hey everyone in this video I'm going to
show you how to photograph your products
for Etsy or your online business now if
you're new around here welcome my name
is Dahlia also known as a handmade
mastermind and I make videos on online
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your website product development
personal development finance money and
all that good stuff so if that sounds of
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okay so let's get started how to
photograph products for your Etsy shop
or even your online business well first
of all you should know that online
product photos are super important that
is the way people get to see your
products right so if your product photos
suck then there's a very good chance you
won't reach your potential you may still
sell probably not but you won't reach
the potential that you need to be
reaching especially for your product so
I want to go over a few different things
for you that will help you take better
photos and then which is a really good
bonus for you guys toward the end of
this video I'm gonna show you how to
edit those photos in Photoshop now I'm a
teacher in Photoshop that's what I have
but if you have a similar you know photo
editing program you can pretty much use
a free one that has exact same tools
that Photoshop uses I will use a few
different types of tools in Photoshop to
actually get the same results I'm
showing you okay and I find that the
things I might teach you in this you
know Photoshop tutorial toward the end
will help a majority of online sellers
because I see a lot of photos online I
coach a lot of people and I see the
exact things that people you know do
wrong when it comes to their photos but
before we get into that I'm gonna go
over some basics okay so you don't need
much to get started okay you first need
a camera a lot of times cell phones work
just fine as long as you have a newer
model I mean when I say newer I mean
don't be pulling out a flip phone okay
but most people have the newer models
that have a decent camera on them and
the pixels are fine so it should work
just fine you don't have to invest money
in a camera okay I personally have the
one I'm recording on now which is a
canon g7x
it is fantastic for a lot of different
reasons not just photo-taking okay so if
you have some money to spend that's a
great camera I personally wouldn't get
it just for product photography if you
want to do videos of your family and
things like that then fine
but as far as return on investment I
wouldn't just get it for you know four
photos of your product however again if
you have money to spend then go ahead
and do so I also have a long time ago I
purchased this guy it's the Canon Rebel
t3i
I think there's a newer model out it
might be the t5 I don't know I'll link
them down below my old model and if
there's a new one but this older model
is just fine when I do product
photography I will depend on my mood or
whatever I might use this one I might
use the one I'm recording on I don't use
my cell phone because I have these two
obviously with me but this one's a
really great one it's obviously a little
more heavy-duty so I don't take it
around with me so when I do product
photography which is usually in house or
around my home it makes the most sense
because it's larger and there's a lot of
features on here that are yes similar to
the g7x I'm recording on right now but
there's some more that that are just
better with this camera again I don't
recommend investing in this one if you
were newer to selling online if you're
not making too much money but again if
you have the money to spend this or the
canon g7x would probably be the best bet
so you need a camera of some sort
whatever you have and you need a white
background now if you don't photograph
on white background so that's not your
branding that's fine pick a background
that works within your market within
your branding okay and you also need
some natural light now natural light
when I see naturally I don't mean direct
natural light okay when the Sun is
glaring you don't want it to be you know
on your product it just won't make for a
good photo so you want it to be like a
cloudy day you want to even if it's a
sunny day you don't want the Sun to be
directly shining through your window or
anything of that sort okay so has to be
indirect and you need some props I mean
you know not every product photo
has to have props in it but if it makes
sense for your business I want you to
have that so that's the only things that
you need and your hands so besides that
before we get started into me actually
showing you me taking photos okay I want
to go over a few things I give these
tips all the time but I need to go over
it here
just to kind of you know refresh your
memory one before you saw any product
photography if you don't really have
like a style down it's important to get
your style down here's a few tips one go
online whether it to be Etsy you know
Pinterest anywhere people so products
and look around for product photography
that really captures you that interests
you that catches your attention and
favorite it or like it or pin it or
whatever right to a secret board or
whatever and as you start to gather the
