Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Stella Erwin's™ 

Just about anyone you ask or anything you read about being successful on Etsy, emphasizes the importance of great photos.  Picking up from the last post and keeping with the "how to take great photos" theme, Kevin of OhioPicker.etsy.com shared some of his photos tips with Stella Erwin's™. To showcase his great photos below are 2 items from his shop.  Listing links follow.

Wooden Drawer Shadow Box - $78
$36 - Burlington Sandblast pipe
https://www.etsy.com/listing/218357778/burlington-sandblast-vintage-smoking?ref=shop_home_active_1&ga_search_query=pipe

https://www.etsy.com/listing/218387914/wooden-drawer-shadow-box?ref=shop_home_active_3

To begin says Kevin - "Use the Program feature on your camera and properly adjust the white balance & exposure settings. This may take some practice and lots of sample photos to get the perfect settings for your lighting conditions."

  • Set up a small area for your indoor photo shoots. 
  • Use a white or neutral background. If you don’t like a stark white background just make sure your background is not too dark.  My wife uses old gray colored barn wood and an old crusty white painted ceiling tin. Just about anything neutral will work. (Blogger Note: The photo in the listing below is sitting on the barn wood with the white ceiling tin behind.) 

Excess Baggage Print - $16
https://www.etsy.com/listing/66746610/excess-baggage-1906-print-howard?ref=shop_home_active_24

  • Make sure there isn’t an overwhelming pattern in the background. You want your item to be the main focus, not the background.
    • With a little luck you can get a huge white vinyl pull down (rolled type) window shade or an old vintage projector screen to use. They are easy to hang, clean & store. They are also cheap usually under 10 bucks. 
    • For smaller items painted boards or poster board work well. If you paint a backdrop make sure you use satin or flat, not a gloss paint. 
    • Large paper roll backdrops are a pain, they tear and get dirty. 
Blogger Note: - More examples of Ohio Pickers fantastic photos
Steampunk radio parts $48
$28 - Vintage Keys


A word or 2 about light bulbs:
  • Use correct light bulb color spectrum 5,000 – 6,500K (kelvin rating).  6,500K is the best. The lower the spectrum rating the more yellow your photos will look. Do not use incandescent bulbs as you will be fighting with a yellow tint in your photos. You can buy 6500K Daylight GE energy smart compact fluorescent bulbs for a few dollars each. Make sure you get the 26 watt (100 watt replacement or equivalent) bulbs. If the boxes are not marked with the spectrum most of the time the bulbs are marked on the base. They may be a little hard to find as most of the bulbs sold are lower (softer light) spectrum bulbs. 6500K is the key.
  • I use 6 bulbs total. Each bulb is installed in a work light reflector that can be purchased at any hardware store (about 10 dollars). 
  • don't use the camera flash, soft white incandescent bulbs or "auto" feature on your camera.  
    • the flash will overexpose most photos and wash out the image
    • incandescent light bulbs will give your photo a yellow tint
    • auto feature will often make your photo look dark
OhioPicker.etsy.com is a successful Etsy shop, with over 2600 sales, 8150 admirers and 1066 reviews - all of that since 2010.  

Visit OhioPicker.etsy.com, take a look at the fabulous photo listings and spend some time shopping through a great eclectic mix of history.   


5 comments:

  1. Great tips, Julie. Thanks for sharing Kevin's photographic expertise!

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  2. Thank you so much for featuring OhioPicker and their wonderful photos and tips!

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  3. Ohio Picker does have incredible photos. Glad to feature that work and good tips.

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  4. This is so underrated, listing photos, that is. Thanks for giving this topic some airtime! And wonderful tips :)

    Popping over from the EBT...

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  5. Fabulous blog posts, Julie!
    OhioPicker's tips for artificial lighting are much appreciated for our gloomy winter days.

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