Open your image in Picasa. Click on the Tuning tab. You’ll see four sliders, a color picker, and under that, a colored graph called a histogram. The histogram shows the distribution of light and shadow in your photo. With the sliders above it, you want to even up the distribution as much as possible, so that in your photo you have “high” highlights and “low” shadows, giving the image depth and making it “pop” from the screen with lifelike clarity.

It’s easy – while looking at the histogram, move the sliders for highlights and shadows over until each side of the histogram is stretched out to the edge of the graph. Check the photo and make sure you don’t have too much highlighting or shadow and adjust the sliders as necessary.

Notice how your picture comes alive with this easy technique?

Gold and silver stacking rings

Tiny Details: On Etsy, the product description is where your customer finds out important information about the item specifications: how heavy is it? what are the measurements? is it available in different sizes? can it be customized? So make sure you take the time to measure your item, describe the weight and feel, and spell out any options that are available.

Search friendly: The description should also be a rich repository of relevant keywords so that buyers can find your item easily and it shows up higher in search results, both on Etsy and search engines like Google.  Make sure that your keywords occur early in your description. Choose certain keywords that are descriptive of the product and your shop in general. For example, one of favorite keywords is “rustic”. It describes my jewelry well, and helps people find me. I try to include this keyword in most of my titles and descriptions. A general rule of thumb is that you should repeat the most important keyword that is in your product title, in the first sentence of your product description. If my item is titled “Rustic Sterling Silver Stacking Ring”, then I begin my description like this: “I handforged this rustic sterling stacking ring and added oxidation to bring out the details.” Wow, I got almost the whole title in there, and it doesn’t sound fake or forced. Google will like that.

Your Vision: If you have an artistic vision for the product, you should include it in your description. Make sure it is from the heart, and your story will resonate with the right people. For example, my brass stacking “Redemption” rings have an interesting and true story that have persuaded many buyers to get the ring because they identify with the story. One customer fighting a deadly and rare disease purchased my Braveheart ring in part because of my vision for the ring. Don’t make up a story just to make one up – that’s not compelling to the buyer and it is easy to see through. It’s better not to force yourself to make up a backstory. I don’t include an artistic vision on every product, just on the ones that are clear and obvious to me.

Suggestions: Buyers appreciate usage and customization suggestions, so include them in your description and even if visitors don’t read your description, the keywords will be searchable. You’re not supposed to include suggested uses in your tags, but there’s nothing wrong with putting them in the description. Often I’ll include sample personalization ideas in the description and buyers will use those ideas. This makes the buying decision easier, and that’s a good thing for you.

Link back to your main shop page: I include this on every product. That way if a buyer lands on your product page from a search engine or an inward bound link, it’s easier for them to find and *stay in* your shop, as opposed to going right for the orange box at the top of the page (that links to the main page of Etsy). I’ve read in the forums some opinions that Google Shopping frowns on links in the product description, but I’ve been doing this for over a year and have not experienced any problems. Your mileage may vary.

As you can see, your product description is really important. The time you spend crafting a well-written description is worth it.

Rustic Braveheart Copper Ring

First, is it a good plan? If you’re signing up for one of those fad diets, you might be wasting your time and money. Or if you can’t live without carbs, don’t expect the Atkins Diet to bring great results on the scale. In the same vein, you have to find the right place to advertise your Etsy business. Know your target market and tailor your ads and the places where those ads will be seen to your target.

Second, are you putting enough effort in? Now that you’ve found the perfect diet or ad venue, your job is not done. You have to put the effort into “working the plan”. Are you following the rules of the diet to a “T” or are you a little fuzzy on the calorie limit? Regarding your Etsy product, are you offering the very best to your potential customers? Are you displaying that in your ad, and perhaps more important, when potential customers visit your shop are they impressed by what they see? You might be on the best diet plan in the world but if you don’t put the effort in, you won’t see results. Same thing goes for your advertising plan.

Finally, are you just dieting or are you adding in some exercise too? You will see faster results if you exert yourself on a daily basis, both in your weight loss efforts and in your quest to get more sales. Add in a routine that includes getting the word out about your shop by networking with bloggers. Offer stellar customer service that makes your buyers want to tell the world about their experience with you. Find ways to give of your time, your resources, and your abilities – be generous, and the world will be generous to you.

Give these things a try, and who knows? Suddenly you may discover a lean, mean sales machine emerging from that once sedentary shop.

Oxidized Sterling Nugget Rings

Last time I talked about lighting. This time I want to share my thoughts about settings and background. In an effort to dress up their photos, sellers will place items on busy backgrounds like patterned paper, or surround the item with foliage or flowers. This rarely works well because in order to draw someone in to your shot and coerce them to click through, your product needs to be the most important thing in the picture. I heard someone say that your item needs to be the star. With small items like jewelry, that is especially true.

There should be no doubt in the shopper’s mind what you are selling. That doesn’t even mean that the entire piece needs to be inside the boundaries of the photo – sometimes it’s better if you leave a bit to the imagination. What is means is that there should be nothing else in that photograph that distracts your buyer from the item you are trying to sell. Nothing.

Simple is better. It’s good sometimes if your background has some texture, but not too much texture. Color, but not too much color.  Definitely not too much of both.  I use tumbled marble tiles for a lot of my photos. They have a lot of texture but very little color, so it works.

