DIY Earring Prop
I said this in my DIY Lightbox tutorial, but it warrants repeating again, the picture of your product sells the item online, not the product itself. After all, when online shopping, your customer cannot touch, put on, or feel your jewelry. Therefore, learning to take better pictures can only help your sales.
I'll start this segment off by showing you one of my old photos that I took when I started my online selling adventure.
It's an ok photo and props are fine (I'll talk more about them in a future installment), but no one prop will work for every type of earring. Since this photo, I have tried to make the background in my photos uniform and to limit the items in my photos that might detract from the item I'm actually selling.
I've had several people ask me how I make my earrings "float" in air in my photos. It's really quite easy and is a perfect follow-up to the Lightbox tutorial because you will have everything you need left over to make the earring photo prop.
To make an earring prop for floating earrings, you will need:
1. Masking tape/painters tape
2. Fishing line
If you haven't made the DIY light box in the previous installment, you will also need the following items:
3. Foam core or cardboard
4. X-acto knife
5. Glue of some sort
6. A ruler
7. A pen or pencil
Whether you have started fresh or have scrap pieces from the last project, you will need to:
1. Cut (3) strips approximately 10 inches long x 1 1/2 inch wide out of foam core board.
2. Cut (2) strips approximately 7 inches long.
3. Glue the (3) 10 inch strips together like shown in the picture below. Set aside to dry. (You can use a 4th piece to make a full "frame" but note that you will not be able to take a picture with one earring laying down on the floor of the light box as shown in the last photo in this blog.
4. Cut notch out of center of each of the (2) 7 inch strips left over. Make the notch as wide as the thickness of your foam core/card board and about 1 inch long.
5. Stick frame ends into notches.
6. Cut fishing line the width of your frame and tape into place. You can use one line for earrings that hang evenly, or two for a staggered look.
7. Place in light box for pictures.
You can still faintly see the fishing line in the photo. This can easily be taken out with a photo editor.
And one showing how you can lay one earring down on the ground for a different look. There you go, all you need to know to make your earrings "float".