LET'S GO TO: Warsaw, Poland

If you are heading to find a world map, because you have no idea which city is the heart of Poland, keep reading!

Warszawa (Warsaw)- the heart of Poland

(pic. embieonline.etsy.com)

This is the place where many historical events took place. Since XVI century, when the city became the seat of the Polish parliament, it has developed really fast. Warsaw had its dark periods too - during the World War II 85% of the city was destroyed by the Nazis. 

But Poles managed to rebuild their capital and today it is ian mportant center of cultural and political life. Discover Warsaw with POLetsy!

Warsaw Black&White Photograph by artagadesigns.etsy.com

This is what Warsaw supposedly looked like in 1930. Now those days are gone, but this city keeps on inspiring many photographers. Warsaw is a city of contrasts: you will find cosy little streets, art nouveau and socrealistic style architecture, new skyscrapers. 

PhotoByMada.etsy.com

"I took this picture at KOŁO ten years ago, - says Magda. - Bazar na Kole is an amazing place in Warsaw, you can buy everything old or old-looking. A pure heaven for vintage lovers." 

She spent 2 years in Warsaw and misses it almost every day: "It's a city of contrasts. And mysteries. With a sad past, but full of unexpected hidden beauty".

 Romantic narrow street by AnnaKiperPhoto.etsy.com

The gates of the Warsaw University  by fiveonenine.etsy.com

I found Sylvia on Etsy - she has some beautiful photos from Warsaw. She lives in Canada, so I was very curious about her connections with the city. 

"I was born in Pruszków and my family still lives in Warsaw. I can't visit them as often as I wish to, but when I do, my favorite places are Łazienki and Nowy Świat" - she says. 

Aga also lives abroad, but her memories about Warsaw are very bright.

"My husband is Spanish. When we go to Poland, I show him some nice places in Poland. Warsaw, especially the Old Town, is very enchanting. But the most impressive place is the Warsaw Uprising Museum" - she says. 

Warsaw Praga by IkatiWorks.etsy.com

Kasia (One Mug a Day project) shares her love for Warsaw: "You can spend your free time in one of many city parks, escape the hustle and bustle by taking a walk among old buildings downtown or visit the famous Pałac Kultury (Palace of Culture). I think Warsaw is getting prettier, it's our city".

"I love Warsaw for many reasons. It's gonna be a really long list, but everything is worth mentioning. - writes Anna. - The International Chopin Piano Competition, my Sunday walks on Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat, feeding pigeons in the Old City, oldstyle fountain in Saski Park, gas lighting on Agrykola street, first snow flakes falling down on grey buildings, old photos in Photoplasticon, Warsaw Film Festival, jazz in the Old City..."

Green Warsaw by kikoku.etsy.com

The city is located on the Vistula River. Joanna Tarkowska has designed a map-mug with all city districts: Praga, Mokotów, Wola, Ursynów etc. Historians say, that the oldest city district is Bródno. This is how it looks through the window of my friend's apartment.

Bródno by Ana Matusevic

Many POLetsy members live and work in Warsaw - they can send you a piece of heart of Poland :-)  I'm leaving you with a wonderful song about Warsaw. 

Love,

Ana

Editing photos in Gimp - 5 steps to a white background

In my last post I have promised some explanation on how to tweak photos in Photoshop or Gimp to get the background completely white. Today I am going to explain how to improve the background in Gimp since this application seems to be more popular than Photoshop.

I will explain the steps you need to take using a photo of one of my own pieces as the example. The piece has been shot on a perfectly white background (a sheet of white plexiglass) and in a tent-like softbox. To make sure the white was not looking white I did not set up the lights I am normally using and the softbox was placed under a skylight giving enough light to see the softbox's frame reflections on the surface of the plexiglass sheet.

My perfectly imperfect original photo

So, let's get to work and make this dirty background shine in a few very easy steps.

Step 1 - adjust curves

 You will find the 'Curves' command in the 'Colors' menu:

This is what you see after opening the 'Curves' tool:

 

Drag the top end of the line in the graph to the left until you go past the peak of the gray graph. At this moment your background should be already looking quite white. Click OK.

Experiment with moving the end of the line to the left further and further. This will help you understand how the things work (in short: the more to the left you drag the point, the brighter the picture is becoming. Some photos will need more adjustment than others).

*** If your item is white or very light it is very likely that after adjusting curves it won't be clearly visible any more, since what we are doing in this step affects not just the background but all the light areas of the photo.

Step 2 - duplicate the background layer

You will find the 'Duplicate Layer' command in the menu that shows after right-clicking the name of the layer on the layers' list.

