10 tips for Product Photography. What sells best?

brand design, website

This is the million dollar question but it really is down to your personal brand. For the last two days I have re-photographed all the stock I have. It’s taken a long time to find the right solution (only five years!) and styling for the photography. And whatdayaknow, it was my first original idea that I have gone back to.

For some people it will be using fashion models with white backgrounds, for others it will be cut out product photography and others will have full styling in a surrounding that works perfectly with your brands ideals.

Here are a few tips on your photography from what I’ve learnt so far.

1. Hi Resolution cut-outs on a white background are great for PR and makes it easy for magazines, press and websites to share your work in editorials.

2. always, always, always make sure the product is shown clearly. Styled shoots are great for promotion but when selling online you must be able to see what you are buying as clearly as possible.

3. Really think what fits with your work. Imagine how your ideal customer will use your product. If you are an artist photograph your work hanging in a space that you will aspire too. If you are using cut-outs add just a little detail in one shot that fits with your style, it may be a texture or a prop.

4. make sure your photographs are shot at the highest resolution possible. Then have a file for hi-res and low-res images. The low res images are great for sharing online. The hi-res are for when press need images and printing.

5. learn to take good quality photographs yourself if possible and how to edit them on Photoshop. This will not only save you money but give you the freedom to shoot your products as and when you produce them instead of waiting for cash and availability of a photographer.
(when you can afford a professional, use them and pay them)

6. take tips from other companies and artists you aspire to. How do they present their products?

7. try to keep all your images to the same format size. The best presentation really pays attention to detail. Same proportion images, equal spacing and borders etc.

8. you don’t need to spend a fortune. I bought a very basic lighting kit on eBay. Someone showed me that I have to light the product and background so the shadows are removed. And natural light is the very best. I used my old digital SLR, that worked far better than I thought.

9. spend time sampling shots. Try outside, different backgrounds, props and layouts. I tried four different ways to photograph a belt this week and painted my studio wall six times in the past couple of years. Then I found another location in the house with better natural light.

10. take time to look at your products again. I was really, really pleased with some of my work once the lighting and photography was showing it off to its best. Your work should stand up to the intense close up shots. Some of my work didn’t hold up and has been relegated back to the studio for finishing or even dismantling.

Hope this post helps. Will let you know what difference my new photographs make to sales. They should increase confidence at least. Time to spend many hours editing them now.

Pre customer consultation nerves

personal, your customer

I’m sat in our little wooden showroom awaiting a customer.
This is a rush bespoke (I know!) order and this will be the first time to customer sees her outfit. This is the customer I wrote about earlier.

It’s 45 minutes before 10am. I’ve been in a terrible depressed mood since yesterday and this is the last 45 minutes of the torture.

I just want it to be over. Even if something really bad happens I want it to be over quickly.
Then, and only then can I maybe relax.

I go through the usual scenarios. What if it doesn’t fit? What if she hates it? What do I do if she screams, or cries or punches me in the face? What if …. she unclips her jaw, removes the top of her head to reveal a monster and gobbles me up alive?

My stomach is whirling, not in that excited way and I can feel my hands going numb. My whole body is rejecting the situation.

But in 45 minutes I’ll be opening the door, full of smiles and greetings. Showing her the outfit. She’ll try it on. It will either be right or will need some adjusting, we’ll have a chat and the lady will leave.

Bespoke, custom, couture whatever you want to call it will always be part of my work. There will always be times where I should say yes and I am going to have to get used to this routine. I’ve been doing it for three years and nothing bad has really happened except I’m 20,000 in debt.

Do I blame these orders? I’d be stupid to blame what has in reality taught me a lot about customer service and the nature of bespoke work. It’s nice transforming people to look good but it will never be your best work.
And for this they need to pay properly.
Chanel apparently charge $90,000+ for their couture service and I’m pretty sure they don’t let you dictate how the dress will look design wise. And they still make a loss on couture. I charge under £900.

But, if an inspiring person asked me to work on a dream project for them then of course I’d say yes. But career / portfolio / work must come first otherwise I’ll be dead with just some plus size tunics behind me.

Half an hour to go. I’m off the puke. Or at least try to.

Wednesday -Bits and Bobs

the work, your customer

Today I ….

Made a dress for my cousin. no payment but it was cute and I learnt a new technique.

