by admin on August 11, 2008
So … who’s up next?
Our recent photo critiques got a little mention over at the PR Couture in their PR Tips post, which got us thinking … it’s been awhile now. Who’s the next volunteer? C’mon, don’t be shy. All critique/advice/suggestions given is truly in the spirit of encouragement and making boutiques the best they can be. As far as we know, we’ve never made anyone cry! Here’s the past ones so that you can refresh your memory:
Rutigliano Designs
GoGirlWrapperz
Ricardo Tovar
Asilomar Works
Thistle Downs
Broken Teepee
Natha Perkins
Aelisheva
Isabella Smiles
So if you’re interested in pushing your photography to the next level, give us a shout. Email julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com to suggest a store or bring your own store to the next level. We’d love the opportunity to give you our $.02. and hopefully give some advice that helps you market your designs … that’s what it’s all about!
On the same subject, we’d also love to hear from the folks that we’ve already critiqued, too. Have you tried any new things? Have the ideas helped? We’d love to hear how it’s going, and if we’ve helped to get things moving in the right direction.
by trish on June 23, 2008
No Tie Sarong (long), $38.00
Just in time for hot weather fun, this week’s critique is gogirlwrapperz, a boutique featuring fun, summery wraps.
There’s lots of good things to say about this boutique’s photography. The images make great use of natural light, and as a whole the shots do an excellent job of presenting what we’d call “lifestyle shots” that show the wraps in action, as worn on models at the beach and gym. These kind of shots do a great job of taking the images out of the realm of simple product shots, and transforming the products into something that a person could really picture themselves in. There’s a lot of very creative framing of shots and posing here that creates some very dynamic images.
The biggest question that this designer posed about her photography was “Is there anything in or not in the photos that would prevent someone from buying my designs?”
To answer this one, we would certainly say that we think this designer is doing an excellent job with the photographs, and has a nice creative flair with the camera. The mood of the shots matches the fun, active feel of the wraps as well. We don’t see anything that in and of itself would keep a person from buying from this boutique, but as always there are a few things that occur to us that might help.
Above: No Ties Sarong (Short), $28.00
Above: Headbands, $8.00
1. Alternate views – make sure that each item shows shots from all angles. For instance, the “No Tie” Sarongs Tech does a great job of this, but some items don’[t show quite as complete a range of views. The more shots, the better!
2. More stuff! - one thing that can help with sales, and getting shoppers to spend more time in a boutique is to giving shoppers more to see. We would love to see more from this designer - eight items (wonderful though they are!) just isn't nearly enough and we would love to see this boutique filled with fun things for shoppers to peruse.
3. Descriptions - for the most part, we found the descriptions thorough and easy to read, but we did notice that there's no mention of actual lengths for most items. This is a small detail, but specific info like this can always be very helpful for a prospective buyer.
Again, we think this designer is doing a great job with photography and has a very obvious creative streak with the camera. Keep up the good work! Somehow after looking through these images, we're suddenly filled with the urge to close down the SmashingDarling office and head to the beach for the day!
Questions? Comments? Email us at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com or feel free to comment below. Thanks as always to our community for your insight and support! So, who’s next? Would you like your store critiqued? Email us at the above address and let us know what you need help on with your photos.
by admin on June 16, 2008
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.
by admin on May 26, 2008
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.
by admin on May 19, 2008
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?
by admin on May 5, 2008
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.
by admin on April 21, 2008
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.
A new direction for PhotoTips … join us in a critique!
by admin on April 28, 2008
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
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