Smashing Darling Blog

There’s much to commend in the Broken Teepee Designs Boutique from Montana … we don’t know about the teepee, but we don’t see much that’s too broken here!

First, we love seeing this much product in a boutique - there’s lots for shoppers to see here and plenty of places to look to find something special. We also absolutely love this designer’s item descriptions. They have a very personal feel and are colorful, fun, and engaging - the perfect complement to the style of the jewelry. The photography has a good degree of consistency (especially on the main images), and the designer has made very good use of alternate views - almost every image has LOTS of alternate shots to look at.

In terms of the photography, there are a few things that pop into our minds here at the SmashingDarling world headquarters that could help to set this boutique apart:

1. Carry the style though - As we mentioned, we feel that this boutique has a great thing going with the intertwining of the style of the jewelry with the marvelous descriptions. These two elements working so well together creates a colorful personality for this boutique and lays the foundation for some excellent branding opportunities. To that end, the first thing that we would recommend is to carry that style through to the photos themselves. To us, the jewelry has a fun, colorful look with a strong connection to nature that we feel could be continued into the photography more effectively than it is. Many of the images use a gray backdrop with a fade to black that just seems a little somber for these vivacious little gems.

Our suggestion would be to really play up the personality of the jewelry in ways that start to create a unique branding for the store. Don’t weigh colorful pieces down with heavy, dark-toned backgrounds. Get them out into light, try higher key shots that are brighter and more airy. Maybe even try more earthy backgrounds that relate to Montana and reinforce that strong tie to nature - think stone, sun-bleached wood, rough-hewn fabrics, and other simple, natural elements. Remember, though, that the key with backgrounds is not to go over the top - they should always enhance the shot and create a stage for the product, not overwhelm it.

Sea Dreams Earrings

2. Show us your softer side - In terms of lighting, many of the images in the boutique seem to be just a bit of harsh side … hard edged light, strong dark shadows, and often a very angular light quality that appears to come from a small light source. While hard light and deep shadows can certainly be used to create drama in a shot, we’re not sure that they’re very well suited to the jewelry’s personality here. What we would recommend is using a large light source like a softbox (B and H Photo is a great start), or otherwise diffusing the light that’s falling on the jewelry to help create more evenness and soft shadows.

One inexpensive way to get that soft light quality without a ton of special lighting equipment is to photograph jewelry in a light dome or PortaCube. These products essentially create little pockets of soft, diffused light for you to set up your products in (almost like having a tiny, all-white studio.) Check out Calumet Photo’s products: Click here

Lady Slipper Necklace

3. Sharper Images- Lastly, we notice that a fair number of the images are not especially sharp. This could be a very, very easy fix - as simple as shooting with a tripod or making sure that you’re shooting at a narrrow enough aperture. If you find that you just can’t get those razor-sharp images that you’d like even with a tripod, you may find it’s time to upgrade your camera. All lenses (and cameras) are not created equally!

Flirtier Bracelet

Again, congratulations to the great start that Broken Teepee Designs is off to, and we hope that these ideas might really help to create a unique identity for this boutique. So what does everyone else think? Give us something good! As always, we can’t wait to hear from you and hope that our ideas are helpful. Let us know by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.

Third time’s a charm, they say, and we’re absolutely charmed by this designer’s luscious jewelry. We’d like to begin this critique with some correspondence we received from her. Natha writes:

When people see my jewelry in person and see the quality and craftsmanship, I make many sales quickly, but my web sales are really slow … I would like some ideas on what to do to make it easier for and encourage customers to purchase from me. My photography is professional but does it show the jewelry in it’s best light?

We think her comments are right on target and reflect what a lot of designers new to electronic media and internet marketing have experienced. Getting people to buy something when they can’t hold it in their hands and see it on takes a lot of work, and good photography, we feel, is absolutely key. That’s what these critiques (and the photo tips in earlier blog postings) are all about!

To kick things off, Luscious Metals is to be commended for a high degree of consistency in the boutique images, and the choice to go with clean, clutter-free backgrounds can be a very pure and professional look that brings out the best in metallic objects. The descriptions are clear and well-written, too. This boutique is off to a very good beginning, and the designer has clearly put a lot of effort into producing good photos, many with a good mix of alternate views and strong model shots.

That said, here are a couple ideas for how they could kick the imagery up a notch:

1. White it out - Our first recommendation (which is true for everyone) is if you’re going to use the high-key look, make sure the background is pure white. A number of the images in this boutique are more towards the gray, and unfortunately these end up looking a tad muddy. To make those sparkly metals pop, it’s gotta be pure white. The good news is that this is a very simple adjustment to make in Photoshop (and if you’re using a professional photographer, he/she could definitely take care of this for you easily.)

