Improving Your Photos for Increasing Sales

Showing your three dimensional products on the two dimensional internet can be difficult - especially when you are not a naturally gifted photographer, like me. I don't even like taking pictures!  Presentation is everything when a customer can't pick it up and examine it.  Your photos need to show your items with detail and accuracy.

I've read a great deal of advice on this topic- from get the best camera to buy a light box and special lights.  I've also seen some alternate setups to save money or at least get acceptable pictures until your business can afford the top of the line set-ups.  Here's a quick synopsis of what I did to get the picture above out of one that looked similar to the one below;

I use a translucent bin with two lights aimed at it. I've been using my daughters camera that has a Macro and Supper Macro setting- that's the one with the "flower" icon on your camera.  You need this to get the detail. It is not an expensive camera and about 3 years old.  The key is having enough light so that the camera doesn't flash. The flash creates glare and washes out detail. By putting the light through the translucent bin- it also prevents the glare on the metal surfaces that causes big problems when photographing jewelry.  Take several shots - its digital- you can erase the ones that aren't good!

Next use a program to edit your photos-I use Picassa (free download from Google) for most of my simple editing.  First I crop it to eliminate what I don't need in the photo. Next I will lighten the photo and add highlights- then shadows (second tab ) Finally I will sharpen the picture (third tab). That's what I did above in the "brighter"  and "clearer" shot.

I still have a long way to go when it comes to photography- but I wanted to give you a starting point- if you are as clueless to it as I am.  For those who know even more and don't mind sharing- post a comment and any links you have so we can all get even better with our pictures!  Remember- we can't sell something that isn't well presented so it is very much worth the effort to get better photos.