Taking photos for your Etsy Shop

I've often had difficulty photographing artwork to put in my Etsy shop. Sometimes the photography seems to take me longer than creating the original piece of art. After all, you want images that are strong in terms of composition and accurately portray what you are trying to sell. Also, if an image of the work is accurate on my monitor, how do I know what it will look like on another computer. Sometimes I'll check out my shop when I'm at the library and I'm disappointed at how washed out my page looks.

This week I had been putting off photographing a couple of new art blocks and three new calendars designs for 2016. I know that Etsy advises sellers to use a white backdrop for the primary shot and natural lighting. I'm accustomed to photographing a flat piece of art in the shade on a sunny day, but with three dimensional objects like the art blocks I had trouble getting images that I found engaging. The blocks also looked distorted and I would have to manipulate the exposure on my computer. So, I decided to take some shots in the full sun and use nature right from my back yard for some of the backdrops. The colors seemed to pop and be accurate to the art.

A crab and a rooster seemed well suited thematically to being photographed in nature, plus I lied the textural effect that it provided. Here is the link.