On a Budget DIY Product Photography

 

Ok so you make your own products for sale. That’s awesome, its great to be a creative, however I know the problems you may be having. How do you increase your sales using social media?

This is a common question I get when it comes to advertising for crafters. You see we spend so much time perfecting our craft and putting in the work to build a body of work or collection that we forget that we need the clientele to sell it to. Sometimes our best customer may not come by for months so we have to find new customers. How do we do thus?

The standard thing I find most entrepreneurs do is they ask around and get the advice to ramp up their social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Some advise to invest in LinkedIn, Pinterest and even Snapchat depending on their product and customer. Then of course there is the ever popular… ‘You need a website’.

“This is where I often come in”

All these things are fine, they are not incorrect, as an entrepreneurial crafters you need a way to reach more people and get eyes on your products. This is where I often come in to play. You need images for your website and to post on social media pages. If you use Instagram you know how difficult it can be to gain traction on that platform especially with sub par images. Then on your website you need images that blend easily and make it enticing for visitors to click and buy.

Unfortunately it will become extremely expensive for you to hire a photographer each time you need images especially if your are a small or upcoming business. To give an example lets say you have 10 products that need to be added to your website, that’s and average of $250.00.  A few months later you realize you need images for your social media pages so you request another photo session but more stylized. This session can run your 10 products into $350.00 – $400.00 session including props.  If you wondering why it may cost that amount you can visit a few price listings online or visit this website as a resource.

So enough with the background, you came here to find out how you can take better photos on a budget. So lets get to it.

Here are the Items you will need to get started on this journey.

  • 5 in 1 photography reflector  
  • Reflector holder tripod
  • White seamless paper
  • Scotch tape
  • Continuous light or window light
  • Camera tripod/smart phone tripod holder
  • Colored acrylic platform
  • Camera – DSLR or Smart Phone
  • White foam core

With the list of items above there is little you can not do and many many images you can capture for your social media pages. View the video below for a short but complete tutorial of how you can capture images with your smart phone.

 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX9Tfl3m7so[/embedyt]

 

 

Its actually easier than it seems. Once you get the hang of it you can create up to 10 images per hour or more to post on your social media pages.