#11: Elevating Your Craft: The Power of Beautiful Product Photography
Can top-notch product photos really transform your handmade business? Join me on The Thriving Maker podcast to uncover the secrets of product photography that can elevate your work and your brand. Learn to craft images that not only showcase the quality and personality of your products but also tell your unique story. This episode is packed with practical tips for capturing your designs and craft pieces and the essential product and brand images you need to effectively market your work.
Building your confidence in product photography comes from experimentation, play, and practice. In this episode, I encourage you to try new techniques and continuously refine your skills to present your designs with clarity and creativity. Whether you're a maker, crafter, or artist, this episode is full of insights to help you enhance your photography.
Follow along and join our community as we build thriving creative businesses together.
Thanks for listening, please follow the podcast if you enjoyed this episode and share with a friend.
Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
“I love listening to The Thriving Maker podcast” – If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing the show! This helps me support more people — just like you — build and grow a handmade business and life they desire.
Scroll to the bottom of the show page here, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast!
Transcript:
Sarah: 0:00
Hello and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. In today's episode, I am talking all about photography and, in particular, your product photography, and taking those beautiful images of your designs and your finished work that are going to attract your audience and potential customers. So, wherever you're listening and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy. Hello and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. This is a podcast to support makers, crafters and artists to start and grow their creative passions into thriving, profitable businesses. I'm Sarah Kavanagh, your host, and I'm passionate about all things creative and how to turn your unique talents into a thriving business giving you the lifestyle that you want. I started my own handmade fine jewellery business over 15 years ago and now also help other artisans and makers build their own creative businesses through marketing and branding and techniques and strategies I've studied, learned and put into practice along my journey. Today I want to help you to establish and grow your own design-led business so that it can help support the lifestyle that you want. Think of this as your go-to resource and check in for all things strategy and marketing for your business, along with stories and anecdotes from my life as a creative entrepreneur. Thank you for tuning in and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. Hello, in today's episode I'm talking all about photography and photographing your designs and your work that you're producing and those beautiful products that and the beautiful pieces that you're making. Now I'm just going to be touching on photography. It's such a huge topic and I go into it in a lot more detail. It's one of the forms part of the Handmade Business Academy if you join us there, if you join me there. However, in today's episode, I do want to just highlight some of the important parts of your photography and your imagery that you're putting out there. So there was an image that speaks a thousand words and that is so true with your products and being a handmade artist. Now, you've spent time designing and bringing to life a particular story and a particular design and you've made that piece and it's now ready to be shown to the world, to be put on the market, to sell and for people to be able to engage in your work. So your images need to do several things. They need to tell the story and the personality of your work and of your brand. It needs to also reflect the quality of your work and of that particular piece. You can use imagery to showcase the beauty and the care that you're taking and that goes into the work that you do, and so in the previous episodes where I've talked about production, I've also mentioned been talking about recording your work and recording your steps through imagery, through photographs and video, because this really helps bring to life the work that you do and it really shows your audience the care that you're putting into your work and it's those behind the scenes shots that are important to building for your audience, to build an understanding of your designs and the work that you're putting out there and your work also will attract your perfect audience as well, those customers that are going to fall in love with your work. They're going to connect with those images that you're taking. So it's really important and they also can reflect the style of the photography that you take and also give an indication of the price point for your product as well. So it's so important and it's it is multi layered product photography and it's been brand photography and I do go into it a lot more.
Sarah: 4:09
If you join me on the Handmade Business Academy, we cover this in a lot more detail, but right now I'm just kind of going to touch on some of the essentials for some of the essential images that you're going to be taking. So you have your final piece that you want to to photograph and put out there. So some of the key shots that you're going to want to be taking are your product in situ. So as a lifestyle image. Is it something that's going to be worn? Can you show it on somebody being worn? On a model being worn? Is it being used? Is it an object that you would have in your home or on display or in an outside space? Where would, where does your product sit? Where does your design fit in the lives of your audience, in the lives of your potential customers, and recreate that setting in a really beautiful way, in a way that tells your audience how they're going to use that design, your design. So really think about taking images of your product in situ, in a lifestyle situation.
Sarah: 5:29
Now, I'm a jeweller, so obviously my work is to be worn I will take images of. Sometimes I will take images actually on a hand if it's a ring, but more often I will take images in one of the jewelry boxes and and also to create that environment around the type of piece that it is. So you're taking those styled shots, those images that speak to your audience about how your design, how your work, is seen in their lives. You also want to be capturing images that you can then use again, whether it's on your website, whether you have your own website or you're part of an online marketplace like Etsy or Folksy. So you want to capture the image, an image that you can use on that site, and it's really important that the images that you take of your products for this particular use are all consistent, so that when you're displaying your work on your website or your storefront, there is a consistency across the board, that they all feel at ease with each other and they're not competing with different styling or different lighting. So my recommendation to take to take these storefront, these website images, is to use neutral background and natural lighting and not to over style an image. You're not creating that lifestyle image. You can use that in your website for your product descriptions as well, but with your, with your images that you're going to be using on your website or your storefront, keep these fairly simple so that your design and your product is the star of the show and it's the thing that stands out in that piece.