After you click the 'Duplicate Layer' command, a copy of your original layer will be created. It will have the same name as the original with the word 'copy' added at the end. I will be referring to this layer as to the threshold layer.

Step 3 - reduce the image to two colors and set the threshold

Make sure the threshold layer is highlighted at this moment.

Go to Colors - Threshold and click it:

Your photo will turn black and white and you will see a graph with a small arrow slider under it:

Drag that arrow all the way to the right, there will be no gray on the graph any more. Click OK.

Looking at your photo now you can tell what areas of your photo are perfectly white and which are not, even though on the 'normal' version of the photo they might seem to be such.

Now all you have to do is get rid of all the black spots in the places where the photo should be white.

*** If you haven't moved the curves' line far enough to the left your image will be completely black and you won't be able to move to the next step. Try to go back and adjust the curves again and if it doesn't help go back even more and brighten the photo. If you still cannot recognize the outlines of your item on the threshold image it means that your photo is far too dark and you won't be able to get a perfectly white background. It is up to you if you keep it as it is after adjusting the curves only or you take another photograph of your item which hopefully will be brighter and you can work with it.

Step 4 - clean up the background

Now is the time to get rid of all the imperfections of the background. To do this stay on the new layer and pick the brush tool.

Set the foreground color to white (RGB 255-255-255) and adjust the size of the brush to a size that will be comfortable for you. Remember that you have to get rid of the gray areas on the background without touching the edges of your item!

Start to paint white over gray:

This is how the photo should look like at the end:

Step 5 - apply the clean background to your photo

The last thing you will have to do is copy the perfectly white background from your threshold layer to the original one.

Go to Select - By Color. In the Tool Option make sure that none of the boxes are checked, the Threshold value is set to 0.00 and Value is chosen from the Select by list. Then click anywhere on the white area of the threshold layer (you have to do it only once even if you have more than one patch of white) and press Ctrl+C to copy your selection:

Turn off the visibility of the threshold layer and activate the original layer for editing. Click Ctrl+V to paste your white background:

You will see a new item show on the layer list, this is your selection pasted. Right click on it and choose 'New from visible' from the list - this will create a new layer called Visible. Now you can delete all the other layers from the list:

  Voila. The background is done, now you only need to fine tune the levels and contrast of the photo, and that's it. Here is my finished photo. No seams on the white page, yes?

So, this is how you can tune your background in Gimp. It might look complicated, but in fact it is very simple and editing one photo shouldn't take more than a couple minutes.

In my next post I will explain how to get white backgrounds in Photoshop (it will be a very short coverage, since PS is so much easier and nicer to work with than Gimp). I will also give some tips for shooting photos with white backgrounds - including the use of a light-table.

Jagna

Photography for online sellers - white background, part 1

Do you think white background is boring?

This is exactly what I thought not such a long time ago.  Because, to tell the truth, white background is a bit boring – and yet there is no better one you could choose for your product photography.

In this article I will try to explain shortly why it is good to use white background for your items, in the next one I will give you some tips for obtaining it.

Pendant from Nurrgula Jewelry

 

The very important thing to remember is the difference between artistic and product photography (and also that advertising photography and product photography are two completely different things. Advertising photography falls under the artistic category, to be clear).   

I love the way one of my teachers put it: ‘artistic photography is about photography, product photography is about products”. That means that in product photography your only concern should be to present your product in the best possible way AND make the photo easy to be used for catalogs, presentations etc.  – and for treasuries, if we are speaking of Etsy.

This is all there is to product photography, not more. 

 

Cuff bracelet from Decoromana

I will focus on Etsy for a bit, as the photography on Etsy is quite specific. 

Many sellers have chosen to have pretty pictures rather than good product photography, so you can see lots of story-telling photos, photos crowded with props, or those that are supposed to make the viewer emotional about the featured items. That is all very fine, I like some of those photos a lot, the problem is – with such photography the chances of becoming a successful seller are rather small, unless you are in such a small niche that the photography just doesn’t matter. Or unless you have an established brand already and people are buying from you because of your name more than because of your photos.

And why is it so? The answer is quite simple. 

Imagine, you are determined to buy a piece of jewelry. A necklace, let’s say, and you are prepared to spend quite some money on it. Will you buy it from a shop that has pretty pictures, but the necklaces cannot be clearly seen, or from a one with photography that maybe is not that eye-catching at the first glance, but presents the jewelry very well and you can see the necklace in detail? 

Of course, you do not need a white background to be able to show your items clearly - but the advantage of white is that it is neutral and does not act on people's emotions. They see just your item and don't build a story around it, which in many cases is good since the mood you choose for your photos might not be appealing to everyone in the way you would like it to. 

