The Creative Habit: Etsy Backdrops

My Etsy shop has been open for about 4 months now, and I am finally getting the hang of some aspects of it. Other things I am still working on and I have come to realize that it will always be a work in progress. Taking photos of the things I make has been a real learning experience because I am hardly a good photographer to begin with. It does not help things that since my products are for children, I use very young kids to model the shirts and dresses. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get good photos of kids that also show off the clothing and make it look good? Let me tell you, it is harder than you would think.

I have also learned that it is not easy to take photos of clothes either laid out or on a hanger and to have them lay nicely and still be interesting. I have tried many things in my quest to get some decent photos to show off my work and here is one more step down that road. Hopefully, someday I will end up with a fantastic look that I love. Each change I make get me a little closer to what I am looking for.

The dinosaur pillowcase dresses are easily my best sellers, but I was starting to worry about how I was going to take pictures once the weather cools down. I probably have about one more month before it will be too cool to have my daughter (or a borrowed friend) stand outside and show off these cute dresses. I don't have room for a little photo studio anywhere in the house, but I was thinking that I needed some sort of backdrop. I rummaged around in the basement and found that we had saved three pieces of the hideous paneling that covered many (many) of the walls of our house when we first moved in. Why we have kept three pieces for over 10 years I have no idea, but I was very happy to find them.

before

I forgot to get a "before" photo, but this is what all three panels looked like; just without the hole. The two without holes got cleaned up and painted.

pale grey

This one is pale grey, and yes it is the same color as our downstairs bathroom. I want the photos in my shop to look nice, but I am also cheap. I went with the grey because it is a nice neutral that will go well with "the look" Etsy seems to prefer, but also because the white I had on hand was more glossy and I was afraid it would reflect too much light and look funny when photographed. So far, I'm happy with how these turned out and they cost nothing but my sweat. (Seriously. They day I decided to do this, it was blazing hot.)

knobs for hanging

I dug out some old knobs we replaced on a dresser and screwed them onto the board. They are not perfectly spaced, but they are level. They won't show in the photos, but I can hang either one or two items on at a time to take pictures.

aqua blue

Since I had two panels, I wanted my second one to have a brighter, but still light, color. I had a ton of this aqua color left over from the kids' play kitchen that we built. I love this color so much and think it will look great as a backdrop for many of my items.

I like that these are portable, so I can use them inside or out and I can move them around to wherever the best lighting happens to be. I am hoping to find some cheap fabric in the remnant bin to cover the backs of these, so then I will have four different backgrounds to choose from. I'm picturing a tone-on-tone damask in my head, but we will have to see what I can find.

Here is a sneak peak of a few things that I have photographed so far on my new backdrops.