Thursday, April 14, 2011

Pictures are Worth a Thousands Words (or Sales!!)

Happy Friday, Team Fest Members!

I opened up my Etsy shop just less than a year ago and have learned so much - especially about the importance of pictures! If you're new to the Team, check out our Shop Critique thread. You'll get some great advice from a new pair of fresh eyes!

Some of the comments I received were in regards to my pictures. If you're not an avid photographer - this seems to be one of the most popular challenges. In my particular case, my pictures were always kind of dark, so I tried going outside in direct sunlight. I quickly learned that it's also bad to get too much light. I couldn't win!

I started doing some research and found that many suggested a light box to create even bright tones in your pictures - but of course - I did not want to go spending $200 for one!! Luckily, I found a great article on how to create your on light box in our Team Fest Seller Solution section. So, with a little help from my husband, I made my very own light box!!

Front of the Light Box:



Inside of the light box:


Here are is one of my hairclips before:





Now after - using the light box and adding some simple rocks and clay pot:





Some tips for constructing the light box:
  • You don't have to use Bristol board. It's pretty expensive. I just bought regular card board paper, but make sure its a bright white.
  • I do suggest buying that exact bulb the author recommends. It can be easily found in hardware stores. I originally bought another kind and the pictures did not come out bright.
  • If you don't want to spend the money on the light bulb - sunshine is always free!! The light box is also great is direct sunlight. You may have to adjust the brightness a bit on an editing software, but it works great!!
Fixing pictures is not as scary as I thought and using little props here and there really do make a great difference!! Pictures are the one only way we can share our craft with the world wide web, so get creative, use some props, and start snapping away ( :

3 comments:

  1. The CroppingBoutiqueApril 14, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    NICELY Done! I would have never guessed your beautiful pictures were taken in this homemade box! They look Great!

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  2. very helpful article, ....now, ..I think my light box needs to be updated!

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  3. I do not use a light box. I have heard lots of people say it helps a lot. Maybe I should get or make one.

    ReplyDelete