Having spent a lot of time this morning taking photos of assorted cards, I then spent almost as long sitting at my computer tweaking, cropping, and then (oh dreaded chore of chores) naming each picture and filing it in the appropriate place on my computer. Whilst doing so, I realised how many of my photos have been just shoved in random folders and set about tidying them up a bit, naming lots, re-filing many and deleting several.
I also found a whole load of VERY old pictures, taken way back in January when I'd first started with the whole Etsy lark and was taking pictures of some cards to list.... and looking at them I realised just how much my photos have improved in the intervening months. There were even some photos of the same cards as I'd photographed today (not that stock hangs about in my house for ages, no no, not at all) and the direct comparisons were pretty interesting. I don't think by any means that my photography nowadays is any good, but I'm getting much better at picking the right kind of light to photograph in and I'm learning with practice how best to use my camera (and the image-processing software that came with it - nothing fancy but everything helps!).
Sample pictures taken for super-old listings... a shot of the set (as it was then) of cards...
... nice and dark there, weird blue tissue paper backdrop (hmm). And that was probably the photo I used in the very first slot! mmm, tempting! I think not. Oh and here's one of my detail shots (better than some I found!) ...
... taken in not the best light (on my kitchen table with a lamp if I remember correctly) and this may have been before I noticed that handy macro button on my camera.
Now this is the same card photographed today, with the same camera, on my kitchen windowsill (slightly overcast but natural daylight) ...
I took one of it inside its cellophane wrapper, too, and took a cropped shot of the felt square. I shall use the middle one as the first (thumbnail) photo I think even thought it's not as in-focus as I would like. Any improvements between the January batch and now are mostly a result of setting, trial and error, and lots and lots and lots of practice!
I have run out of things to say now. I think I shall go delete the rest of those photos...
I am also loving the simplicity of the listing process - photos upload like a dream, you can select any one of them to be your main image, and they allow you to use previously listed items as a template - and it is so friendly! You can leave comments on other peoples items or profiles when you spot something awesome, which is just so nice. The site is in three languages - an English part, a French part and a German part. I have forgotten most of my GCSE French & German but my German-speaking sister is going to be helping me out with German translations (she is a star).
