Product Photography for Beginners

Learning how to take great photos is one of the most important things you can do to improve your Etsy shop. Since prospective customers can’t see or touch your item in person, photos communicate an item’s beauty and important qualities. Beautiful photos will also help your items to be featured both on and off of Etsy.

Luckily, taking great photos is a skill that you can learn! If you look at the early sold items of many sellers with wonderful pictures, you’ll see that they started just where you are now.

In this video workshop — led by successful Etsy shop owner and photographer Jessica Marquez of Miniature Rhino in Brooklyn, NY — we’ll talk shop about different types of cameras and what’s best for you. Jessica covers camera basics to provide more control over the images you create, key elements to improve your photographs for your Etsy shop, and how to solve some common problems with inexpensive, DIY fixes. Download the worksheet and watch the video above to jump start the creative process and get you thinking about creating the best possible images for your Etsy shop.

We hope this video helps you on your photo-improvement journey! Make sure to go slowly while reworking your photos; try re-doing just a few per week. Take a lot of photos of an item as you learn. This helps you to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and it also gives you a lot of photos to choose from. You’ll find that you’ll get better and better as the weeks go by. Once you’re taking gorgeous photos, then go back and re-do the rest of the photos in your shop if necessary.

Be sure to check out our other photography resources and let us know about your progress and any questions that you have in the Etsy Success team!

[Video photo credits: miniaturerhino, CoMod, debbiecarlos, OliveHandmade, LegacyStudio, iheartnorwegianwood, SillyHilli, klinker, nativevermont, leahduncan, graphicspaceswood, VieModerne, ohhhlulu, mbgdesigns, ninainvorm, TheParlorApothecary]

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About Jessica: “I grew fascinated with images (especially snapshots) and pursued art and photography throughout my booklearnin’ — all the way from sunny Southern California to an MFA in Imaging Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. Photography is my great love, second only to my love of craft and making. This pairing has brought me great joy in creating my handmade business Miniature Rhino, which I opened in August of 2008 on Etsy. It’s an honor to teach a photography workshop where I get to geek out on my favorite topics!”