Starlight Necklace

2. Dimensionality - One of the most important considerations when shooting against white (especially with small items such as jewelry) is to be sure to keep things from looking too flat. In this case, many of the items in this boutique look as if they have been shot from directly straight-on (or overhead) angle, with the product resting directly on the backdrop. While this is great for showing detail, often this approach can lack a little bit of dimension and “dramatic” feel. What we would recommend first is to mix it up a bit … try different angles, and experiment with focus and depth of field to isolate detail. Another approach that may be worth trying would be to move the jewelry out a bit from the backdrop and make the lighting a bit more angular, using directional lighting to cast a soft shadow and add a little depth (while still keeping that high-key look that you’ve established.)

Circle and Bar Earrings

3. Get a little closer - Come on, don’t be shy. Seriously, though, we feel that the images in this boutique could benefit from a little bit less white in places, and a tighter focus on the product. Get that lens in as close as possible, and crop excess background out as necessary … don’t forget that the focus is the product and too much empty space can cause your product to get a bit lost.

Message Bar Necklace

We hope that these ideas might start some wheels turning (not to mention sales!) and we again thank Natha Perkins for allowing us to take a close look at her boutique. As always, our comments are meant with the greatest respect and we appreciate the work that you ALL put into making your boutique the best it can be! Anybody out there have more to add? What do you think about this boutique? We know you have something to say … let us know what you think by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com. We are also running out of volunteer’s for the critique. Anyone interested in being next?

Introducing our second victim, uh, I mean … critique - Aelisheva

Many thanks to all of those who were kind enough to participate in last week’s critique - your comments were intelligent, constructive, and greatly appreciated. And a special thanks to those who emailed to volunteer themselves to be critiqued.

The first of those we’ll be critiquing is a store whose designs are absolutely smashing - Aelisheva.

The first thing that strikes us is Aelisheva’s great use of live models. The models are always very appealing, professional looking, and very complementary to the clothing.

As a whole, the products are very well lit, with only a few exceptions that appear a bit on the dark side. Considering that there’s a pretty wide mix of photography styles here (some shot outside, some in, some with models, some without, different types of borders and backgrounds) the items in the store still work together as a whole very well … the unique style of the products is really what holds everything together quite well in spite of all the different styles of the photos themselves.

Another thing that Aelisheva does very well is the written item descriptions. They are very thorough and often contain complete sizing information. Great job here!

As far as suggestions, there are a few areas in particular that we feel could really help this store be a total knockout and start driving sales (as well as get images on the homepage.)

1. Text info on images. No question about it, we’d love to see the date stamp, designer logo, and photographer information removed from the photos that use them (this is true for not only this store but for everyone site-wide.) This alone is unfortunately enough of a factor to keep us from being able to use an image on the homepage. If a designer is concerned about copyright or security issues, we highly recommend putting this information in the item description or in the boutique policies page. Placing this text information directly on images only serves to detract from the image itself, and in some instances can be downright distracting. Think of the huge fashion houses who spend literally millions on their photography … have you ever seen a date stamp or photo credit directly on one of their website images?

2. Multiple views. Next thing we think could be really beneficial to this store falls under the category of variety. Some of the products rely on only one or two alternate images. As always, we tell everyone the more photos the better! Different angles, closeups, detail shots … the more you show, the more comfortable a potential buyer will be with making the purchase. The photos should make them feel like they’re standing in your studio holding the piece in their hands.

3. Consistency. Another thing to consider is possibly establishing a more uniform approach to product photography across the board for this store. Obviously we would never recommend for anyone to take a cookie-cutter approach, but shooting with a similar style or feel can be a big factor in helping a store brand itself through their photos and developing its own look to help set it apart form the others.

We hope that these ideas are helpful - we are so impressed by Aelisheva’s designs, and we wish them all the best. Now, how about other ideas? What do you guys think would help take this store to new heights? Please feel free to let us know by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com. Can’t wait to hear from you all!

So, who’s next? Suggest someone’s store to be critiqued next week (or volunteer your own) to be critiqued by emailing me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.

We promise to always be nice and offer ideas and suggestions that we genuinely think will help take your photography (and hopefully your sales!) to the next level.

We are starting out our critique with a store called Isabella Smiles, a very cool boutique from a talented jewelry designer. We feel that this designer is doing a great job with the photos in their store. We always prefer to stress the positive, so here are a few pluses about this store:

Claire Earrings

Moonstone Bracelet

1. Well-chosen primary images - this designer consistently chooses their strongest shot as the primary image (which is important because the larger-sized primary are the ones we use for the homepage spots)
*see more about making your images homepage worthy in this previous post:
Homepage worthy post

2. Good use of scale and proportion - the designer indicates the size of the piece by having a hand in one of the alternate view shots (as well as having clear numeric descriptions in the text.)

3. Lots of shots - with every item there are a good variety of close up shots to show details and different angles. As always, the more shots, the better.