Sold a dress on Etsy …. for a reduced rate meaning I just broke even. It was in a Liberty print and the fabric cost £66. The postage costs were £15. The dress sold for £90 but at least it sold and hopefully the person who bought it will adore it s much they remember my name. And buy another dress!

I worked on a little SEO. Making sure shop categories were properly named and not in capitals.

MKBP had a nightmare mother of the groom customer who turned up at her house late at night demanding her dress and fabric back. All because after much pestering and asking if the chiffon would work, ringing MKBP at work, MKBP said ‘we’ll see how it turns out’.
I rang the customer to check everything was OK and she had got the nerves. It is impossible to work with a nervous customer. Just say NO.

Now I’m watching Advanced Style and have to stop typing, these women are incredible. These would be heavenly customers paying so much attention to their style and themselves.

Website Design at home

brand design, website

On Sunday Husband and myself re-photographed dresses and updated the website to make it look more beautiful and more professional. Above is a picture of just some of husbands design books.

We found a good blank wall in the house, set up my two eBay purchased lights with white umbrella diffusers and made a perfect mannequin from three bodies I have in the studio.

Husband was wonderful at making sure I didn’t cut corners and with the patience of a very good man set about editing and tweaking the front page of the site. He’s a professional graphic designer, a very, very good one and it’s all those little details, spacing, font weights and layout that make such a difference to looking professional.

I’m very lucky that he’s around and he will be teaching me how to edit all the photos myself so he doesn’t have to go through the pain of working with me again. I’m one of the clients he should say no too.

There are lots of website building we’ve done ourselves. My website is built with Big Cartel and Arcade which is great for eCommerce design and quite simple to use. Husbands is on wordpress with lots of plugins which gives even more flexibility.

The product photography is quite simple once you get it right. Try lots of lighting, backgrounds and set ups before you decide on the best option. It can always be changed but it’s a pain in the arse. Mannequins work best for me as the dresses are vintage inspired and set the tone. Real models you can find in friends and family.

We decided to remove any humans from the product photography as it can really distract from the garments. The Net A Porter head chopping works well as you don’t immediately make a judgement on the model. Our faces are so expressive. Street style photography however always looks great with trend led clothing.

If you can learn a bit of graphic design, some photography skills, photoshop and a bit of basic coding for website building then you can save yourself a lot of money. Professionals are always worth paying when you can afford them.

I’m trying to keep it simple, nothing too fancy and letting the dresses speak for themselves. I wish I could share it but I must keep this anonymous.

Lesson learnt: Listen to people who know what they are doing and never be afraid to learn more.

Bailed out of Debt By Parents

money, personal

I Love My Dad.

It’s fathers day on Sunday and boy do I owe my Dad a huge amount of thanks.

My parents being adults who own a house and business are able to borrow money from the bank at a reasonable 3% rate of interest. Unlike me who can only get a loan at 18% for my loyal 15 years.

My Dad saw an opportunity and is loaning me the money to pay off my credit cards at 5%. It will take me 87 months to pay off at £200 a month. I sincerely hope that I will pay this off a lot sooner. I hope by the time I’m 40 I’ll have 1 million pounds. I’d be happy with just a couple of thousand.

Lesson: be very, very grateful of your circumstances. I am such a lucky person.

I’m fan of Jack Monroe, I love her bravery and skills. She also makes me aware of how lucky I am. Read her blog here and her ‘live below the line’ recipes. Her recipes are yummy and will help me get out of debt.

Saying Yes to Customers You Don’t Want

money, personal, your customer

On Friday afternoon I received a phone call from a lady desperate for something to wear to a major sporting/social event that will be held next week. The words ‘I’m too fat to buy anything in the shops and please just run me up a skirt’ were said. And then there were tears.

I am also desperate. For money. So,after first offering it to my kind of business partner MKBP who immediately said ‘NO’. I said ‘YES’.

The following morning the lady came to visit. She was fat but not that fat and nice but what you would call difficult. I ended up agreeing to make a top and skirt, so far removed from my usual 1950s nipped in waist look it was in fact the reverse. However I would be paid £240 plus fabrics.

I have now just finished the said outfit, it looks nice but I am filled with my usual anger and resentment. This is the way I always feel about bespoke clients. Unreasonably I feel like they have caused me great pain and I don’t know why. I think I have developed a full blown phobia. A phobia of producing work I don’t want to do.

