Are you spending more time trying to capture a good photo of your handmade products than actually creating your products?
You’re not alone.
In fact, many makers find taking product photos one of the most time consuming areas of their craft business.
But don’t worry because I’m gonna share with you time-saving tips so you can get back to doing what you love most - creating kick-ass handmade products, building your craft business or maybe kicking back and taking breaks a little more often.
So if you feel like you have little to no time to take product photos or you just want to simplify the process, let’s dive into tips to speed things up without compromising on capturing awesome photos of your crafts.
Plan your photo shoots
Before you pick up your camera and start taking photos, one of the best ways to save time is to plan and strategize what you’re trying to accomplish.
It’s so easy to dive in and start taking photos (I know you do this), but who wants to go back and have to reshoot photos or spend time trying to fix photos that didn’t come out right?
No one’s got time for that.
Instead, answer these questions first so you go in with a clear idea of what you’ll be aiming to do, what you’ll need so you stop wasting time.
- What type of photos are you going to take?
- What shots do you need for each product?
- What lighting do you need?
- Do you need props?
- What background will you use?
Got a clearer idea of what you’re planning on doing?
Great, let’s move onto the next step!
Prep your photo shoot
Now that you have an idea of what type of photos you’ll be taking and what tools you might need, it’s time to start gathering and prepping your photo shoot.
Here are a few questions to help you think through what you may need to get ready:
- Where will you be taking product photos?
- Are your products prepped and ready?
- What equipment or tools do you need?
- Do you need to charge any batteries or equipment?
No one likes their phone or camera dying in the middle of taking product photos. That’s why you need to get things prepped, charged and ready when the times times to take photos.
Once you’ve got things ready, it’s time to start taking those click-worthy product photos for your online shop.
Speed up the photo taking process
Get your favorite Spotify playlist queued up because this is where you’ll be spend a decent amount of time so let’s make this as fun and easy as possible:
1. Get everything ready
Make sure your products, lights props and anything else is easily accessible and ready to go when you start taking photos.
2. Put your camera on a tripod
Seriously, a tripod will make photographing your work so much easier.
3. Use the same background for your photos
Switching out backgrounds frequently will eat up your time because you have to change the background, adjust your setup, your products and so on. Make things easier and stick with a background that will work for all your products. Doing so will also make your online shop look visually more cohesive and professional to online customers.
Now before you start thinking it’s time to upload your photos and get your product listed, you need to make sure your handmade products look their best. This means popping your best photos into your favorite photo editing software and give your photos a little touch up. So next, let’s get into time-saving editing tips!
Streamline your editing skills
Editing can feel intimidating and overwhelming for a lot of makers so if that’s you, check out this blog post where I show you how you can easily edit your photos, even if you're totally new to editing.
Now, just like with everything else I’ve talked about in this post, here are a few shortcuts to speed up the editing process so you get your products listed and in front of customers online in no time:
1. Download your best shots
Before you download your all photos to your computer, preview your photos to select what photos are worth downloading. This saves you time and hard drive space!
2. Batch edit your photos
Whether it’s resizing or making quick adjustments, batch editing your photos will speed this process up. Check your software program for this feature.
3. Organize your photos
You waste tons of time searching for files so why not make it easy on yourself? Create folders for each product and drag the photos for each product in their respective folder. Make sure you title your files with a description like something easy like product_color_typeofshot.jpg so you know exactly what each photo is.
Final Thoughts
Your product photos are so important to selling your crafts online so stop winging it all the time and apply these tips!
It’s time to to say goodbye to endless hours of struggling to take photos and hello to more time to creating your handmade products and shipping them out to excited customers.
Lastly, if there’s anything you take away from this is that planning will save you so much time and stress.
Got any other time-saving tips when it comes to photographing your handmade products? Share your tip below or share what tip you’re looking forward to trying out.