Leveling up Listings: Product Photography for West Michigan Makers

Let’s be real. You pour your heart and soul into crafting amazing things for your startup craft business. I’ve seen it firsthand while hosting weekly craft and vendor markets at Round Barn during the winter months. West Michigan is packed with talent, from custom-made jewelry to live-resin wooden carvings. The creativity is wide in style, and everyone wants to get their new ideas out to the world. But a beautiful product can get lost in the noise if you can’t show off the qualities it should.

I get it, you make stuff- why should you have to compete with others who have professional photos for their products and listings? This is probably where to start thinking “ugh, another things to learn??” But trust me, investing a little time (or letting someone like me help) in your product photography can seriously boost sales. Think of it as the final flare to your own style. How you present your products are how others are going to see them; are your images good enough to make a sale?

a photo during an Artisan Market in full swing.

Why Good Product Photography Matters

Online, your photos are your products. Your customers aren’t going to be able to touch, smell, or experience your hard work in person, so your images will have to do the talking for you. Here’s my tips to what good photos convey:

• Quality: Possibly my favorite, being able to show off the craftsmanship and attention to detail.

• Materials: Make it so your customers are able to “feel” the textures in your product, wood? show the lines and curves your product posses.

• Scale: Give customers a clear idea of how big (or small) it is.

• Brand Personality: Photos should reflect your style

a drink flight being advertised by a local distillery. Images shows off garnishes, color of drinks, and captures different choices of drinks for customer to view.

DIY Tips for better product photos (on a budget)

You don’t need a fancy studio to get decent photos. In fact, a large amount of my product photos aren’t done in a studio at all- lighting is key.

• Lighting: Forget the flash! Without extensive knowledge of lighting and photography, you’ll be hard pressed to create an image without harsh shadows leaving an unflattering look to your images. Natural, diffused light is best. Cloudy days, even lighting, and near a window are your best bet to getting the image you need.

• Simple Backgrounds: Keeping your background clean and uncluttered will force the eye to draw right to where it needs to be, on your product.

• Composition Matters: Ensuring your images are centered or following some photography rule like the rule of thirds will have you outputting much better quality photos.

• Lifestyle Shots: As shown above with the whiskey flight, don’t just show your products on a white background, show them in ACTION!

Need a hand?

Your busy making things, just like I’m busy taking photos for people like you. If you’d rather focus on your craft, then leave my craft to me and help showcase your business to the rest of the world. I specialize in product photography for West Michigan, and I’d love to help get you off your feet.

Check out my store here to get started: Product Photography

Capturing the Essence of Southwest Michigan: From Photos to Wine

A sun-kissed photo of the ‘Round Barn’ at Round Barn Winery & Estate. The Barn has a rounded white base with a dark grey or black roof. On the right you see tables with red umbrellas for sitting.

Michigan's natural beauty, rich cultural heritage, and my discoveries in the exceptional culinary and winery scene constantly spark my creativity and inspire me to capture the essence of this captivating region. With my camera in hand, I’ve embarked on great adventures and learning experiences, from the sun-kissed vineyards at Round Barn Winery & Estate to the elegance at Tabor Hill.

My photography journey has taken me back to class, learning different types and forms of the art. My most recent endeavor is with product photography. Uncovering the art of mixology, a large amount of my recent work attributes to cocktail making and showcasing the craftsmanship involved in making a drink. Nearly all of my shoots require careful planning and execution to get the shot I require.

A recent highlight was capturing the October cocktails at Tabor Hill Winery and Restaurant, which required careful planning and execution. I brought multiple light sources on site and timed the shoot to coincide with the optimal natural light, resulting in breathtaking images that brought out the best in each cocktail. This experience reinforced the importance of preparation, flexibility, and attention to detail in achieving exceptional photography results.

Tabor Hill Winery & Restaurant’s Amber Agave Margarita. Made with Round Barn’s very own Agave, apple cider, orange, pear nectar, and garnished with star anise.

As a Michigan photographer, I'm driven by a passion for capturing the beauty, charm, and character of our region. With years of experience and a keen eye for detail, I help businesses and individuals showcase their unique offerings and atmosphere. Whether you're a business looking for professional photography services or an individual seeking to capture life's special moments, I'd love to work with you. Reach out today to discuss your photography needs and let's create something truly unforgettable!