Now comes the usual anxiety, what if it doesn’t fit, what if she doesn’t like it (she won’t like it because this woman hates herself) what if she makes me do more work. She already wants me to make her a top. She even suggested that she starts a fat lady dress company with her friend and I would make them. At the time I smiled, inside I was screaming! *

The £240 will be really helpful, I really need it. I haven’t had to suck cock for this money, I haven’t had fry burgers or even work in a clothes shop (which was my worst job of all time). Someone has paid me money for the job I want to do.

What’s wrong with me?

Lesson: Do NOT take on bespoke work you don’t really want.

*I don’t have a problem with curvy people. Curves look great on healthy people. I do have a problem when addicted out of control people pile so much food into their bodies they produce a mass of blueberry pricked depressed dough. Which then becomes my problem.

This customer then missed an appointment because she was making pudding. For real.

Business Advisors – Are They A Crock of Shit?

business plan, personal, website

Ok, I’m nearly up to date with my diary.

On Tuesday I went to Bristol and visited a not for profit business adviser. I paid £42 for 90 minutes which is great value and was told they specialize in creative businesses.

I met up with a photographer friend and another designer beforehand to see how they were. The photographer is doing great, steadily building her business year on year and building on her already vast skills.

The designer is in a similar situation to me and had a really positive experience with the business advice people. She’s moving in a new and exciting direction. I really hope for the best for her.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Afterwards I toddled along to the business centre, filled out a form and met with the adviser.

Firstly, I’m one of the people who when nervous talk at the speed of light and with absolutely no sense. I think I said I was a designer and I was broke and should I just stop?

The lady, all suited in Lloyds bank style get up, took a look at my website. ‘Do you have pictures on real people?’ she asked.

‘Um, well I do but I like the mannequins, and we tried cut outs but they looked cheap. gabble gabble’. from me.

‘You need to make it more professional’. She said. ‘It looks like a budget site’.

I showed her the look-book, and more look-books. ‘Why don’t they smile, they look miserable. Do you use this model all the time? ‘

My response was ‘smile? that would be sick’. A strange thing to say I know.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

She was right about the website, I really do need to make the website and product photography look amazing, not just ok.

‘And you need to get someone to do your SEO’. she said. ‘Take a look at this great site called ‘lipstick boutique’. They used to be Lipsy’.

Ok, I thought, she can show me an example of someone she’s worked with.

Lipstick boutique sell dresses modeled by the sex dolls of TOWIE (the only way is Essex, it’s like a Kardashian or a jersey shordian).
For £25 a pop.

This isn’t my market. The great customers I do have would be horrified!

My heart sank….. but maybe she would have some solid business advice. You know, like business advice.

Yes I need to make my website more slick, but not that kind of sex doll about to pop pvc slick, and yes I must sort out the SEO.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Next came. ‘We can offer you a business development loan at 6%.’ This is a great offer but I really don’t need to borrow any more money.

‘Do you think my business, or the idea of my business is viable? Is it worth continuing? What do I need to do to improve sales?’ I said.

‘Lets look at the figures on the computer’.

We did a spreadsheet, all based on this loan I was going to take out for photography and SEO at £1500 to a grand total of £5000. I don’t have a clue about SEO companies other than the daily SEO offer spam in my inbox. I don’t want to give them £1500?

She worked out from my imaginary figures of what I wished to sell in the next year that by next July I would turn over £110,000. With a profit of £65,000.

All I needed to do was take out the loan, give it to a photographer and an SEO company.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I’m still a little pissed off. I wanted business advise.

I wanted her to ask how and where I sell. Give examples of successful businesses she had worked with and their strategies. Advise on PR, on marketing, on realistic targets on bringing in money. Practical, fact based stuff that would apply to any business.

I wanted her to slam her fist down on the table and say you’re turnover isn’t good enough. Online sales work like this. Even say no, you’ve got to give it all up, stop wasting your time. And for me to cry and for her to say, ‘well, if you think you’ve got the balls to prove me wrong then get out there and do it!’ Go Go Go! Here’s some information on what may help with sales. Go, go, go!

Lesson learnt: business advisers don’t necessarily know much about business. Learn from other successful businesses and books.

indiedesignersurvival

Can creativity be a business success? The diary of a broke designer trying to make it.