things that catch your attention when it
comes to you your branding your product
type you will start to have like this
library of photos and when you look back
at this library photos you're gonna say
okay what is the elements here what is
the common denominator here that
interests me and for me I'm gonna give
you example it would be white
backgrounds it would be you know the
certain props that get used within
stationery it would be the flat lace got
tend to do flat lays a lot which is you
know the product on the whiteboard and
then me taking a picture right above you
know like directly above like eagle eye
view is that what they call it bird's
eye view I don't know so I'm just think
us the common denominators here and what
you're gonna do is figure out what the
common denominators are of photos that
you think are very attractive that you
absolutely love okay thinking about
what's being used inside the photo the
background the cropping of the photo the
positioning of the camera the colors
being used etc write those all down and
then you can start to understand what
your style is okay and what your photos
should look like if you skip this part
and you just take photos of your
products you know okay fine I could tell
you I could help you with Photoshop turn
that in this video and help you change
lighting and all that stuff but they
still won't be like wow okay some point
you do this research first understand
how your photo should look like that may
require you to go out and buy some props
after you think
style is you know buy a new whiteboard
for your background whatever but
regardless is still needs to happen okay
after you do all that product research
then I want you to create your setup
that means you're ready to take photos
okay you thought it through you know
what you want to look like take your
photos so I'm gonna take you right now
and show you how I'm gonna take photos
okay this is what I do now disclaimer I
currently use a photographer I don't
take my own photos I'm very very very
busy however there are some photos that
I have online that are still my own my
notepad photos are all my own from my
online shop and I will post a couple
right here okay for you to take a look
at those are my own however I I did hire
somebody because I just don't have
enough time and and that's that but I
can still teach you on what to do to
make it you know really attractive photo
because if I did have the time I would
produce photos that are fantastic just
like my photographers okay probably
she's a little bit better because she's
professional but you know I'm saying it
will definitely suffice so let me
literally take the camera and take you
to my little setup that I have for you
guys but I actually have my camera I
have a you know a stationary that will
take a picture of and I'm gonna show you
the exact techniques that I would
recommend you do when you quit your
setup okay it's really simple
again I have a white board but you may
have a different type of background I
suggest you know getting your background
ready and if it is not a flat lay that's
fine just focus in on the tips I'm
giving you because the biggest part
comes to cropping when I teach you that
later on Photoshop and editing the photo
okay cuz I find that some people's
photos are actually pretty decent give
or take but their editing is really bad
but I still want to go through this part
for you okay so let me set you up and
you know one second to get a good view
here hold on okay guys I'm back so I
just set up my camera so you can see me
take photos
again I'm by a window for natural light
and I happen to have a white table
sitting here if you don't I'd recommend
obviously a whiteboard or the background
color that you would prefer or the
background that you prefer the
background texture or whatever okay so
then you'll get my stationery items and
my camera and all that stuff and we'll
show you how I'm gonna start taking
photos okay guys I am back I have my
sample item of course you would have
your product this is this video is
obviously very helpful if you have a
flat lay but if you don't and you need
help
excuse me with photos that are not like
eagle eye view then comment down below
some of what product type you have tell
me what type of background you're using
and maybe I will be able to do a second
video to this to show you for you know
product photography that is not just a
flat lay okay
but let me know down below in the
comments anyway so I'm gonna set this up
it's really important that again you
look at the notes that you took when you
had to do your research on photos and
see how you're gonna set up your product
my merits would you look at the common
denominators what stands out to you the
the color the the props the you know the
background the positioning the cropping
of the photos everything so you should
by now after doing that you know
heavy-duty research no how you gonna set
up your your products and so for me I
want this envelope at a little angle and
let me show you really quick so this is
how it looks like okay I obviously don't
have any props around here at the moment
but I don't feel like looking through my
big prop drawer because I would usually
put probably like a pen or potentially