Also, on white it is easier to show the true colors of your items, which - at least to me - is quite important.

Felt wallet from morion

In order to start selling you need to have some audience, and in order to get the audience, you need to be found.

Have you ever thought that the backgrounds of your photos can actually help you in becoming popular on a selling platform, or on the Internet in general?

Today it is not enough to have beautiful items in your shop. The market is flooded with everything you could possibly think of, so you have to use every tool possible to make yourself visible. Which means, you have to promote yourself.

Now, I am not going to discuss promotion here, but I am going to explain how using white backgrounds for your photos can play a significant role in promoting your items.

Let's go back to Etsy and its treasuries. It is quite simple - the more treasuries are featuring your items, the better for you and your shop. Also, being in a lot of treasuries is the easiest (and for many sellers the only) way to make it to Etsy's Front Page - but I have to disappoint you, having beautiful items is not enough to get into treasuries, not to mention the ones that end up on the FP.

The truth is, many curators prefer photos on very light background, and that for a few reasons, of which I will name just two:

One: Etsy itself prefers light backgrounds for its Front Page, so the people aiming for heaving their treasuries featured will not use dark photos eagerly

Two: it is much easier to put together a treasury where all the photos are on a light background. If a curator is making few treasuries a day, which very often is the case, they do not want to spend more than 10 to 15 minutes on each one - and that I can tell from my own experience as a curator.

Felted necklace from DevikaFelt

All I have said above is to point out the advantages of photographing your items on white backgrounds, which does not mean everybody has to switch to white. 

If you have any reasons for keeping your backgrounds dark, or you just love theatrical photography so much that you just can't give it up, it's all right - as long as you realize that this might have some impact on your shop's results and your choice is staying conscious. But even then you should consider having at least one of each item's photos on a perfectly white background - and that is because, strangely enough, there is life outside Etsy as well.

The life outside Etsy consists of blogs, magazines and catalogues that feature things having to do with art, crafts, lifestyle, and so on - and 99 out of a 100 editors will only choose items photographed on white. The reason for this is very simple: white color is used for the internet pages most often, and the photos are expected to be blending in without any seams. So very often it happens that editors come across something that they would like to feature, but they don't - just because of the time they would have to spend on editing the photos.

And don't count on the editors contacting you and asking for sending a photo on white - unless you are the only person in the world that has got a certain product, they will find something else fitting their material before you can say Jack Robinson. Just be ready for someone visiting your shop/blog/site and have some nice images on perfect white waiting for them.

Earrings from cardioceras

So, these were some of the good sides of using white backgrounds in your product photography.

The bad side is that getting them clean with the camera only is not very easy if you don't have a studio - but there are many tricks that you can use while editing your photos. 

In my next article I will explain how to use both, your camera and software, in order to achieve perfectly white backgrounds.

jagna

Photography for online sellers

You are an artist or a crafter...
You make beautiful things...
You would like to be successful selling your creations online, but you are not sure where to start...
Or you already have an online shop and would like to improve it...

Think of photography.
Good product photography is the key to successful online selling. The photos are the first thing seen by your potential customers, with good photography your chances of attracting people to your shop are growing much bigger. Very often the photos might be the very reason for which a visitor will click the 'buy' button, turning into a buyer.

Earrings from dekkoline

It's nice to have visitors, and it's even better to have many buyers. If you are not very happy with your stats, maybe it's time to look at your photography?
Also, if your photography is good but your stats are not - little changes introduced to your photos might help.

I am not going to cover all aspects of product photography in just one article, so for now I will limit myself to the very key points you should keep in mind while starting to shoot your items.

Never use photos that are blurry, dark, desaturated, accidentally cropped, crowded with lots of unnecessary props. Or photos on which one cannot see what you are trying to sell. The photos have to speak by themselves, don't expect that  people will read your listing's title and description just to figure out what you are offering them.

Never shoot only the number of photos you are going to use with your listing. Shoot more: in different light, at different angles, with different backgrounds. If you are using manual settings of your camera, try out many of them. If your experience with photography is not great, note down all the important info about each of your shots together with some notes about the resulting photo - you will end up with great reference for the future this way.

Set of jewelry from Tauriel

Always shoot in good light. And good light not only means bright!
It is best to shoot your product in natural daylight - preferably outside or next to a big window.
Or you can use some simple studio equipment, like a softbox or a lightbox together with daylight lamps.
Using a flash is one very bad option, using regular home lighting is another one.
The basic rule for the light is that it should be white and diffused.