Ready to bring your story to life through captivating images? Let's connect and start creating something amazing together. I look forward to hearing from you and exploring the possibilities of working together.

Oscar Cramer

Oscar Cramer Photography

https://oscarcramerphotography.com

cramer.oscar@gmail.com

References:

https://roundbarn.com

https://taborhill.com

Social Media in the Advertising & PR World

By Oscar Cramer

11.08.22

Social media has a crucial impact on our society as we know it today. Integrated into our daily live, it has molded just about everything we do, from waking up to check our phones to watching news and television. How social media affects public relations can determine how interactions with companies and brands go on, as well as a public image for the company as a whole. It also allows for brands to engage quickly and painlessly to their audience. You could say that social media is a two way street for companies to consumer relations, with both parties gaining some sort of profit in terms of information. 

PR

Social media has expanded the amount of time we use the internet, and in turn increasing the amount of interactions we have between people. “Social media gives brands the opportunity to engage with consumers on a variety of channels, but with opportunity comes responsibility. The platforms have raised customer service expectations” (Matter, 2022). Now consumers are given the chance to always be interacting with brands, with an expectation from the brands audience to do the same. As more people use social media, more of the important information is put there first rather than a television station or newspaper, making it even more vital for companies and brands to monitor their social media channels. 

The ways that social media affects advertising is also very important. Social media as well as the internet  is run on advertisements, and without them would most of the time, die out. Getting advertisers to come and promote content is very important for social media, and a prime example of what that looks like is Twitter. Just recently, Twitter has come into the new ownership of Elon Musk, where radical changes to the company have been made since. Following these changes, huge companies like Coca-Cola and Volkswagon have pulled out of advertising on that platform. 

Advertising

Another great example of a company that uses advertising to their advantage is YouTube. While YouTube does offer the standard free ad experience when watching videos, they know that people will pay to not see ads, and created their service, YouTube Premium. This cuts out advertisements on the platform while giving additional features to its paying customers like offline playback and downloading videos. With over 2.6 billion users worldwide, how many of these users pay for YouTube Premium? Only around 20 million people. “So that’s good money, sure, but that’s about 10% of the $28 billion dollars they made in that calendar year. So yeah, YouTube still runs on ads” (Brownlee, 2022). YouTube doesn’t collect all of the revenue for itself, as it has to pay creators on average a 55% cut of the advertisement. So YouTube really generated far more than 28 billion; nearly double.

Now, as the methods of marketing are becoming more merged and intertwined, it can be said that social media and public relations have become intertwined as well. Public relations has always been focused on ‘influential’ and important people that hold status, and those people moving to social media made them much more reachable to communicate with. “As both PR and social media are used to build and maintain trust in the company and their products, it is only natural that the two must be in sync” (Bates, n.d.).

Similarities

Some of the similarities between the two include that both models are based from communication, with social media making messages feel much more important since they are in real time. Through social media general information has broadened, making these real time communications be seen by many more than it would without the help of social media. Instead of public relations targeting specific individuals, businesses will instead target anyone that could be vital to their business models. Social media has made the idea of public relations more friendly and welcoming to people now more than ever. “Social media has made PR more “friendly” to all stakeholders of a business, resulting in a new area of marketing called “relationship marketing."" (Bates, n.d.)

Relationship marketing is “a facet of customer relationship management that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales” (Aberle, 2019). Since businesses and brands are creating this sort of relationship between themselves and their consumers, it helps to create much stronger and emotional connections between consumers and brands. 

Work Cited

Matter. (2022, September 6). 3 ways social media has changed public relations. 3 Ways Social Media Has Changed Public Relations. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.matternow.com/blog/3-ways-social-media-has-changed-public-relations/

Brownlee, M. (2022). Dear Twitter! Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qsF0WQy8c&ab_channel=MarquesBrownlee

Bates, P. (n.d.). Why public relations should play a role in your social media marketing. Center for Social Impact Communication. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://csic.georgetown.edu/magazine/public-relations-play-role-social-media-marketing/

Aberle, L. (2019, July 17). What is relationship marketing? - definition from whatis.com. SearchCustomerExperience. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/relationship-marketing