4. Nice drama and look - many of these images display a really nice use of selective/soft focus, with the background in these photos dropping out of focus, giving nice emphasis to areas in the foreground. This is a great way to isolate details!
*see more about focus in this post: Looking Sharp post

5. Good lighting and color - the images are for the most part very nicely lit, nice and even without any harshness or hot spots, showing nice consistency without any distracting color casts. Great work, and a good use of what appears to us to be natural light!

5. Great backgrounds - for the images that use backgrounds, they are very well chosen and lovely … interesting and complementary, abstract, simple, and not at all distracting.

The only suggestions that occur to us would be to possibly use at least one shot of a model wearing the jewelry for each item. A couple of images may be just a little soft on the focus, and the images of the Emma earrings are just a tad too backlit … a little more light falling on the front of these little beauties could really help bring out some detail and bring them out of the shadows.

All in all, Isabella Smiles has a very high level of quality in the photography that she chooses to represent her items, and there are lots of good things to learn from here … we think you will be seeing this person very soon on the homepage, and hope to see lots of new items from her very soon.

So, what do you think? Any comments or suggestions on Isabella Smiles? Would these images make you want to buy from this store? Is there anything that you as a consumer would want to see further that would help her out? Please feel free to let us know by either commenting below or emailing me directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.

The idea of an open critique can be scary, but that wasn’t so bad, was it? So, who’s next? Suggest someone’s store to be critiqued next week (or volunteer your own) to be critiqued by emailing me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.

We promise to always be nice and offer ideas and suggestions that we genuinely think will help take your photography (and hopefully your sales!) to the next level.

For awhile now, we’ve been on the subject of taking better photos because it is so critically important to making sales online. Beginning with next week’s post we thought we’d try something new, and we’ll need help from everyone.

Trish and I occasionally receive emails asking “why hasn’t my store been on the homepage yet?” The simple answer is almost always due to the quality of photography.

The long answer is that we want more than anything to give everyone a chance to be on the homepage, but we also have to bear in mind that this is precious real estate. The images we show here represent not only the individual designer, but our community as a whole. No ifs ands or buts about it … they’ve got to be top-notch photos!

SO…

Here’s our plan to help get every store on our homepage at least once.

• What are we going to do:
Critique one store’s images each week.

• What we need from you:
1. Comments and constructive criticism about the store’s photos. Would the images hinder or help you in making a purchasing decision? What could this designer do to improve photo quality (and get on the homepage more often)?
2. Suggestions! Suggest someone’s store (or volunteer your own) to be critiqued by emailing me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com

Next week we will start this post, so send in your suggestions today to help someone (or yourself) snag that homepage spot ASAP!

Thanks for your help!
-The darlings

We’ve all seen those dramatic fashion shots. The ones where everything in the shot is so clean and pure white, like a dazzling snowstorm. Or the shot of that hot little black dress, where the darkness just surrounds you like a moonless midnight.

Getting those all-light (high key) and all-dark (low key) tones in your photographs takes a little work, but you can do it. Here’s how:

High Key Example from Tied Up

Low Key Example from Ouvrez La Porte

The first thing to understand is how your camera’s light meter works. When you point your camera at something and it magically comes up with the “correct” exposure, it uses a pretty simple formula. Essentially, it assumes that there’s an equal balance of light and dark tones in the image, and it exposes for the 50% average. Ever take a photo of a white, snowy landscape and have it come out looking gray? That’s why!

Knowing this, what you have to do is trick your camera’s metering to get those high-key or low key shots. To do this, you’ll need to learn a bit about your camera. Many allow you to manually adjust the exposure. If you’re trying to get the white look and everything looks gray, increase the exposure, and if you’re going for the deep black look and all you see is, again, that middle-of-the-road gray, you’ll need to decrease the exposure.

If you have a camera with manual exposure, it can be even easier. Get yourself a gray card at any pro photo vendor. Set up the shot, but instead of taking the exposure values from the light (or dark) products that you want to shoot, instead temporarily put the gray card into the middle of the shot and take the light reading from the gray card and set your exposure to that reading. Remove the gray card from the shot and see what you’ve got … if you’ve done it correctly, you should have your white appear pure white (or your blacks pure black.)

As always, reading your camera’s manual is key … the more you know about how to use your camera the better your shots will look. And the more you’ll be able to get your fashions out there online.

On a trip to Texas a few years ago my husband and I had the opportunity to see the original “first photograph” done by Joseph Nicephore Niepce around 1826. (That’s right … it’s in Texas. Who would have thought?) While not the most impressive image, it was amazing to think that he actually exposed that very metal plate and essentially invented photography as we know it. And here I was hundreds of years later standing in front of it in awe.

