This week’s volunteer for our photo critique is a designer of something near and dear to all our hearts … shoes! We’re so happy to have Ricardo Tovar on our site, and wish that more shoe designers would join us as well.
To begin with, we really like this designer’s very sleek shoes but the overwhelming consensus is that we just need to see more. Give us MORE, we say! Ideally, we’d like to see more alternate views of each shoe (most only have one shot), closeups that show off details, and even model shots if possible. We’d also like to learn more about the shoes from the descriptions, too … no detail is too small to include, and the more info you’re able to give, the more comfortable a buyer will be with making a purchase. You really want to make them feel like they’re holding the shoe in their hand (or slipping it onto their tootsies!)
In terms of photo quality, the shots could definitely use a bit of tweaking. The lighting appears to be from a small source like a built-in flash, which leaves things looking a little harsh, with some hot spots bouncing off of the highly reflective leather. We’d definitely recommend experimenting with some different lighting setups to get a brighter, cleaner, and softer look. We’d love to see backgrounds that are more complimentary to the shoes, too … the wrinkled fabric in these is a little distracting and, unfortunately, doesn’t put the shoes in the spotlight they deserve.
Overall, we think this is a boutique from a very talented designer that just needs a little more attention, and a bit of an injection of the designer’s own style, imagination, and personality. Another thing to try might be to look online for some stores or designers that you admire, and pay particular attention to how they market their shoes. Almost always you’ll find some spark of creativity that you’ll be able to apply to your own work. Here are a couple of places we found that we thought did a very nice job of showing off their shoes:
Marimekko (above): http://tinyurl.com/5anwzs
Patrick Cox (above): http://www.patrickcox.com/
Anthropologie (above): http://tinyurl.com/5arw73 (some cool ideas for backdrops here!)
We’ve suggested a lot of things here (as we always try to do!) and we know it can get overwhelming. So here’s something else to consider. We’re very aware that most of you out there are first and foremost fashion designers. If all of the little details and minutiae of producing photos and writing descriptions gets to be too much, don’t forget that often the best answer is to outsource these marketing-related tasks to someone else. If your talent is designing and not showing your pieces in their best light, then let someone else do that for you. There are tons of fabulous photographers and copywriters out there who can lend their talents to making YOU look great.
So if you’re spending too much time stressing over photos, just remember that sometimes the best answer (and the one that can best free you up to concentrate on what you’re best at) is to get some help!
As always, we wish Ricardo Tovar (and all of our smashing designers) nothing but the best, and we hope that our critique will be helpful. Anyone else have thoughts or suggestions? As always feel free to email them to us at …. or comment below. We have also run out of stores to critique so if you are ready to do some spring cleaning on your store (or show everyone how amazing you are) email me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.
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Great photos of shoes here too. http://www.hestervlamings.com/ Click on her collections.
Who else has sexy, fashionable, shoe photos?
I want those marimekko shoes! Fabulous!!!