What a Difference!

A pratice picture of Olivia's origami work.  Using the lightbox really gives it a clean look with great lighting.

Ok, so I've been thinking about my Etsy store and how I can improve the way my products are displayed to potential customers.  I love taking pictures but an expert I am not and on Etsy you have to compete with a LOT of great photographers.  I listened in to one of the forums that Etsy did a few weeks ago and taking pictures of your products was one of the topics.  The session was quite informative as well as humorous as the speakers gave some hilarious examples of what not to do.  One thing you should NEVER do is place your wonderfully crafted work and photograph it on your floor.  Really, they had to tell someone to not do this?  Apparently. 

I heard one of the rather well-known shop keepers discuss how she managed to take great shots of her work.  She said that she shoots into a lightbox the she made herself.  Mentally, I made a note to google how one would go about such a thing.  Well, finally 2 days ago I did some research and found that a lightbox is very easy to construct and it's something that can be done very cheaply!!  Like almost free since most of the items most of us probably have around the house anyway. 

Here is the link that I used to build my own lightbox: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox

I'm still playing around with the lighting and practicing some shots but I can tell you from the practice pictures that I've already taken it is a HUGE improvement over my previous pictures.  Now we know the secret of those wonderful Etsy photographs.  Who knew it was so easy?  And hopefully by presenting my crocheted work in a better light will make a potential customer into a paying customer.