Priority #2: Your Product Photography
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: How to Build a Business While Learning Your CraftMegan Auman
Priority #2: Your Product Photography
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: How to Build a Business While Learning Your CraftMegan Auman
Lessons
Class Introduction
04:31 2Why Do You Want to Make Money from Your Craft?
02:13 3Exercise: Take an Honest Look at Your Financial Situation
01:34 4(A)lways (B)e (R)eleasing
06:03 5Priority #1: Email List
13:34 6Priority #2: Your Product Photography
05:52 7How to Build an Audience
07:51 8Which Audience Building Strategy is Right for You?
03:52Audience Growth Strategy: Search (with Tiffany Whipps)
08:45 10Audience Growth Strategy: Press (with Brigitte Lyons)
19:45 11Audience Growth Strategy: Visual Content Creation
07:30 12Is Your Growth Strategy Working?
04:53 13Honing Your Craft
09:35 14How to Optimize Your Experimentation
03:57 15How to Handle an Evolution in Your Craft
11:29 16Build Your Momentum Plan
09:28 17Simplify and Celebrate Your Progress
06:12Lesson Info
Priority #2: Your Product Photography
Let's actually talk about your photography now because that is your priority. Number two email list. Get that squared away. Now let's talk about your photography because here's the thing your photography will make or break your business. Not to make you nervous, because I know it's a stress point for a lot of you. But it's true, because in our goal of connecting our craft in our audience, it is your photography that makes that connection. And that happens for pretty much any audience growth strategy that you're using. Even if you're using shows to grow your audience. Guess what's determining whether or not you get into those shows your photography so it's essential it turns search into sales. So Tiffany is gonna come. We're gonna talk about search and obviously search, starting to get a little more image based, but searches a lot about your text. But if they click over and the image doesn't compel them to buy, they're gone. Good photography a super essential if you're trying to get fea...
tured in the press. There was a time where press would just pull everything because they had lots of money for on staff photographers. Now, if you're sending them an image on a great white background. That may mean the difference between them picking your product or somebody else's, because yours is ready to go and time is money, right? Obviously, good photography helps you grow your audience on social media. Super essential. It gets you in the shows. For the most part. It's also what convinces your stores to buy, right. It helps them see whether it's your line sheet or the email going out to them. A lot of buyers are making purchasing decisions based on your photography, so let's talk about the types of product photography that you need to have. We're going to simplify this a little bit. There are a few other types everyone wants to get into the fancy flat lay is, but ultimately, at the end of the day, we at least want to make sure we're covering our basics. So first of all, you need those product shots white or simple background. We're gonna look a couple of examples, and we're gonna you're gonna determine what's best for your products, and then you also want situation shots models if it were wearable or something in use. If they're non wearable. This is what helps your customer imagine your product in their life. It's also what creates the book of, say, like your social media content. So, first of all, plain background. If it works for your product, it is a good idea to do white background even if it's not your primary way of doing it. There's just a couple scenarios were white background is gonna make your life so much easier. One of them is pitching the press. So if you that's where you land in terms of your audience growth strategy, white background is essential because now a designer could take that. Drop it into a product layout. Boom done. But some products. This may not work. So Tiffany whips, who runs Tiffany and Studios, and she's gonna be in a little bit later. Her and I have had this conversation multiple times. She makes really thin, delicate hoop earrings. They just disappear on a white background. They just vanish so you can use a more interesting background. You just want to keep it simple and consistent. The other thing is then that your situation shots and those give your products context. I'm not gonna lie. I love situation shots. They're my favorite. It's way more fun to shoot also, like that's where the fun happens. So if you do something wearable, you're gonna end up using models. It's just a reality for wearable products. In a pinch, I have a not terrible looking mannequin that I shoot on. The mannequin does not have a creepy head. Get rid of the Creavy headed mannequins just look creepy. So in a pinch, if I want to show scale of a necklace, I'll shoot that. But what I dio is I just schedule occasional shoots with my model When I say model, I mean, you're very willing friend who is okay with their picture getting taken, but I also want to talk about learning or outsourcing because you do have options here. The thing with outsourcing is it can get expensive when you're focused on a PR. So if you're always having to pay a photographer to shoot your product, it does start to get expensive. That's where learning can be super helpful. That said, not everyone is a photographer, and just because you have a fancy camera doesn't make you a photographer. So if you're like you know what? This is something that I know. I want to take off my plate. Magon. There is no shame in that, like, higher away. But the other thing is, you can also mix and match right so you might shoot your own product. Photography is that you can get stuff out the door faster, but then you might hire a photographer to do your model shots. Your situation shots, because again, they're better at it than you might ever be. But when you're thinking about this, you can think about treating your product photography as an extension of honing your craft. Obviously, you're all predisposed to watch the craft and make her channel just fine. Were awesome over here. But one day when you're in your studio and you've already seen that craft and make your class a couple times turn on the photo channel instead, you'll learn a lot just by watching people so use creative live as that resource because they're so good at it. All right,
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase