I have been doing a LOT of browsing around Etsy, MadeIt and Artfire recently looking for some prints to put up in our bedroom, of course, I start looking at prints and before I know it I’ve got about forty tabs open with everything ranging from prints to clothes to jewellery.

Now I’m certainly no photography snob, but so many times I saw something that might have been fabulous, if only the picture was a little clearer, a little brighter or framed better. So I thought a short series covering some tips for photographing your product to show it off in the best possible way might be the way to go. This post will cover clothes and large accessories, in future posts I will cover jewellery and smaller accessories, quilts/blankets and prints. If you have any suggestions for other products, or would like to ask a question, please let me know

I’d like to introduce Crafty Katie, she lives in the western suburbs of Sydney, in a rented place with two flatmates. By day she works in a highly ethical coffee shop and attends an art and design college course, by night she’s a crafty ninja trying to make a little bit more cash via the various online stores she has set up. Katie has knitted a freakin’ awesome green and purple scarf which she hopes to sell.

A surprising amount can be fixed once the image is in your computer, but certain things can’t, so I’d like to focus on the actual photo taking to start off with. Whilst taking the photo, there are a few things to remember.

• Remember you are now a professional – As soon as you sell your first piece, you are a professional seamstress/knitter/crafty type, so your photos need to look professional. I’m not saying you need to hire  models and build a studio in your lounge, but spend some time looking through catalogues and getting an idea of what the models are doing and how the photographs are set up. If you are using a friend as a model then encourage them to look through some catalogues as well.
• Frame what you’re actually selling – Katie may think that the photo of her practising her jazz hands whilst wearing her scarf was superbly flattering, and I will admit that those shoes go perfectly, but anyone who is scanning through the page would have to actually concentrate to work out what they were buying. Is it the scarf, dress or those cute shoes? You also need to remember that most people will view your product for the first time via a 100×100 pixel thumbnail, taking a long shot like Katie here means that your product is shrunk to just a couple of pixels tall. Of course, if Katie was selling the dress, then this would be a great way to go. Remember that you are not the focus of the picture, so no “myspace angles” and hand held self portraits, the timer an a straight surface is your friend!
• Don’t lie – if the piece of clothing you’ve made is a size 14 and you’re model is a size 10, don’t pin it in to fit her properly, if you can find a size 14 that would be the way to go, or if you can find a dress form or manequin in the right size. I know that I will look at a listing, and look at the size of the model to get an idea of the fit. Similarly, if you’re a larger size than the piece you’re selling, don’t try and fit into it, the pull from the fabric will affect the hang and won’t show off your work perfectly.
• Use natural light whenever possible – you’ve just finished your piece in the evening and I know you want to get it up straight away, but hold your horses and wait until the morning. Photographing it in natural light will mean that the colours are shown acurately and your photos will be of higher quality. But, keep in mind that any direct sunlight runs the risk of over exposing your images and losing details. Find a gently shaded spot in your garden, or a room in your house with large windows.
• Actually LOOK at what you’re photographing – Everyone’s taken a photo where your subject has a lampost growing from their head, or those super hot self portraits you put up on Facebook with Mount Washmore of dirty knickers in the background (come on, I know it’s not just me!). Take the time to look at the scene you’re photographing, plain walls, a clean surrounding, make sure the focus is actually on what you want to sell, not what else is in the picture. If you’re advertising acessories then make sure that what else your model is wearing compliments them nicely, but doesn’t draw away from your piece.
• Take PLENTY of photos – that photo that you thought looked awesome on your lcd will often upload and be out of focus, the beauty of digital cameras is that not every image is a precious as they used to be with film, no longer are you restricted to 30 images and a $10 processing fee, just keep on snapping away and there is a higher chance that you will have the perfect image in there. In Katie’s second photo you can barely see the scarf among everything else there is to look at in the picture.
• Don’t forget the detail shots – Katie would probably also include a close up of the stitching on her scarf and maybe a close up of the fringe, your buyers like to see everything, so show them those little special bits, the bits that will make your work stand out from the crowd, the contrast stitching on the bag strap, the sweet little felt flower on the dress, the embroidery on the back pocket of those vintage jeans.

So you’ve got your photos taken, now throw them into your computer and start editing.

“Seriously, you’ve made me break my back on taking the photos and now I still have to edit them?”

Fraid so Katie But you’ll be happy to know that these are pretty much the same no matter what you’re selling. For this you can use your photo editing software of choice, but for just simple editing (which is all you’ll need if you’ve followed the above tips) I highly recommend Google’s photo editing software, Picasa, it’s completely free, simple to learn and it’s all that I use for most of my photographs. Most of my photos go through five steps.

• Rotate – I can’t believe I have to list this here, but looking around the sites I saw over and over again photos that people just hadn’t bothered to rotate to the right way around. If you can’t be bothered to press a button to rotate your image then what kind of standards are your products made to? If a seller isn’t bothering with tiny steps like this I would honestly be wary of buying from them.
• Cropping – If you’ve done a good job framing then often you won’t have to do this, but it can help if you’ve taken a macro shot of some details and want to draw the focus of the photo in more.
• Sharpening – In the “effects” menu you will find sharpen, there’s no levels and you can’t select , just one click will crisp up your photos if you need it. I tend to do this as standard.
• Contrast – Before playing with the contrast calibrate your monitor using the image below, each square should be defined from the other, if the lighter squares blend into one another then your monitor is too bright, if the darker squares merge into each other then your montior is too dark.When your monitor is set up start playing with your photos, you want the blacks black and the whites white Look at the photo as a whole. Whilst I was studying photography at college in an attempt to save money on photo-sensitive paper I would just use tiny test strips to perfect my exposure time in the darkroom, I would think I had it spot on, print up the whole picture only to find a bit over to the side of the image where my white was grey. The wonders of digital photography means you don’t have the same issues so remember to  focus on every part of your image.
• Colour Temperature – My camera has a screwy white balance, so I generally have to do this, this slide warms or cools the colours in your picture to make them more true to life. You may or may not have to do it, but it is useful when you need it.

Above is a photo before and after going through the editing process, I think I did pretty much everything on this image but cropping. Once you get going it doesn’t take too long at all. Picasa has the ability to select a batch of photos and do the same editing to all of them. I really don’t recommend this, treat each photo individually and I promise it will be worth it in the end.

Next up in the series I intend on tackling jewellery and small accessory photography along with some tips on creating your own light tent.

What are your tips for photographing your work? Do you have a dedicated space in your home? And how willing are your friends to play models for the clothing you’ve created or is a dress form/mannequin the way to go?