Hello
I’m new on Folksy and to selling in general, and would really appreciate if anyone could take a look at my Folksy shop and give me any feedback so I can progress and maybe get some sales.
I have masses of self doubt that my products are any where near good enough to sell so please be gentle and give me constructive feedback if you would be so kind.
I’m in awe of what I see on Folksy, people are so clever and talented!
Hope to hear from you and thank you for reading.
Hi Sally,
I love your work. I’m new on Folksy too.
My immediate thought, is that maybe your photos could do with brightening up a bit? They look quite dark. Could you set them up near a window to photograph? I know it’s really difficult photographing things in frames. I think brighter photos could make a big difference.
You have a lot of beautiful pieces that are definitely good enough to sell!
I agree with what @hayleymallett has said - the photos are a little dark.
I would recommend finding one spot in the house that gets natural light (maybe use a white sheet or a light background to help). You can use a chair or a stool and a white sheet over it if that helps.
Or maybe find a day where it’s dry and you can take some outdoor photos for more light?
You could try using the image editor on your phone to slightly adjust exposure, shadow, brightness and contrast if that helps.
I think it could be good to have photos of them without the frames also, so the viewer can focus on the art first and foremost? Some people are very particular about frames and may like to see that art without one so they can decide if they want to reframe it? This can make it easier to photo too
I only say this as my partner only likes certain frame types and colours, so he does reframe art sometimes.
Hello! Your pictures are lovely! Just a few pointers (might be me being picky!):
In one of your descriptions you’ve got a comma and then a capital M (,My) - should be lowercase m.
In your About Section you have symbols at beginning of paragraphs (/). Not sure what these are for
At the back of your pictures I personally wouldn’t want to have the edges of my piece showing, may be tuck these in? If you’re using recycled frames (which is brilliant) could you try and cover any marks by redecorating? Sheets of gold leaf are good. Be careful though as it’s delicate and if you sneeze or you’re in a draught it’ll be all over the place!
Good luck with your shop!
We’re newbies as well so it’s all head spinning at the moment.
Take a look our our site and let me know what you think.
Feedback welcome!
Hi Sally @sallyscraftylulutextileart, I’ve had a good look round your shop and your items are beautiful and very saleable.
I would echo what others have said about improving the light, this will really show them off to their full potential. It’s also good to show them in a setting eg hung on a wall, so customers can imagine how they would look in their own homes. I love that you use upcycled and recycled frames so I would add something in your tags to reflect this as sometimes the theme of the day is recycled, upcycled or similar.
I would also add more to the title of the piece such as textile art, wall art, wall hanging, fabric art as people will search in different ways.
Thank you first for taking time to look at my items and secondly for your suggestion.
I find the photographing of the items tedious, but your comment has made me rethink this.
Thank you again
Thank you @loulouart, brilliant feedback. I’d never considered photographing the pictures without frames so it’s a great idea and something I’d not considered.
I’ll definitely give it a chance though.
Thank you again, Sally
Great feedback back, thank you and some really great ideas which I can take forward. I definitely need to take more care with the finishing of my work, so thank you for raising that with me.
I’d missed the typos so will go back to investigate and edit.
I like the idea of trying some gold leaf as long as I’m in a draft free zone. I tried painting them but boy was it fiddly!
I have had a look at your shop too. It looks really good.
My one piece of feedback is that I felt the extras added to your pictures detract from the lovely items.
Good luck with your retirement and new venture.
Sally
HI, welcome to Folksy, you have some lovely work, I love textile art. I had a look at a couple of the descriptions which seemed good, my main criticism repeating what others have said in that your photos let them down.
Believe me it took me a long while to tackle the photography and I think it’s often the hardest part. Last year I spent a few days trying different things and finally now take images I am happy with.
I think yours are too dark and don’t show your pieces off. Try placing them against a lighter background, I bought some large mountboards from London graphic company in various colours but only really use a couple of them. I use one as a base and another as a backboard and I take my photos in my conservatory as it’s the only room that has decent light. I take my pics with my phone and edit them in google photos on my tablet, I always have to adjust the contrast, brightness etc and crop the main image in a square format. Make sure the items are straight, again this can be adjusted whilst editing the images. If the pieces are photographed without anything around them they need to be central.
Good luck with your shop.
Thank you Debby, really appreciate the time you’ve taken to look and for the advice re the photos. I think I’ve massively underestimated the importance of good photos so it’s on my list today.
Hello Sally and welcome to Folksy, I can’t add anything to what’s already been said except to agree that your photos are letting you down, it’s something a lot of us struggle with.
Something that was suggested to me was to photograph my paintings in a room style shot, perhaps hanging on a wall next to some furniture as an example?
There is a very good blog post somewhere I believe about photographing your work, I’ll see if I can find it and link back here if I do.
Good luck, photography for me is the one bit of selling online I really don’t like.
Hello and welcome to Folksy…Your work is beautiful, so no critics on those …only that I agree with everyone else,…the pictures look a bit dark.
I am not sure of the best suggestion to brighten them up.
You have taken the right step by coming on the forums to ask for help.
Everyone here is lovely and the more you chat, the more people will get to know you.
Show your work on as many of the different forum threads as you can.
Good luck x
Folksy always say photos are one of the most important areas to selling, I think they are also one of the hardest to get right. Mine are far from perfect but better than they were when I first started. I recently changed my email address on Folksy and as such I received a few emails from them as though i was a new seller. Have a look in your inbox because they were really helpful and I am sure there were tips on photography, how to write listings etc with step by step giudes, very informatuve and worth working through.
Thank you Debby. I’ll take a look.
I tried taking some pics today, they were better but still not right, so work in progress. Feel like I’m going in the right direction though.
Sally
That’s good to hear, it takes time and there’s such a lot to learn. I don’t think the dark days help either with photography, although for my bears the winter months are often better than the summer as the bright sunlight changes their colour too much, I find bright but not too sunny works the best for their fur. Pleased you are making progress, we arn’t all photographers (it’s certainly not my strong point) but I’m sure you will make a big difference.
So, we’ve been working on our shop appearance etc, we would be grateful if and when you can spare the time to take another look. Any feedback is very welcome. Thanks Carol & Sue