just some paper clips and you know
things that stationery and like okay but
that's what I want you to do I want you
to make sure you're putting props that
make sense and that follow your branding
okay so I have my camera ready and again
Eagles eyes view is very important to me
was also important to me is that the
paper or the item your item is not
skewed a lot of times when you're not
directly above the paper can look warped
okay or any item that you're using
um can look slightly more up especially
if it has edges so what I'll have to do
is I use this a bubble level I see that
you can see that I use this bubble level
and it will literally tell me if I'm
directly above using this alone it's
like five dollars or something like it's
chump change has saved my photos in
regards to having it being professional
looking and not warp the warp look make
it look unprofessional just to be honest
so anyway using this I'll um I'll link
some down below for you in fact I think
they actually sell bubble levels for
phones as well so if I could find some
online I'll link them down below for you
to check the description box but I
highly highly highly recommend these if
you're taking flat lace in fact you need
to get one if you're taking flat lights
okay anyway so what you're gonna do is
simply obviously go above it and using
your bubble level so you're not gonna be
able to see my face I'm using your
bubble level you want to make sure that
that you have it
well leveled okay it's fairly easy to
use I'd also really explain it
let me just change my positioning here
so you guys could see me hello um and
obviously you turn your camera on and
it's a strap out of the way or whatever
thing you're using your phone or
whatever and the idea is to make sure
that bubble level is completely leveled
okay hopefully you don't have a shaky
hand and then you're gonna go directly
above it don't zoom in okay guys don't
zoom in you could do cropping later okay
but you want to make sure that it's
leveled okay and you're directly above
it so you're not like off to the side
directly above it so there's a lot of
space around it and again you'll crop
later and so I'm using the level and I'm
waiting for it to see that it's like in
the middle and I'm the snap a photo
okay and I'm also not stopping at the
moment but you get the point I think my
battery is like somewhere around here
and not only gonna snap before you're
gonna snap multiple photos okay so again
because you never know if that one came
out blurry you never know if it was
slightly off in the bubble level etc so
I'm gonna keep going I'm gonna make sure
my let my bubble levels correct and you
keep snapping my fingers like going
crazy and the snapping button and you
have to try your best to stay still
hopefully again you have a steady hand
now at this point with this one I
probably took you know around five to
ten photos perfect okay again having it
you know stand far away from it so you
could crop on your own next thing I want
to point out is that well obviously in
this case you would have crops around
here if you did it's important to meter
the props look like they belong and that
they weren't just tossed on the flat
light okay so it has to be purposely
placed all right make sure you purposely
place your items they make sense
aesthetically okay and if you need to at
this point adjust them a little bit
because you think well the first way I
laid it worked but maybe this way will
probably be better do it because because
then you could take it over ten photos
and then move this item out of the way
and of course bring your next item in
the second that item is moved it's moved
right so you wanna make sure you
rearrange your additional items around
it in the best way okay so now again
natural lights coming through I use the
bubble level I took several different
photos to make sure the one they're not
blurry so that the bubble bubble level
was actually accurate because you don't
want to only take one photo in one of
them being that one being a little
slightly warped right and then if I need
to rearrange something there I will do
if I rearrange it a few times I will do
it and that may mean I may have a lot of
different photos but at a glance when I
upload the photos to my computer I could
see which ones will will be the best
ones or process of elimination get rid
of the ones that are absolutely horrible
again don't mind the crop you'll crop in
soon but the ones that are absolutely
horrible that look warped you know that
the the props were definitely off
etc okay now that you've done that just
remember that the lighting is not
perfect in here okay there's definitely
some shadows we're gonna adjust all that
in Photoshop including the coloring
might be slightly off and all that good
stuff but as long as you've got you know
that you know several photos that you
could work with your ahead because all
you need is really one in the end
okay so again comment down below if you
are interested in you know product
photography for items that don't or that
are not flat leaves and I would happy
I'll be happy to do a video of items
that are you know like a jewelry or
anything of the sort just to help you
guys and okay just let me know what type
of products you sell and the backgrounds