Never over-do the backgrounds. Remember: it is your product that you are selling, it is your product that you need to show. Creative backgrounds are not a must - if you do not have a really good idea for one, keep it safe by keeping it simple.
Light backgrounds work well in most cases. You can experiment with a sheet of white or light gray paper, an acrylic block, light wood, sheet of steel and many more. Don't assume one type of a background is going to work best for your items, try out as many options as you can and pay attention not only to the color of your background, but also to its texture.
If you choose the white background - keep it really white. If you cannot set the right white balance on your camera, there is a big chance your nice white background will turn out to be grayish, blueish or pinkish. Never let it go - fix it with a photo editing application (if you don't have one installed, there always is fotofuze.com)

Concrete pots from roughfusion

Always try to use a model when shooting jewelry, clothing and accessories - but never shoot one-of-a-kind earrings on a model. Some sellers do it, adding a note somewhere in the description that before shipping the ear wires will be replaced with new ones. To many potential sellers it does not look convincing, so if you want to show the proportions try to come up with another idea than putting them in your model's ears.

Always try to make your photography stand out, this is the best way to get noticed. Watch the successful shops, not only those selling items similar to yours. See how they photograph different kinds of products, pay attention to the composition of their photos, check the backgrounds. Check their old listings (you have big chances of finding them among the sold items) and see what has changed in the shop's photography along the way. Try to figure out why certain tricks work for certain products and some others don't. This exercise will help you in judging your own photos, it will also teach you that there are many different ways of presenting similar products to choose from.

Earrings from MADEbyMADA

So, those were few of the most important things to consider when shooting photos for your shop.
It is impossible to cover everything in just one post, so this article is just a start to a new column dealing with product photography problems.
I would like this column to be useful so I'll be happy to hear from you what  problems you would like to read about, what techniques you would like to have explained. I will try to answer your questions as soon as possible.

Poletsians who would like to read the summary of this article in Polish are welcome to check this forum thread.

Jagna

Creative Material: light

Orange Flowers by PhotographyByJagna

Jagna from PhotographyByJagna says: To me photography is all about light - in many cases the use of light is the very deciding factor of whether a picture will be spectacular or very, very bad. My rule number one is 'Never use flash'. And I mean never - at least not that built-in flash-kind-of a thing, and the external flash I also use very, very rarely. My rule number two is 'Experiment with light'. Experimenting in this case means using different lenses, filters, screens, soft boxes, light boxes, reflecting surfaces, different sources and angles of light. When I get to shoot with my analogues, I like to play with multiple exposure changing the light arrangement in between shots - the results of this can be really amazing. But most of all I like the natural early morning or early evening light (somewhere around the golden hour), which is very soft and perfect for shooting dreamy impressional photos.

At the seaside by AnnaBabolewska

Ania from AnnaBabolewska says: The light in the photograph is the most important creative element. Photographing in the interior I often use the mild light entering through the north window. My favorite is definitely the natural light, although sometimes I enhance it and put in the background Christmas tree lights. I like the outdoors and the warm afternoons, especially when the light is filtered through the leaves and creates an interesting bokeh effect. The challenge is to photograph int the sun when the image gets slightly blurry with a flare effect.

Memory of Early Spring by JoannasFoto

Joanna JoannasFoto says: Light is the most important aspect of photography for me. The term photography derives from greek and can be translated as drawing with light. The greek meaning explains very much the most powerful feature of light when used in photography. You can truly paint with it by using its different properties. When photographing my subjects this is the first and most important thing I analyze before other aspects of the frame come to play. Majority of my work was created with natural outdoors light. My favorite is the warm afternoon light, when sun is setting down and light adds beautiful warmth to the photographed subject. I like to diffuse it and additionally make it even softer and giving impression of wrapping my subject in its warmness.

Alive by ColorSepia

Magdalena from ColorSepia says: Most frequently I’m photographing in daylight. I love the early mornings when everything comes to life. I also like cloudy, foggy days and the atmosphere, which the light creates in the corners of the old buildings.

parrot tulip by bialaKura

Agnieszka

February 17th - International Cat Day

International Cat Day is celebrated in Poland since 2006, but in Italy this tradition lasts since 1990. Throughout the ages, these wonderful creatures were worshiped as gods (goddess Bastet in ancient Egipt), worked as special agents in Police (Fred the Undercover Kitty in New York Police), healers (Cat Oscar in Providence), etc. 

This post is going to be not about us, POLetsy sellers. I'd like to introduce you our inspiring four legged friends!

Harold

Harold came from nowhere. One day we just found him in our backyard. - says Max, photographer.