Sarah: 7:22
And take multiple images, take them from different angles, take detail shots, take close-ups and if there's a particular detail that really key to your design, take images of that. It may be that this design is loved and gets snapped up by somebody very quickly, so you may not have another opportunity to photograph in it. Photograph it in as much detail as you have once, as soon as you've made it, as soon as you've made it, as soon as you have that day set at time to photograph your product. So don't hold back about the images you take. Take multiple images, different angles, different wide shots and close-ups, so that you really have a collection of images that you can use again and again and again. Now these images, as well as being on your website, you might use them in social media, along with those lifestyle shots as well. So create that catalogue of images that you're going to be able to use. Do that now. Once you have the product and you're, you can concentrate on just the setup and, if you can, if you have multiple pieces, you can photograph all at the same time. That is great. So when I say all at the same time, I don't mean putting them all in the same shot, although you can if it's a collection. I mean doing one after the other, after the other, so that, one, you have consistency and, two, you're optimising your time as well, and who you're optimising your time as well.
Sarah: 9:01
Another type of image that's going to be really useful for you going forward is to take an image which is like a white cutout image, so you have a pure white background. Now, nowadays, this is so easy to achieve. When I first started in my jewellery business, I would take a long time photoshopping the images to get the white background, but nowadays you can do it really easily in Canva and in Photoshop and it's very straightforward to do and to create that white background, that cut out image. To make use of the technology that's there and you, with canva, for example, it's a free you can have the free version and it's still there. That cutout facility of your um cutout option for your image is still there, so make use of it. Now, these white cutout images of your work, of your designs, they're going to be the ones that you're going to pitch to media, to whether it's online media, blog posts, online magazines, or whether it's actual print magazines as well, especially when you're getting more into the marketing side of your products and of your work.
Sarah: 10:12
Other images that you want to capture along your way and I've said this previously are all the behind the scenes shots, the tools of the trade, your workspace imagery, so that people, so that your audience, can really start connecting with your work and who you are as a maker work and who you are as a maker. So the more you can tell your story through imagery, the more connection your audience is going to feel for you and, along this theme as well, if you can, if there's somebody who is able to take these shots for you, have somebody, have some maker images taken as well. So these would be images of you ideally facing the camera and in your environment, in your workspace, in your studio, wherever it might be, so that, again, you can use this for media opportunities, but also in your own marketing, on your, on your own website or in social media. So it's all about getting connection and building relationships with your audience. So those are the main types of images that you're going to be using and all of these together help to build the story of your work, of your designs, the story of you as a maker and of your brand, and they're invaluable for your marketing efforts going forward With your photography photography.
Sarah: 11:42
You can hire a product photographer to shoot these images for you or a brand photographer to shoot these images for you, but it's also really important to be able to do some of these shots yourself. Even if you do hire a brand photographer at some point to help you with your brand imagery, being able to take your own product shots will really help as well, especially when you're starting out, because it can be a big investment to get a professional photographer in to shoot these and if you only have a small number of pieces, that's maybe not making the most of your investment. So when you're just starting out, being able to shoot your own images is really important. And also, I still shoot my own images. I have the advantage of the fact that my husband is a photographer, is a wedding photographer, and so we have a lot of equipment here and we're surrounded by images all the time. So there's there's I have the opportunity to be able to play around and practice my skills. So I do shoot all my own images and I've also done portrait and brand photography for other people as well.
Sarah: 12:54
If you have a DSLR camera fantastic, start practicing with that. If you just have your smartphone, whether it's an iPhone or a Google phone or whatever type of phone it is. There are photography apps on there which are really good nowadays, and you can take good photos just using your phone, especially if it's going to be for social media. If you, if you do join the the business academy, then I go through all of the setups and workflow for taking product images in a lot more detail, but in this episode, all I want to encourage you to do is take time to have the confidence to take your own images. The more you practice taking images, the better they will become.
Sarah: 13:45
It takes time to know what setup suits your designs best. It takes time to work out what lighting suits your work best. If you have something that's reflective, do you want to play with the reflections, play with those shadows and have that as part of your imagery, or are you trying to eliminate them? And so it takes time and practice, and the more you can spend time photographing your work, the better understanding you will have about what it is you like and the star that you're trying to create and what you're aiming for. And by spending time playing around with your photography, whether or not in the future, you do hire a professional product photographer or brand photographer, then knowing what it is you want will help immensely when it comes to outsourcing this part of your business.
Sarah: 14:40
So that's it for today. Don't be afraid to experiment, to try things out day, and don't be afraid to experiment, to try things out, and you will soon start to gain more confidence and more clarity in the imagery that you're using to present your, your designs. So good luck with all your photography. If you do want to learn more about the business side of having a craft business and building your, your skills in on on that front, then, as I said, I run the handmade business academy a few times a year so you can join the waitlist for that for when it's next released, and the link is in the show notes below. Until next time, good luck with your photography, keep experimenting, keep practicing and I'll speak to you soon, thank you.