you have now I'll try to replicate that
and give you some tips okay you know
another thing I want to point out of
course taking multiple photos is make
sure that the focus is right so taking
multiple may mean that some of them may
come out blurry I have obviously text
online so it's really important that
they don't come out blurry okay so now
that I got my photos it is time its head
into Photoshop okay I'm gonna show you
exactly what I do to edit these photos
and the best part is in this Photoshop
section of the video I'm gonna show you
not just my type of photos but other
people's side photos I'm gonna actually
be taking photos from online that you
know need to be fixed and show you
exactly how to do with a few simple
tricks and Photoshop and again if you
don't have Photoshop it's okay you could
see what I'm teaching you and then you
know a lot there's a lot of free online
programs that will do similar things
okay alright okay now I'm gonna show you
how you could edit these photos in
Photoshop now I just took a few photos I
found on the Internet Takia let's see
where they show some examples of the
things like commonly see that is a
problem amongst online product photos
okay and I'm gonna show you how to fix
them okay by no means is this an exact
trill but I believe like I said I see
these issues over and over again and I
think with these little few tricks
you'll be able to adjust them yourself
again I'm using Photoshop here but if
you don't that's okay just go ahead and
pick
you know on free online photo editor
that has a few of these exact same tools
and it should give or take work the same
if you are interested in Photoshop
there's something called Photoshop
Elements that is a much cheaper version
of Photoshop I'll link that down below
however if you are in the designing
field you probably already have
Photoshop okay so let's get started
I have a photo here of you know some
yarns right and I found this online and
the issue with this photo I commonly see
is that the shadows are off and that's
it it's just the shadows that are off so
I'm gonna go in and obviously have this
photo open let me increase the size just
a bit okay and go into image and go to
adjustments okay there's a few different
things I'll be using in this portion of
the video but I'm gonna be always using
in general I find that the best tools
for people for the common most problems
I see are brightness contrast levels
curves and hue/saturation and in this
case I'm gonna use either you know
levels or curves but before I do let me
see if the brightness will work on this
one you don't want your whites to be too
white you see what happens there um so
that's not a good use in this case so
I'm gonna cancel that I'm gonna go back
into adjustments and I'm gonna go into
levels I think levels might be the
winner here
so this mid one that on the slide back
and forth will help adjust the mid-tones
and that's what's happening the shadows
are way too dark okay and I don't want
to obviously adjust the highlights the
highlights if you look back here this is
the original photo the highlights are
over here you see that if I just the
highlights that would even be more white
and I don't want that so I'm gonna move
this to the left and as you can see it
obviously lightens it up a bit okay um
and you don't want it to be so lightened
up it washes out your mid-tones okay and
some shadow is you know fine so let me
get that 1.37 I'm gonna move it down
this way more again you don't want to be
too much you want to find a good
medium where it still feels like nothing
is you know washed out and there's ways
to even correct certain sections because
as you saw I was taking a photo there
still will be areas where this still
it's more darker than others and there's
ways to adjust that as well so right now
I I lightened it up a bit compared to
the original photo which was this it's
much better right let me go ahead and
redo those okay now I'm going to see if
I could go into curves and adjust that
piece if not i'ma show your additional
trick that you could do so you see how
it's brightening up everything is almost
similar to the other one
right but this one when I did it in the
middle it brightened up everything but
when I did it over here this seemed to
like leave the colors intact I'm not
sure if you noticed there's still some
dark shadow wings in here that I'm gonna
adjust in a bit but this is starting to
look a little better
okay I'm gonna leave it like that and
hit okay and then I am going to let's
see I'm gonna put my selection tool
you're gonna find that you could use
this as well to just select a certain
part of your photo to want to adjust so
I'm gonna select you know these
mid-tones down here you see how it's
selecting you have know if you could
tell in this video and it's taking also
some of the white portion here which I'm
sort of okay with I'm gonna hit this
negative button and remove some of that
white portion because I don't need it to
be okay and so now what I'm going to do
is just play around with the mid-tones
of that selected area you don't want to
do it extreme because people could tell
them it's a disconnect so actually
before I continue I'm gonna select this
part as well okay
