Photos uuuggghhhhhh.....

Outside of marketing, taking great quality shots of my products are a constant hurdle for me. Since a customer cannot touch and feel the product, the photo has to be able to sell the item...common sense, yes, but how?

Everyday as I scan through the thousand of photos online, it always amazes me how some folks can take such great photos and my photos always look so bad. For example I recently had three of my submission rejected by craftgawker.

The first one was the Beach Bag - Green with Flip Flops, it was rejected due to "Lighting issues - dull/unsharp." Now that I am looking at the photo here, it appears blurring. (Why didn't I notice that before?)

My second rejected item was the Wristlet White with Black Flowers, it was rejected due to "Lighting issues," which I can see that yellow glare on the right top corner and that strange bluish tint on the bottom left.


The most recent one, came as a surprise to me. It was my Even Monkeys Fall from Trees Charm Necklace, due to "Harsh lighting and/or overexposed." This photo was taken with the camera's macro setting on, in a light box...will I ever win?

So after a few days of self pity, instead of making product or posting items, or submitting items, I spent several hours looking at my photos, trying to touch up my photos and then just retaking photos. For some reason, when I look at other seller's photos with white backgrounds, those appear the cleanest, but my photos with a white backgrounds are harsh or too dull. The other thing that I do find interesting are photos with a stone or slate or distressed wood background, I notice some very pretty shots of jewelry draped upon a piece of slate. I also noticed other interesting backdrops, as in one handbag seller, she sets the item upon a distress stool in front of a painted white brick wall.

So after a few hundred or so photos later and several different backgrounds, I settled (perhaps I was frustrated and tired) on this background.

So now I wonder if this darker background is better or is it too dark? I played around with the level settings as well as the brightness and contrast, I think this still is too harsh. If you look at my tag on the bottom right it appears washed-out. And is this sharp, or dull?