Photography Backgrounds – Choosing a Background for Crafts

Many artisans selling online will acknowledge item photography is one of the biggest challenges they face.

“Great photographs are extremely important to both the buyer and seller of jewelry that is sold online,” photographer Jim Juris recently told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “Unlike shopping in a brick and mortar store the potential buyer of the jewelry cannot see and touch the actual item when they shop for jewelry online. You decrease the chances of making a sale when your jewelry photographs are not good because a photograph is all that the buyer has to go by when making a buying decision.”

When taking photographs of your craft items, backgrounds can be as important as your subject matter.  In a recent article on her blog Haptree and me, handmade seller Hilary tells readers, “Backgrounds are important because, if you are not careful, they can completely out stage your subject resulting in a confused and weak image.”

“Can you imagine a bride and groom being happy to have their photos taken round the back of the church by the wheely bins just because that’s where the light was best? I’m not suggesting that the photos you use on your blog or for your craft photography are quite so important as wedding pictures, but they do deserve a little time and effort to make sure they attract rather than detract from the subject, especially if they are advertising your hard work,” Hilary explains.

When photographing any area, whether it is your garden, kids or a finished craft item you are ready to sell, Hilary suggests taking the time to consider the photograph’s background.  “Giving some extra thought to the background can make a huge difference to the final image,” she says.  “Sometimes just changing position is all you need to do but when you are photographing crafts for sale it may need a bit more thought as the background you choose can affect the exposure, color intensity and the general feel of the piece you are selling.”

When photographing items for her ArtFire Studio or Etsy shop, Hilary uses a white background for the pieces.  “This is because my wristlets and bead kits are really colorful and brightly patterned,” she tells HandmadeMarketing.org.  “I think anything other than white would make the image too busy. I also want my shop to have consistent, branded look, so I chose white and I have stuck with it, I also use white as the background for my blog, to try and continue the theme of bright colors on a white background. As you can see I don’t use a studio, just a tripod, natural diffused light, a white board and a reflector made of tin foil! Below is one of the images from this mini session, showing you don’t need expensive equipment to achieve good results.”

“I would actively encourage a new seller to try out as many backgrounds as possible to find one that suits their products best, but I would also add that you need to think about the extra time you might have to spend styling the background, if it’s your gorgeous country kitchen – is it always immaculate, does it get great light in the winter aswell? In my opinion consistency is key to making your online shop gallery look professional,” she says.

Hilary explains that even the most eclectic items can look like part of a “family of items” if they are photographed with consistency.  “Equally, you can add character to a set of similar items by adjusting the background.”

Hilary recommends thinking outside the box when picking a background for your craft photos.  “It may be that the background forms the “story” of the piece or that it adds another complimentary dimension for the viewer to unconsiously take in. For example using slate or rocks as a background can imbue us with the notion of natural strength and durability. Or using the fragile pages from an antique book gives us the feeling of great value and age. The choice of background maybe purely to contrast with your object, making it stand out.  For example, shiny metals seem to look great against driftwood,” she says.  For more ideas about how a photo background can tell a story, or tell potential buyers how the item can be used in their lifestyle, read recommendations from Etsy item photo guru Renaissance Austin.

“If you chose to use a plain background, you may need to include something to give scale,” Hilary tells artisans.  “It can be done surreptitiously without detracting from the image, a ruler shot isn’t always necessary! I use coins with my coin purses, they show it’s function but they also add scale. Likewise with something such as a knitting bag, it would be nice to see it with needles nearby.  The ideas are limitless for small objects but things get a lot trickier with larger objects or indeed oddly shaped objects. Try and use the same principles as with small objects but if the background itself can’t be consistent then try to keep the style consistent. For online selling you could always use cropped in pictures of important details thus eliminating the background for the first gallery image and then full frame pictures in the remaining slots. Using a large aperture to blur backgrounds can also help, allowing your subject to really pop out, especially if you are forced to use a particularly busy backdrop, see my post about depth of field for advice on this.”

Hilary finishes her blog piece with a few final points to consider when choosing your background:

1. “A plain white backgrounds is great in most situations, but can make dark objects recede from the viewer and can affect your exposure if you are not careful with metering,” she says.  “In most cases any issues can be remedied when editing your images.”
2. Hilary tells craft photographers that black backgrounds absorb light.  “You will get rid of unwanted reflections,” she says.  “Sometimes this can make very shiny objects appear to merge with the background. However it can also add drama and make bright colours look very intense.”
3. She tells artisans to beware to using too many intense and bright colors.  “These can really make a shot zing but beware that the subject is still visible and not drowned out by all that color!” she says.
4. “Colors all have an effect on each other, so experiment with different colored backgrounds and colored objects on a small scale before investing in anything large or expensive,” Hilary told us.
5. Hilary thinks that a graduated background can work really well for craft photographers.  “Having the subject sitting in the lighter area in the forground with the background seeming to dissapear as it gets gradually darker works well,” she explains.  “I have managed to achieve this affect with natural light, but I would like to make this more consistent with my photography so I am looking to buy a graduated background. I will be sure to make a post about my discoveries!”

Thank you for the photography tips Hilary!  You can connect with Hilary via her blog’s photo tips or on Twitter.

What tips do you have for taking outstanding craft photos?  Do you have a photo that turned out well that you would like to share with HandmadeMarketing.org?  What do you think of Hilary’s suggestions?

Share your ideas with HandmadeMarketing.org!  Post a comment to this article, or write a craft article of your own and submit it under our “Join” tab.  If we publish your article, we’ll link to your shop, blog, and social media links as the source of the great information!