and I'm gonna go back to adjustments and
go to levels do you see my did I just
brained up a bit without brightening up
the rest of the photo and it removes
some of that that dark shadowing that's
kind of unnecessary all right so I'm
gonna go ahead and hit okay and then I'm
gonna remove that you know dotted
selection line and before I finish I
think the photos looking much better
before I finish I'm gonna go into image
and this adjusts the hue and saturation
in this case if you're playing around
the mid-tones highlights brightness you
might have D saturated some of your
colors or they're not true - with actual
yarn that you haven't next to you so I'm
gonna go ahead and just hit saturate a
bit and again I don't have these actual
yarn you know next to me but if if
indeed it did get unsaturated then you
can adjust this to saturate it more and
so if this looks unrealistic to you then
then don't do it but if you know if it
doesn't then of course do it again
Justin your photos may affect the
saturation so I'm just gonna bump it up
a bit
assuming that they're more vibrant
colors in person and that's it there's
some more shadowing happening here but I
don't think that's necessarily a problem
I think this bit this photo is a hundred
times better let's take a look and see
how much better I'm gonna save the the
new one and then open the original just
to show you okay as you could see oops
let me
move it here as you can see very
different right and pop it up just is
this a little bit more the highlights
I've got a little bit too bright that
father would have decreased the
highlights in here just just a bit just
a smidgen but a hundred ten times better
than the original photo which was way
too dark okay um now let's get into the
next photo in this photo you're gonna
see that the white is actually a tenth
of blue which happens to be another
popular you know issue amongst online
products their photos at least and so
I'm going to show you an easier way to
correct this blue tint in the background
so go to images go to adjustments and
then a hue/saturation by the way there's
a there's a few ways you can actually
adjust the blue or yellow yellowish tint
and all these ways are actually really
great I just prefer this way because it
works for me most of the time so and
it's really the easiest way so I go in
here and they go to instead of master I
go into the science okay or the blues
you might have to do a little bit of
both but let me try the blues first I'm
gonna go ahead to the saturate and
unsaturated okay so you see what
happened it was first around here so you
can see the background and look at it
it's removing the blue from it do you
see that I removed the blue from it you
don't have to do all the way things
might have a natural undertone of blue
to it but you definitely don't want it
to be blue right so I just removed it
and I think it's like a million times
better
um I think this is meant to be yellow
this little edging so it's fine I would
personally remove some of the shadowing
here so you could go in and adjust the
levels of curves whatever you're
comfortable with I I don't I don't know
if I said this already but I don't
particularly know the difference I'm I'm
much more comfortable with levels but
sometimes I feel like the curves work
better it just depends so I'm gonna go
ahead into the mid-tones and brighten it
up a bit okay so it brained it up a bit
I think the color got washed out just a
bit so as I hit okay on this one I'm
gonna go and go to adjustments
hue/saturation I'm gonna you know
saturate the colors a bit
all of them I'm not gonna go into one of
them and saturate them because the color
there's all colors of the rainbow in
this one some sort of saturate bit I
just went +4 and then I think that's a
million times better let me show you to
compare save as I'm gonna go ahead and
just name it something and then show you
the original okay this is the original
guys and this is the new one okay
I probably saturated the colors just a
bit more but you get the point
now the background is much less blue
much more white at me personally you
know this is a you know an interestingly
cropped photo I would have probably
picked a textured background but
nonetheless it still has to be white and
it wasn't okay and by me on saturating
the blue it definitely helped okay let's
go into the next photo and this one it
happens to be a yellow tinted background
so we didn't do the exact same thing we
just did to the blue one but we're gonna
select the yellow ish tones and remove
them so we're gonna go here and go into
the yellow and unsaturated see this this
is perfect example as I'm unsaturated
but still some yellow in there and
here's why yellows not what appears to
be L is not computer yellow if that
makes sense so why unsaturated it
okay I'm gonna hit okay I'm gonna go
back in and then go also to probably the
greens or actually well first of all
yellow means warm undertone okay so any
of the warm colors has to be probably
unsaturated and so it could be the
greens or potentially the magenta let me
show the magenta that helped a bit let
me try greens I don't think is gonna be
the greens by the way think is either
the red of the magenta there you go
and again it might be subtle when you're
