“There are no rules for good photographs,
there are only good photographs.”
? Ansel Adams
An unexpected rush of Christmas shoppers in my online shop over the weekend has me puzzling again about what makes a good photo.
I'm selling these two sets of snowflake cards. One sold multiple sets and had lots of favorites/hearts; the other received very little (if any) attention. In my mind, these card sets are nearly identical: same occasion, same theme, same price, same color options (white or ivory), same number of cards in a package. The difference is the exact pattern on snowflakes on each.
Can you pick out the favorite? If you guessed the first one, you're right.
It could be that the huge difference in traffic and sales has nothing whatsoever to do with the photos. Maybe people just like that first design better. The only way to know is to make some changes to that second photo as a test. One obvious difference is the bow in the first photo. I'm guessing that it's not only more appealing aesthetically, but it does make one think "gift" more than the second photo. Interestingly, while the ivory card is getting all the attention, most of the orders were for that design in white. So I might photograph that second card in ivory and make it the thumbnail for the listing. (I'd still keep the current photo as one of the secondary photos.)
By the way, I read a good short article on the subject of photography yesterday. Check out Diane Gillelands's "3 Tricks for Styling a Product Shot" at the New York Institute of Photography. She has some great ideas for making your product seem useful in a photo—and therefore, something that needs to be purchased.
What have you learned about your own photography lately?
Quotation source: Goodreads.