Whether you’re just getting started on Etsy or already an established seller good product photos are essential. Here are a few tips to help you up your photography game:

BACKGROUNDS – plain backgrounds work best and most shops on Etsy seem to go for light / white as they show off your products better. Get yourself to a DIY shop for some free wallpaper samples to add a bit of interest and pattern to your background and keep it consistent across a series of related products.

LIGHTING – I find natural light works best and not direct sunlight as you’ll have too many shadows. Filters can be too over the top so just up the brightness and contrast a little to show your products at their best.

FRAMED / UNFRAMED – if you’re selling unframed art / prints it’s worth also photographing them in a frame to show how they will look framed. It’s best to photograph framed art without the glass in if you can to avoid weird reflections.

SERIES / BATCH
If you work in a series it’s then really easy to batch photo your products all at once giving you some consistency with lighting / backgrounds etc

PREP
Before you start your photoshoot get everything to hand that you will need (backgrounds, props, products etc) that way you’ll save time and won’t be running around trying to find things.

TICKSHEET
I usually make a list of all my products and a list of all the images I want to take eg. with props, framed, unframed, hand held, distance, close up etc. I then tick them off as I take each photo for each product, helps me keep track.

BEWARE OF CROPPING – keep your product central so if it does get cropped when viewed on a phone / tablet your item won’t get chopped. Your first image should be landscape or square to ensure product is central in main thumbnail. Use landscape rather than portrait with an aspect ratio of 4:3

VARIETY – Take a range of photos of your products…close up, details, in action, on the wall, with props, without props….but don’t feel like you have to use all of the 10 available slots. 5 really good photos would be better than 5 good photos plus 5 rubbish ones just for the sake of it. People love to see behind the scenes too so include a work in progress shot too.

Hope that helps and thanks for reading! I’m not an expert by any means so of course do have a look at what Etsy have to say on this. Do you have any of your own tips you’d like to share?