viewing this will save you this video on
YouTube but it did remove that yellowish
undertone okay so I'm gonna go ahead and
hit okay and then I have a problem when
the the shadowing on here so I'm gonna
go into my favorite levels and adjust
the mid-tones a bit okay not too much
not too much and then I'm probably going
to adjust
um the human saturation I want to
saturate the colors a bit I feel like I
lost some of that when I was adjusting
there's still some darkness I feel in
here so what I'm gonna do is go into the
few different ways you could do this I'm
gonna go into curbs oops that was a
little too much right hold on this could
be a tricky thing to use by the way guys
nope it's not working the way I want to
let me bring this guy in
No
I wanted this is just the white here but
I couldn't do it without really screwing
things up you know but I think this is
definitely a lot better and now I'm
looking at it and again I've had if I
had the black and blanket in front of me
I would probably know better but I feel
like the hue/saturation could be a
little better again you don't want to
make it unrealistic it has to be
accurate to what the product is and so
there you go let me see if a brightness
can can work a bit here yeah it worked a
little bit but I wouldn't go crazy with
it
um and so there you go so let's go ahead
and save this one and show you before
and after so you know well we started
from okay so this was the original photo
and this is the after obviously a lot a
lot better we're not looking at the crop
here by the way guys if I would have
done a different crop or things like
that but the coloring is now fixed okay
let me show you one more last example um
these little baby booties this one is
just a simple brightening of the photo
the whites look like they were in a dark
room they're not particularly yellow or
blue but they just need to be brightened
a bit you can easily just go into the
brightening section and brighten it this
way but doing this way could really be
harsh because that your whites might get
too white so I think brightening it just
enough is perfect and then getting into
your levels or curves potentially
adjusting the mid-tones and the
brightness here and it could be tricky
you might have to play with this a bit
you're never gonna get it right the
first time
okay um you know this is me personally
this is important to understand you have
to start out with a really good photo
first if you have a funky background or
you know the cropping is offering like
that you know while I could adjust some
things and it makes it better like this
one it was a little bit different now
it's brighter it's sorting out the much
better photo as terms of composition and
all a bunch of other things you know
maybe a different type of back
probably in your best interest because
then you know the whole photo will look
attractive while we did brighten this up
I'm still not 100% thrilled with this
photo problem because it's not you know
just on a lace background it doesn't it
doesn't feel quite you know like wow I
need to have those baby booties right
but anyway we didn't prove the photo a
lot as you could see and the original
one if you want to remember it and I'll
show you right now was just a lot dimmer
that's really what it was it wasn't a
coloring issue particularly it was just
a lot dimmer and yes if you have the
baby booties in front of you you might
have to you know Reece a8 the colors but
this will do just fine as you could see
just use a little brightening and it's
like a million times better right
alright guys that is it that I just want
to show you just a few different tools I
use within Photoshop to make my photos a
million times better we adjust things
like the blue tinted background the
yellow tinted background shadows that
kind of like looking crazy right we also
use a selection tool to help with
particular shadows if you want to adjust
the whole photo and we also adjusted the
color and the hue just in case colors
get washed out and the whole purpose of
all of this is not to make things look
unrealistic but to make it look more
natural okay so I hope you enjoyed this
little you know tutorial toward this
part at end of the video and this whole
video in total to help you adjust your
your Etsy online you know photos your
product photos to make them better okay
but you must start out with good photos
so remember the first one is video
iswhat you how to do the research right
see what your style is and you know
figure out what the common denominator
is do that first it's really important
then take those photos and then this is
how you adjust if you want to see more
videos on your product type it and take
pictures for your you know backgrounds
if you want to show me your photos that
need help and I could do another
tutorial
you know posting a video of me adjusting
your photos then go ahead and comment
down below I'd love to do it okay so if
you enjoyed this video give this video a
thumbs up I would really appreciate
it it would help other people find this
video on YouTube and if you want to see
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notified when I post a video ok guys
hope you enjoyed bye
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