Before and after pictures

A couple of weeks I decided that my pictures really needed an update. I didn't think they were really that bad, but they weren't going to be winning any awards! I went over a series of blog posts from Etsy and tried to apply some of the things that I read. To start off with, I picked a purse that has gotten a lot of admirers, but has a really poor picture.
It's kind of blurry and definitely not the crisp picture that I want. First of all I decided to take pictures on a stack of books so that the camera can't move. I also used the timer to keep my finger from shaking the camera at all. I eventually realized that my ISO was at 100, which was why I had been having such problems with photos being blurry. But with a stack of books, the pictures turned out really clear. I also did some experiment with aperture and found a setting I liked. I figured out White Balance and EV a couple of months ago, so I just kept fiddling with those when necessary. The thing that really baffled me was composition. I didn't want it to just be plain white. I considered using props, and even tried some, but wasn't thrilled with the results. I also tried taking pictures on the tabletop instead of plain white.

I kind of liked the flowers, but constructive feedback all around was a resounding No! to the flowers.

I tried plain white, and it looks nice, but still felt like it was missing something.

This was my final result. I decided to place some sheet music on the bottom for some texture. Then I manipulated the photo a bit in picnik to get the edges like that. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but my husband and some random people on Etsy seemed to like it, so I decided to change my whole shop. It took a few days, and I still have a few purses to go, plus all the wallets. I'm not sure about the wallets on sheet music, because it's a bit too busy. But other than that, I've changed over my whole shop. Here are some befores and afters for a few of my more blah pictures.

This moss green has been really hard to photograph, but I think I finally have a picture that shows how pretty it is.

Changing my aperture and propping the camera up to keep it steady really improved a lot of shots.

This pink is another really difficult color to photograph, but this new set of pictures works better.

Overall I'm much happier now with how my shop looks! Plus, after staring at that sheet music for hours, I pulled out my violin for the first time since last year's Messiah and gave my family a concert! Much to my surprise, my fingers weren't too rusty, and my kids really enjoyed it.