He was frightened and hungry. My whife gave him some food and we started to wonder, what we can do next. After we asked our neighbors and local animal shelter if anyone is looking for him, we decied to open the door to our house and wait for cat's reaction. Harold run into as fast as he could and decided to stay with us.

Nuszkis

Nuszkis was the smallest and the thinest cat in the shelter. When my husband went there, she followed his every step. Yes, it's Nuszkis picked us - Kasia smiles.

Nuszkis "at work"

When she grew up, we found out she is a British Shorthair cat. She's very tame with children, she follows us everywhere, helps with domestic duties and, of course, with my jewelry works and decoupage. She hates, when she have to stay at home alone and always sleeps on my pillow. 

Well, these guys looks like Men in Black... Antonina and Kiciunia

I have four cats in my house. All of them got there by accident - says Ania. 

The oldest one is Gustaw, he's 17 years old, the youngest - 4 year old Antonina. Unfortunately, they fight with each other all the time, especially ladies and Rudolf. I'm dreaming about having a white cat, but five cats in one house? It's madness. So maybe I'll just draw one some day.

Kacper

I can't imagine my home without Kacper. Without him this place would be empty and dull - says Kornelia.

I moved in to my boyfriend's apartment and Kacper was there already. He got character and his favorite food is cheese.

Aniksi ViaAppia

My cat hates all human food, but coffee. At first I thought she likes milk I drink coffee with, but then I noticed she likes black coffee too. Just look at the photo, how she tries to reach coffee in my mug! - says Iwona. 

Niki is a British Shorthair cat. She totally fits me and my husband's charachters. 

Jack

One day my friend Jen found a litter of kittens and sent out an email with a photo. I told her I would take a girl because they don't get as big plus they don't spray. That's how I got Ally (named after one of my all time favorites - Ally McBeal). - remembers Kasia. 

A couple days later we went to the vet and she told us to think of another name. Me, the protective mother, pretty much told the lady off until my husband calmly explained that Ally was a boy. That's how Ally became Jack (this time after Captain Jack Sparrow). And he's worthy his name, truly crazy and a true pirate. He almost gave me a heart attack on several occasions like the day when he stepped in my blue paint and then continued walking around like nothing's happened or when he walked on the ledge of the building from our balcony to our neighbors. He's also my very own personal foot warmer. Either way, he's spoiled rotten and loved very much. 

Pusia

She's hungry all the time! She loudly demands to show, what am I eating every time I eat my dinner - says Ania. 

All these stories are just a small part of what my team mates told me about their cats. We love them, we need them and they inspire us. Make sure to check THIS POST for Cat Day discounts, promos, treasuries and cat-related items by POLetsy.

 

Stefan - a real angel (photo by Alicja)

FEATURED SELLER: Biala Kura - Agnieszka

Agnieszka is the owner of Biala Kura - Etsy shop specializing in fine art photography prints and printables.

Tell us bit about yourself

I’m a wife, a mother of two, a teacher, a graphic designer and a photographer. I live in Warsaw - the largest city in Poland, but luckily we have our own garden and a forest within 5 minutes walk. Spending time outdoors with our children is a great thing to do.

Apart from creating, what do you do?

What is creating and what is not? Cooking dinner, redecorating a doll-house, cleaning bathroom, knitting a hoodie, making a sword for a king, preparing new lessons, just your everyday life when you have your own family:)

What first made you want to become an artist?

I’m not thinking about myself that way, but creating was always my favorite way of spending time. The means changed through the years. As a girl I loved sewing and embroidery, then weaving and crocheting captured my heart, then came knitting. It was my grandma who made me a photographer: when I started studying she gave me her old Leica (with viewfinder that made you look downward inside a camera). I soon realized what a great adventure taking photos is.

What advice would you give to other artists on Etsy?

I'm still learning myself, but I feel that keep on going on and improving your shop day by day is the best advice:)

How do you promote?

I’m using Etsy tools: adding new items to the shop, creating treasuries, taking part in etsy teams life. I feel like there is a lot to learn. Probably it’s time to make friends with social media - it’s my plan for this year.

In 10 years, where would you like to be?

Taking pictures every day and hopefully living out of it.

What inspires you?

Sunlight! It is incredible, how light changes through the day and the year. Those long, penetrating sunbeams and dark, sharp shadows of autumn or warm golden light of summer afternoon - great! The second thing is simply looking through the viewfinder of my camera - then there is only you and the image that can turn to a photograph.

Your favorite sellers on Etsy

There are so many talented people on Etsy! To mention just a few there is Genine  and Lisa and Shan.