Remembering this experience started me thinking about how images are captured these days. I have to admit that it has been a long time since I’ve used a traditional film camera, mostly because digital photography is just so convenient. When you can plug right into your computer and see your results instantly, why bother with the hassle of film?

Now that wet process photography is for the most part relegated to fine art pursuits, have you ever considered just how it is that computers make an image? Here’s the jist in a not so technical way.

A computer’s function is to manipulate numerical information stored in binary form using the numbers 0 and 1. When an image is downloaded from your camera it’s recorded as binary code and stored as numerical information. So, your image of that gorgeous indie outfit is recorded as a whole bunch of tiny colored squares. Each square is known more commonly as a pixel of information. The computer records all of the information in a whole bunch of horizontal and vertical rows forming a grid, or bitmap. The number of pixels in each of these rows determines the resolution of the image. Commonly referred to as ppi (pixels per inch) So, the more pixels you have per inch the more detailed your image will be.

So, next time you take 15 seconds out of your day to download an image from your digital camera, remember how incredibly lucky you are to have such a tool at your fingertips. Heck, Niepce’s humble photograph of his courtyard took over eight hours just to expose! We’ve got it good … take lots of photos, upload ‘em often, and keep the new indie styles coming!

This was a hard week to figure out what to write. After weeks of writing tips on producing great photos, I’m not sure if these posts are helpful or confusing. It’s a blank stare. No comments, nothing like “Could we focus on this?” or “Could you not include that?”

We need your help - what direction do you need most for photo tips? What would you like to see? Any comments are welcome (be gentle, please!) and we’d love to hear from you, so drop an email to julie@smashingdarling.com or comment at the bottom of this post.

This week it’s all about inspiration. Looking at other people’s photos can be a great way to get ideas for your own shots. There’s lots of great work out there in the current fashion mags, as well as a rich history of gorgeous photography to draw from. So spend some time looking at what others are doing (and have done.) What makes you go ahhhhh? Here are a few that should get your creative fashion photo juices flowing.

photo courtesy Oliver Shank, Blind Photography

photo courtesy David J. Nightingale, Chromasia

(David has also kindly extended to the Smashing Darling community a 20% discount on either the first year’s payment of an annual subscription or on their lifetime membership package. Enter this code: D81AE179E7 when you visit David’s site: Chromasia Tutorials)

photo courtesy Tyler Nixon, Wink

photo courtesy Russ Bryant, Russ Bryant Photography

photo courtesy Tom Hopkins, Tom Hopkins Studio

If your products look terrific but the photos just don’t seem to be working, sometimes it’s the other stuff in the shot that can be dragging you down. Surrounding your product with things that complement it is one of the keys to producing effective images.

One of the most effective (and easy!) ways to present a product is simply to take everything else out of the equation and go to a pure white background, leaving absolutely no distractions at all. This approach gives a very clean, professional look.

Adding other elements to your shots can help create a sense of image and drama, but the more you add, the more careful you have to be not to detract attention from your main subject. For shots with a more stylized or “propped” look, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Composition - Your fashion should always be the center of atention, and everything else in your shot should lead the viewer’s eye back to your product. Make sure your props or backgrounds enhance and don’t distract.

Papusza Couture, Kinsella

• Color - Again, the key here is to enhance and not distract or divert attention from your product. No clashing colors!

foundling, coastline posts

• Avoid clutter - Keeping things simple is one of the best ways to make viewers focus on what’s important - your product. If things look cluttered, try shooting in another area or just remove superfluous elements from the shot.

Yosifa-Penina, glass belt

Take a long, hard look at everything that’s happening in the composition of your photos and ask yourself if they’re accomplishing what you need them to. And most importantly, ask yourself this: “If I were shopping online and only had this image to look at, would I consider buying it?”

I was in Trish’s shop the other day marveling at her gorgeous new clothes (and Whosiepie’s fantastic spring flings, too) and she was saying she needed to find a model. I could tell it wasn’t something she was looking forward to, and is something that all designers have to deal with.

This got me thinking … while it would always be nice to fly Naomi Campbell in from Milan for the day, sometimes all you have is yourself, your camera, and a little time. But with a little creativity and your camera’s self-timer, this can be everything you need. Don’t count yourself out - you can be your best model sometimes!

All you have to do is set up the shot and put your camera on a tripod or something stable like a table. Then you’ll have to check and make sure the area you stand in is in focus. From there, just activate your camera’s self-timer function and get in position before the shutter goes off (check your camera’s manual to see how much time you have.)

Another good thing to remember is to put your camera within the flash’s range (usually around 10 feet away from what you’re shooting or less) and use fill flash, as in this sample shot. Or better yet, take the shot under available light and turn that flash off all together!. And as always, don’t be afraid to experiment. Your best tool is your own creativity, and it’s so, so easy to press that little delete button when the shot doesn’t work!