If you are showing your item on a human model, the rules are a bit different. If the model is attractive, this can work in your favor for getting clicks and it doesn’t matter quite as much if your item is competing with the model for attention. Get them to click and then you can show them more details about the piece you’re selling.

Renaissance Pattern Wedding Set

Note: My jewelry business was launched with hardly any cash outlay, so another benefit to my favorite method of getting the product shoot is that it is very inexpensive.

Natural Light

The most important element to taking a great jewelry photo is lighting. I am a proponent of natural light, the kind that comes from the sky. For one thing, it’s free. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on bulbs, light stands, light boxes (even homemade ones take cash), diffusers, or any other kind of equipment. All you need is the outdoors, or my favorite, the ubiquitous window sill. No exposure to the elements required!

When I first began taking photos of my jewelry, I did what most people do. I placed the jewelry in an attractive setting like an embroidered tablecloth or a beautifully printed piece of paper, turned the lights on, zoomed in, and clicked. Unfortunately, this method produced washed out photos with a lot of glare.

Washed out, with glare

It didn’t take me too long to figure out that this style of photography wasn’t going to cut it. As beautiful as my renaissance crown might have been, looking at this picture you’d really have to use your imagination to realize it. Not only is it washed out with a harsh glare – it’s out of focus and the background is way too “busy.” (More on that in another post.)

Next, I moved on to outdoor photography. This worked OK for some things, but I was having the hardest time getting a good shot of say, shiny silver items. This was because I was setting my item in direct sunlight – not a good plan for bringing out the texture and details of your piece. The key to good lighting is to have some light and some shadows – but neither of these should be harsh or hard. Harsh light washes out or causes glare, and hard shadows obscure parts of your photo or cause a distracting extra shape in your composition. The solution to this is to use bright, but diffused light.

Bright light from the sun is perfect, but it needs to be diffused. This is what makes a cloudy day ideal for taking photos of your jewelry in natural light. The harsh glare of direct sun gets eliminated, and so does the hard shadow. Everything is softer and more subtle, which focuses the attention on your jewelry instead of other distracting elements. So when there’s a cloudy day in the forecast (for some people this is every day!), take advantage of it to get some great shots.

What if you need to take picture and it’s a sunny day? There are many ways to use the bright light of the sun while avoiding the harshness of its rays. One way is to take pictures in the shade. Make sure your shade is consistent and not dappled like the effect you get under a tree. Dappled light will just make your photo dappled. Find some good shade and then experiment with pictures. Sometimes bringing the item right to the edge of the shade will provide a good balance of light and shadow, while shooting your piece in shade that is too deep can result in a flat, dull picture.

Another sunny day solution is to use the window sills in your home. If you’re lucky, you have sills on more than one side of your home, which allows you to use different ones depending on the light levels and the time of day. Window sill photography is my favorite method for getting the lighting just right. For example, I have a sill in my bedroom that is perfect for getting dramatic shots when the sun is just coming up.

Dramatic morning light

The picture above was taken with no flash, just the diffused, interesting light from the early morning sun.

Other sills in my home give me good results in the afternoon and evening. If you have a large window that allows a lot of light in, you can even move your shots further away from the window and experiment with light balance that way. Whatever you do, don’t use your flash! Find out how to turn it off and then keep it off. If your photo comes out too dark, you just need to move closer to your natural source of light.

Next, I’ll share some of my tips for getting a good background.

Kelly

Posted November 23, 2009 at 1:23 am | Permalink

I am a social worker and work with children and families who have had their child removed for one reason or another. I see a lot of pain and sadness throughout the day, and while it can be really hard, the joy of seeing family succeed is so amazing. I would choose the bracelet and get “Hope Never Dies” inscribed. All these families need is hope that life can be better for them.

And the winner of the ring, whom I chose myself, is Laura.

Laura

Posted November 24, 2009 at 4:31 am | Permalink

I would love to win the ring. If I were to win I would like MOON inscribed on it as my niece always tells me she loves me to the moon and now being on the other side of the world from her, it would make me feel slightly closer to her.

Congratulations to both of you! Kelly and Laura, please get in touch with me at tinahdee <at> gmail.com to let me know your address, and in Laura’s case, your ring size.

Second, is one of my silver dogtag unisex bracelets:

I’ll choose two winners: one person who specified the ring, and one who specified the bracelet. Here’s how you play:

For one entry,  leave me a comment and let me know which item you’d like to choose, what you’d like inscribed, and why.  For extra entries: tweet with a link back, make a blog mention with a link back, become a Facebook fan (or if you’re already a fan let me know), and/or recruit a fan (get someone to sign up as a fan then comment and let me know who). Each one of these actions get you another entry, but you have to make a separate comment for each action.

The giveaway begins now, and ends Thanksgiving night. I’ll be choosing one winner via random drawing, and the other winner according how much I liked your inscription idea, so give me your best!

Good luck.

I’ve been wearing mine since yesterday, and even though my breastfeeding days are long gone, I love this ring! The tiny letters are subtly small, so this is not like trying to wear your nursing bracelet out in public. No one would know what it is unless you showed them. This attractive ring goes everywhere – to the store, out to eat, or anywhere your day takes you. You can even sleep with it on, which helps for that groggy first feeding of the day (or middle of the night).

Sterling breastfeeding reminder ring $60