Photographing Jewelry to Capture Customer Affections

When you are trying to engage your customer with an online photo of your product, it can be difficult to capture their fickle affections. It is important to impart a "come-hither" personality to your items! The cliche is true that "one picture is worth a thousand words" when it comes to online shops.

I have thousands of hours invested over the last few years upgrading my jewelry photos. And, I find that I love the photo process as much as creating my handcrafted jewelry line, or creating marketing plans for my other jewelry lines. GalleriaLinda's product photos have improved 10,000% since the first one taken! Through that process I learned some things from the school of hard knocks.

Here are tips that I discovered and will share with you:

• You can find all kinds of photography tutorials for online businesses and most say to not use a flash, do use natural light when possible, keep the photo simple, take closeups or crop
  
• Props are OK but tricky. I have tried it all. Any hint of busyness will make the visitor look elsewhere.
• I found that antique glassware makes for some awesome backgrounds when you crop closely so you don't identify with the glass object.
  
• Natural light is possible by finding a suitable window and placing tracing paper over it to diffuse the light - not with streaming sunshine, though.
  
• Using the "natural light through the window" method - don't be surprised if during certain seasons that your photos suffer. The sun is in different positions during the seasons relative to your window location. Find another window!
  
• With the natural light issue, your white balance on your camera is your best friend. Take the week you need to read your camera instructions - it is worth it.
• Product placement, posing, staging, and style is extremely important in creating interest in your photo. Play around with it - try all kinds of scenarios and KISS (keep it SIMPLE silly!)
  
• Just when you think that you have tried all setups - try one more. That is usually your "a-ha" moment.
• What you place your item on is important too. Color? Texture? Translucency? These factors all depend upon these same features in your product. Think of contrasting these elements in your items to your photo staging elements.
  

I have found that an inexpensive stretched canvass from the art shop makes an excellent base. It provides a very subtle texture and a light lifter.

Book leathers and covers are great textural elements that can be used minimally - not for the entire foundation. Less is more, remember. Sometimes I will place the stretched canvass on top of a book just so the book color and texture peaks out at a corner. Check my photos on the link below and you will see what I mean for a good example of less is more.

To look at some great photos that I have recently taken, check my new shop for GallerialLinda's gemstone and sterling jewelry product line.

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The 3 Faces of GalleriaLinda - Jewery Schizophrenia?

I admit it! I might need an intervention! I started the GalleriaLinda.com business with handcrafted jewelry in mind for the focus.

It still is all about that, but my affections are jewelry-specific flaky in general. I am passionate about handmade jewelry, but I love vintage jewelry and I love handmade sterling and gem imported jewelry. The natural progression, then, would be an expansion of GalleriaLinda.com to include all the jewelry goodness that GalleriaLinda can find. And, so I did.

First came the handcrafted contemporary beaded and silver wire jewelry that I so passionately make - even from the beginning of girlhood.

Second came the vintage jewelry. As I was rooting around some old family treasures last year, I latched on to some jewelry items that were absolutely fabulous. An idea was born and I was hooked. Finding vintage, online and off, just fills my heart with excitement!

Last came the sterling and gemstone jewelry. Because of time spent in Brazil (the world's gemstone mine) as a child, I came to appreciate gemstones and sterling at an early age and never shook that affection. I remember going through my mother's jewelry box and trying on amethyst, topaz, citrine, white agate, hematite, tourmaline, and other fabulous gems, and this was way before colored stones were all the rage.

I searched for over a year to find an appropriate supplier that would meet my criteria for a jewerly gemstone and sterling product. I am so pleased with the jewelry designs, gems, and quality. And frankly, they sell in person like hotcakes. Jewelry hotcakes are always a good thing!

You will find each of these genres of jewelry in different venues and according to venue requirements for listing. But, it is all directed by my web site at GalleriaLinda.com.

Why not surround yourself with the things you love. I did!

Handmade Baubles - Too Good to Give Up!

I think a lot of us create jewelry and accessories that we would wear ourselves. If that is the case, then they would also go with our wardrobes - yes?

OK, ok....I confess!

I created this unusual mix of earthy Fancy Jasper in deep greens and burgundy wine with classic, traditional Swarovski crystal pearls in the pearliest, lightest of dove grays. Casual, but elegant...earthy but classic...a thrilling mix of contemporary and traditional in today's chunkier style.

Of course, it matches my wardrobe!! And, yes, it is now in my personal collection of GalleriaLinda Contemporary Beaded Jewelry!

Now I've Done it!

I have been in a "think tank." For months. Figuring out where I want to take the GalleriaLinda business.

I love designing and creating jewerly and will always do so, however, because I work full time too, I often feel rushed to just make something - anything - to have a full online shop. It is stressful.

Earlier this year, I added vintage jewery. That is fun and I LOVE that! Researching the styles of days gone by...looking at good craftsmanship....and the sparkle! I will continue to do that too. In fact, I found a little shop in Indiana that has buckets of vintage jewerly. There is nothing better than buckets of jewery, I always say.

For a year, I have been searching for some other type of jewelry to round out my product lines. Some type that I don't have to make. And, I found the most wonderful imported sterling and gemstone product around. These are handmade in India and Nepal and each design is made in limited quantity. Each shipment has designs a little different. The stones are just good, sound, foundation stones for any jewelry wardrobe. Amethyst, Malachite, Lapis, Rainbow Moonstone, Carnelian, and Coral are a few that I have on hand.

I am in love! The earrings are just the right size for work or for more formal occaisions. Right now, I have stocked earrings but will add pendants soon. I looked for quality, market-friendly designs, weight of sterling, gemstones and one more thing. I was looking for an importer who had the same values as I do, seeking quality from those who earn a fair wage.

Now I am in the middle of researching online venues for each of these new types of jewerly.

So, now my dream has come true. I feel like a real business woman with multiple, complimentary product lines. Now, I can spend creative and thoughtful time on my own designs while keeping my shops filled and anticipate that my own design journey will blossom.