Amplify Your Etsy Product Listings with Quality Storytelling Photography

June 24, 2021 in Blogger Photography, Brand Image Photography, Commercial Photography, Editorial, Oregon, Personal Brand, Photography, Product Photography, Products, Small Business by Molly Bermea

We can all agree, successful Etsy Shops that contain quality photography of the products sold in them, do better than those who don’t make this a priority. Amplify your Etsy product listings by showcasing your products in lifestyle scenes. Showing shop fans and potential buyers storytelling scenes helps them agree that this item belongs in their life! Which then of course leads to higher purchasing potential!

Putting quality lifestyle photography on the top of your priority list is that key element to amplifying your current listings. Amplification is a great way to look at what you can do with the resource of a custom stock library to pull from for your Etsy Shop as well as all your other marketing needs (website, social media, and partnership marketing photography).

It can take a lot of work to plan and coordinate product lifestyle shoots. Showing the presence of a person (or people) in your shots will elevate the scene even more, but it’s not always necessary.

Some good tips for setting up a successful scene:

Declutter! Keep the scene basic and simple. Pull out any plants or furniture that really doesn’t help tell the story or seems to crowd your product.
Cleanliness! Always bring something to dust or wipe down surfaces (old hand towels and glass cleaner are great). Dust and cobwebs show up so easily in photography and you won’t notice until you start editing.
Get a good Model! Many are willing to model for trade of product and/or modeling portfolio. Hiring a model will pay off as well, don’t be too cheap. Don’t be afraid to share the photos with your model to use in their portfolio. If you are not paying your model outright, you may consider booking 2-3 people as it goes, people working for cheap or free tend to flake out or cancel last minute. Have a backup!
Brand Style! Be sure that your model knows what to wear and how to do their hair and makeup (or provide that service). I always discuss and research my clients brand style and discuss with the client, then I have the model bring 3 outfit choices we can choose from. I feel like keeping the outfit minimal helps keep the shoot flowing.
Bring Backups & Multiples! Bring multiples of the same product in case something gets dinged in transport or during shooting, or you simply didn’t like the initial choice you wanted to go with.
Have some sort of Assistant or person who can act as Assistant for cleaning scenes, product quality checks, tags hanging out, dust and cleanliness and simply and extra pair of eyeballs on set.

I could provide many more resources, but the biggest advice is to hire a photographer who knows how to plan, coordinate and get through one of these shoots with the highest efficiency possible. If it’s not your area of expertise, then don’t try to be the one-man band, otherwise, you’re going through all this work for lackluster results. Outside of hiring a photographer who can handle the planning, make sure you’re getting a high turnover of the shots (and nicely edited work) as well as making art decisions on the fly if the original ideas are not going as planned.

Often we have an idea in our head how the visuals and location will go. But often the weather or sunlight or models not showing up or other random things can affect the shoot kicking off, make sure that everyone can make it work. I always have a plan A, B, and C and even a D if necessary! I will make it work! 🤣 👌🏼

For these Mache lifestyle shoots, most of our scenes generally include some type of window in the scene and we drag most of the furniture and end tables out of the frame to keep it tidy. Overcluttered scenes can take away from what you want to be the “hero” (your product). Also, remember to shoot anything happening outside your projected shot list as well as shots without people in them. The sky is the limit to how these shoots end up!