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Help, please. My husband handcrafts pendants from rock/stones found in SW Virginia. He grinds, sands, & polishes the stone smooth. And sometimes carves. I have these pieces listed under handcrafted & artisan.
How can I make these pendants more appealing to buyers. Am I listing under incorrect category?
Or is it the product itself? Any input would be appreciated. I have never posted before, so I'm not sure if the question(s) I'm asking is/are appropriate. Hopefully I have supplied enough information to be helpful. Thanking you in advance.
1 BEST ANSWER
Accepted Solutions
@lovetotravel4fun
I would recommend staging and better lighting in your photos. The first sample is fine, but the second is lost on the background. Find a solid background that better shows the item.
Most of the photos feel fuzzy. Are you using a camera or a phone to take the photos? If a camera, use the close-up macro setting (a tulip flower symbol) so that you can get close and stay in focus. If a phone, find out how close you can get (usually no closer than about 6 inches); and then crop afterwards.
For a skinny item like the second photo, turn it on a diagonal and make a square image. The light source should come from behind you, over your shoulder, or off to the side, and never from anywhere in front. It may also work better if you have two light sources, one on either side to soften shadows and show depth.
Here is a setup I've used over the years where a desk lamp provides light from one side and a piece of white cardboard is used as a reflector on the opposite side, so there is strong illumination from one side and a shadow softener (fill light) coming from the other side. There are also no other lights on in the room to confuse the camera with mixed lighting. A camera does best if all lighting is the same color (in this case, incandescent).
And this is the resultant closeup photo where the shadows are soft and depth is maintained.
Next, let's think about staging. Look through a few other pendant listings, particularly those that catch your eye. The most attractive ones will pay attention to specific details, like turning the item a certain way, running the chain in an interesting pattern that does not crowd the pendant, and they may artfully drape the pendant over a rock or driftwood or flower arrangement (in such a way that is apparent the staging is not part of the sale).
eBay and Google shopping prefer that the item for sale be on a plain white background, without props, because that works better with their image detection and fits their uniform layout. You could create a closeup of the stone that way if you wish. But since you want to snag those just looking through scads of listings, you'll need an initial image that can stand out, without clutter.
Here is an item that I think could do well. I rotated it to a diagonal, brightened the image, and made it square. The chain could be arranged appropriately so the stone would be slightly closer to center stage, but not dead center. Notice that you have light coming from the right, probably a window, and that it gives some glow to the stone. The shadows are soft, probably due to kitchen lighting or a window on the left side. I would strive for something like this.
This is how I manipulated your image, aside from rotating. I used "gamma" to brighten the midtones. Gamma leaves whites and blacks the same, so doesn't give a washout appearance. Then I used "contrast" to burn out the white background and bring forward the darker tones. If you use eBay's color correction tools, play with both "brightness" and "contrast". Brightness is not the same as Gamma, but in conjunction with "contrast" you should be able to improve a grayish drab photo. This can all be fixed within the camera, using the EV settings, but most people don't know how to use them.
@lovetotravel4fun
I would recommend staging and better lighting in your photos. The first sample is fine, but the second is lost on the background. Find a solid background that better shows the item.
Most of the photos feel fuzzy. Are you using a camera or a phone to take the photos? If a camera, use the close-up macro setting (a tulip flower symbol) so that you can get close and stay in focus. If a phone, find out how close you can get (usually no closer than about 6 inches); and then crop afterwards.
For a skinny item like the second photo, turn it on a diagonal and make a square image. The light source should come from behind you, over your shoulder, or off to the side, and never from anywhere in front. It may also work better if you have two light sources, one on either side to soften shadows and show depth.
Here is a setup I've used over the years where a desk lamp provides light from one side and a piece of white cardboard is used as a reflector on the opposite side, so there is strong illumination from one side and a shadow softener (fill light) coming from the other side. There are also no other lights on in the room to confuse the camera with mixed lighting. A camera does best if all lighting is the same color (in this case, incandescent).
And this is the resultant closeup photo where the shadows are soft and depth is maintained.
Next, let's think about staging. Look through a few other pendant listings, particularly those that catch your eye. The most attractive ones will pay attention to specific details, like turning the item a certain way, running the chain in an interesting pattern that does not crowd the pendant, and they may artfully drape the pendant over a rock or driftwood or flower arrangement (in such a way that is apparent the staging is not part of the sale).
eBay and Google shopping prefer that the item for sale be on a plain white background, without props, because that works better with their image detection and fits their uniform layout. You could create a closeup of the stone that way if you wish. But since you want to snag those just looking through scads of listings, you'll need an initial image that can stand out, without clutter.
Here is an item that I think could do well. I rotated it to a diagonal, brightened the image, and made it square. The chain could be arranged appropriately so the stone would be slightly closer to center stage, but not dead center. Notice that you have light coming from the right, probably a window, and that it gives some glow to the stone. The shadows are soft, probably due to kitchen lighting or a window on the left side. I would strive for something like this.
This is how I manipulated your image, aside from rotating. I used "gamma" to brighten the midtones. Gamma leaves whites and blacks the same, so doesn't give a washout appearance. Then I used "contrast" to burn out the white background and bring forward the darker tones. If you use eBay's color correction tools, play with both "brightness" and "contrast". Brightness is not the same as Gamma, but in conjunction with "contrast" you should be able to improve a grayish drab photo. This can all be fixed within the camera, using the EV settings, but most people don't know how to use them.
@lovetotravel4fun
You're very welcome. It's always fun to present some of the layman basics of product photography. I hope the image tips will help with your sales.
I had been wondering if some of the fuzziness was due to hand shake or heartbeat. The answer is a tripod, but what small time seller has the time or patience for extra equipment. Mine hasn't come out of my closet in a dozen years. If shake is the problem, place wrists on the back of a kitchen chair when shooting something on the table, or when pointing the camera downward to shoot something on the seat of the chair. Pressing the camera-holding wrist hard against a door jamb also works well when shooting straight ahead. Dim lighting is when a steady hand is most important, since the shutter stays open longer to collect as much light as possible.
But when I looked at this fun photo, I think the fuzzy issue is just that the camera is too close to focus. You may notice in your full-sized image that the potato chip (or is that a sandstone sea scallop) is not in focus, while the clasp at the top of the photo appears to be focused. So the focal point is just a bit farther away — perhaps holding your camera just a half inch, to an inch, higher would bring the stone into focus.
When you examine your own photos, use hints within your image to determine just how far you need to be from your item. When I used my own phone to take closeup pictures, they looked great in miniature, but awful on the computer. Thus, I now find a coffee can or stack of tuna cans that will keep my phone at least six inches higher than the top of my items. I press the phone onto the top of the can when pointing straight down and never have to worry about the focus distance between shots.
