rely on the quality of your images.  having simple, chic, stylistic photos can work wonders in boosting your online sales.

|ethanollie|

lighting :: if at all possible, use natural lighting.  flash generally won’t work for smaller items and usually gives an off-putting effect.  try setting up by a window or outside.  or, if you’re outside, shoot in the morning or afternoon as the noon sun is a bit harsh for photos.

|almeda pottery|

background :: this is where you can really style your photos and brand yourself.  however, you want to keep your backgrounds as simple as possible.  no one wants to see your cat or that 50′s mixer in the background.

work to create an overall theme for your shop.  use the same or similar elements in all of your shots and your shop will have a nice, inviting, cohesive look.  generally, a lighter background works nice and puts your product in the spotlight.  this ‘how to style your photos‘ article gives great advice and how-to’s on styling.

|maries vintage|

what works :: take as many photos as you can, from as many angles as you can.  play with light and see what works best.  your buyer will want to see the front, back, and sides, along with some detail of you work.  you can always crop in and edit later, but you want to know that you have plenty to choose from later on.

one of my favorite photo editing tools is picnik.com.  if you don’t have fancy editing software like photoshop, picnik allows you to edit all of your photos- for free!

|sarah seven|

the shakes :: try to use a tripod, if you have one, to reduce camera shake.  blurry photos never make you say- i have to have that.  if you don’t have a tripod- get creative!  steady it on a table or the back of a couch.  even leaning on something to help stabilize will help reduce camera shake.

|french logic|

get creative :: get creative and a bit editorial.  take from interesting angles and play with cropping.  using a more editorial pic as your first item’s picture on etsy might grab attention and make your browsers click out of curiosity.  you don’t necessarily want to give it all away up front, right?

|efia fair|

do you have any tips on taking great photos? please share!

wrap up: {etsy} {etsy shop help} {photo} {photography} {sales} {savior faire} {shop}

ok let’s face it.  even though we may not admit, we are all a bit addicted to etsy. starting this week, home to roost will feature a weekly post on etsy savior faire: that is, etsy know-how.  it’s a seemingly endless topic, and if you have specifics that you would like to learn more about- you can comment here or leave your suggestions in the comment box (i’m very proud of our latest feature- look left!).

as our first etsy savior fair post- let’s tell all those people who don’t have etsy shops (or who have never heard of etsy? gasp.) why they’re missing out.  etsy is your place to buy and sell all things handmade- seriously.. all things.  here are some quick stats for etsy’s june, 2009 marketplace:

• $12.8 million of goods were sold
• That represents 787,692 items sold for the month
• 1,315,547 new items were listed in the month
• 157,000 new members joined the etsy community in the month
• 484,227,357 page views were recorded on the site this month

and that’s just for june- did you catch that? the little ‘ol month of june.

opening a shop on etsy is inexpensive and easy to set up- that means really low overhead.  it gives your products face time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to anyone around the world: a bit more than that 9-5 brick and mortar on the corner of main and 5th.  dealing with customers is easy and efficient, and you can even be in your pj’s while you do it.  the best part of all? it’s a like minded community of either handmade artisans or handmade supporters, who are all there to help each other out.  no one is ‘out to get you’ or give you a hard time, and it’s by far the most supportive community i’ve ever been a part of.

here’s a great article by etsy’s own blog, the storque, to help you out some more. it would even be a great one to slip on the desk of your friend who just has to get on etsy!

we’ll be meeting here, every wednesday, to dive deep into all the ways you can promote your etsy shop and increase sales.  please leave your own advice or testimonies for all the newbies out there!

wrap up: {etsy shop help}