Okay so lets talk photos. If you look at any successful boutique whether it be on Etsy, Facebook or Instagram, you will notice one thing. PICTURES! Their pictures are eye catching and make you WANT to buy their product! If we’re being brutally honest, I can completely tell when you put a shirt on the floor rather than a wood floor backdrop. When you put clothing on your floor, this tells me two main things as a customer. 1. You’re not established enough as a business to where you can take professional photos. 2. You put my child’s clothing on the floor.

Just because we’re work at home moms, doesn’t mean our customers need to know that. They don’t need to know that we’ve just cleared a section of toys out of the way and are holding back a mac and cheese faced toddler while taking pictures with our iPhones. What they do need to know is that the quality of item they’re ordering is excellent and it’s something to be excited about!

Look at this before photo, I see so many like this on Facebook and Etsy. Would you buy this with the shirt?

It’s cute. But it doesn’t stand out. Let’s talk about how props can actually SELL the product for you! We’ll revisit this shirt later in the post and see how props jazz it up.

All of these props I’m about to list are available through Amazon and if you click on them it will take you directly to the item! And if you don’t have Amazon Prime, I highly suggest clicking here and doing the FREE 30 Day Trial! I didn’t think I would use it as much as I do, but ordering emergency stabilizers, 505 spray, or even HTV with free shipping is AWESOME!

Backdrops

These range in price but if you’re doing this as a business, remember that they could also be tax write offs! Some are vinyl and some are paper, but they will all help your pictures stand out.

Misc Props

How many times have your friends told you, “I wish I were as crafty as you?” These people are visual learners. They CAN’T see an outfit in their mind. My husband is this way. I have to SHOW him how something will look, explaining does nothing. Sometimes just showing a shirt isn’t enough for your customer to fully see what it will look like on their child. Pairing items with matching items is very helpful and completely plays a roll in up-sales. If you make bows, skirts, tutus and have some on hand that match, go ahead and throw them in the pictures you may get someone add the item to their order! If you don’t make anything yourself, here are some great props that will add to your pictures. Sometimes even just the gesture of what colors to wear the item with, will be enough.

Appearance

Laying out a shirt flat works most of the time. But let’s say you didn’t have a shirt so you stitched it on some scrap fabric, or even a shirt that after the fact you thought was maybe too big for the design, or maybe even that you can’t fold it in a perfect square like you sometimes see. Or, maybe you want to display it on an actual model/bodyform! Here’s some items for folding shirts/fabric perfectly as well as displaying the product nicely.

Lighting

Outdoor lighting is always best, however, not in direct sun as you will get glares. Go outside and find a shady area, or take pictures on an overcast day. If outdoors aren’t accessible to you, or you’re a night worker like me and moonlight won’t cut it, a light box will be your best friend. You can DIY one too, but if you don’t have time on your side, here’s a cost effective one.

Editing

After all is said and done, you want to touch up your photos a bit. Not with filters or crazy boarders, but instead with sharpening and maybe removing some shadows. I use PicMonkey a lot for many things. With PicMonkey you can edit, resize, crop, watermark and can even create images and save them! While the free version is usually enough, they do have a paid version with many more options! Here’s a link for a free trial of it if you want to see how it works for you!

I may add to this post as more props come to my mind, but I think you get the idea of what to look for. Oh, and remember that shirt earlier? Lets see what some props did for it…

WOW! Right? Pictures… sell your products.

I hope this helped you in some way with marketing your items. Huge thank you Josselyn from Elle Couture, LLC for providing the before and after shots!