156 lines
11 KiB
TypeScript
156 lines
11 KiB
TypeScript
import React from 'react';
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import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';
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import BlogPostLayout from '../../components/BlogPostLayout';
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import SEO, { SITE_URL } from '../../components/SEO';
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const HERO_IMAGE = 'https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aida-public/AB6AXuAipMlYLTcRT_hdc3VePfFIlrA56VzZ5G2y3gcRfmIZMERwGFKq2N19Gqo6mw7uZowXmjl2eJ89TI3Mcud2OyOfadO3mPVF_v0sI0OHupqM49WEFcWzH-Wbu3DL6bQ46F2Y8SIAk-NUQy8psjcIdBKRrM8fqdn4eOPANYTXpVxkLMAm4R0Axy4aEKNdmj917ZKKTxvXB-J8nGlITJkJ-ua7XcZOwGnfK5ttzyWW35A0oOSffCf972gmpV27wrVQgYJNLS7UyDdyQIQ';
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const SOURCES = [
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{
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label: 'Ceramic Arts Network - A Guide to Pottery Photography That Will Make Your Work Pop',
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href: 'https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/A-Guide-to-Pottery-Photography-That-Will-Make-Your-Work-Pop',
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},
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{
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label: "Etsy Seller Handbook - The Ultimate Guide to Telling Your Etsy Shop's Visual Story",
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href: 'https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/the-ultimate-guide-to-telling-your-etsy/22722480541',
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},
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{
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label: 'ClayShare - Photographing Your Pottery',
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href: 'https://www.clayshare.com/photographing-your-pottery',
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},
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];
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const articleSchema = {
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'@context': 'https://schema.org',
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'@type': 'Article',
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headline: 'Product Photography for Small Businesses',
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description: 'Product photography for small businesses selling handmade ceramics. Learn light, angles, styling, and listing-photo essentials that help convert browsers into buyers.',
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author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Claudia Knuth' },
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publisher: { '@type': 'Organization', name: 'KNUTH Ceramics', url: SITE_URL },
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datePublished: '2024-10-03',
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url: `${SITE_URL}/editorial/product-photography-for-small-businesses`,
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image: HERO_IMAGE,
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mainEntityOfPage: `${SITE_URL}/editorial/product-photography-for-small-businesses`,
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keywords: 'product photography for small businesses, pottery photography, ceramic product photos, handmade business photography',
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};
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const ProductPhotography: React.FC = () => {
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return (
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<>
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<SEO
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title="Product Photography for Small Businesses"
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description="Product photography for small businesses selling handmade ceramics. Learn light, angles, styling, and listing-photo essentials that help convert browsers into buyers."
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canonical={`${SITE_URL}/editorial/product-photography-for-small-businesses`}
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schema={articleSchema}
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ogType="article"
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ogImage={HERO_IMAGE}
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/>
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<BlogPostLayout
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title="Product Photography for Small Businesses"
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category="Studio"
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date="Oct 03"
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image={HERO_IMAGE}
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imageAlt="Product photography for small businesses - handmade pottery styled near a window with natural light"
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>
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<p className="lead text-xl text-stone-600 dark:text-stone-300 italic mb-8">
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<strong>Product photography for small businesses</strong> is one of the most powerful tools a maker has, and one of the most overlooked. Beautiful pots are not enough on their own. You also need beautiful photos to tell the story.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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I remember a specific moment clearly. I had just finished a batch of Gulf-glazed mugs - soft seafoam bleeding into sandy cream, exactly the way the water looks near the shore on a quiet morning. I listed them on my shop within the hour, took a quick photo on my kitchen counter, and waited. Nothing.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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A few weeks later I was scrolling through another potter's shop. The work was technically similar to mine, but her photos stopped me mid-scroll. Soft light across the throwing lines. A hand around a mug. A top-down shot that showed glaze pooling at the center of a bowl. I bought something without even meaning to.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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That was the lesson: I was not selling bad pots. I was telling a bad story.
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</p>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">Why product photography matters so much</h2>
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<p className="mb-6">
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The strongest seller education on Etsy, Ceramic Arts Network, and ClayShare keeps circling the same truth: online buyers decide visually, and they decide quickly. For handmade ceramics, photos carry even more weight because customers cannot feel the clay body, read the glaze surface, or judge scale with their hands. Your images have to do that work for them.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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Your job is to give the customer's hands something to imagine.
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</p>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">1. Start with light, not your camera</h2>
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<p className="mb-6">
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The camera matters less than the light. The most effective setup I know costs almost nothing: a large window, an overcast day, and a sheet of white foam board placed opposite the light source to lift the shadows.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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What you want to avoid is direct sunlight. It creates harsh hotspots, flattens matte glazes, and blows out glossy surfaces. Soft directional light does the opposite. It reveals form, texture, and the subtle transitions that make handmade work feel alive.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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If you need consistency year-round, two daylight-balanced LED lights with diffusion are enough for a small studio setup. But if you are just beginning, use the window first. Learn to see light before you spend money.
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</p>
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<img
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src="/product_images/product_photography_mid_v2.png"
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alt="Product photography for small businesses - ceramics styled near a window with soft natural light"
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className="w-full my-12 shadow-lg rounded-sm"
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/>
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<p className="text-sm text-center text-stone-500 -mt-8 mb-12 italic">
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Natural window light is still the easiest and most flattering starting point for pottery photography.
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</p>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">2. The six photos every listing needs</h2>
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<p className="mb-6">
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You do not need twenty angles. You need the right six:
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</p>
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<ul className="mb-8 space-y-4 list-none pl-0">
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<li><strong>The hero shot.</strong> Slightly elevated, clean background, the image that carries the listing.</li>
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<li><strong>The front profile.</strong> Shows silhouette, proportion, and handle placement.</li>
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<li><strong>The top-down.</strong> Essential for bowls and plates because the interior matters.</li>
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<li><strong>The detail shot.</strong> Throwing lines, glaze breaks, clay texture. This is where handmade work wins.</li>
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<li><strong>The scale shot.</strong> A hand, spoon, or book nearby so size is unmistakable.</li>
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<li><strong>The in-use shot.</strong> A mug with coffee, a bowl with fruit, a vase with something from outside. This is where people start seeing the piece in their own life.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">3. Backgrounds and props should support the pot</h2>
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<p className="mb-6">
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For listing images, stay neutral: white paper, linen, stone, raw wood. For lifestyle images, use props that feel like they come from the same world as the clay. In my studio here in Corpus Christi, that often means weathered wood, natural fiber cloth, and something gathered from outside.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-6">
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The rule I keep coming back to is simple: props support the pot. They do not perform alongside it. If someone remembers the eucalyptus stem more than the bowl, pull the eucalyptus.
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</p>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">4. A few phone-camera habits matter more than gear</h2>
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<ul className="mb-8 space-y-4 list-none pl-0">
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<li><strong>Lock focus and exposure.</strong> Let the composition stay stable from shot to shot.</li>
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<li><strong>Do not use digital zoom.</strong> Move closer instead.</li>
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<li><strong>Use a tripod.</strong> Even a small tabletop phone tripod makes a visible difference.</li>
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<li><strong>Keep white balance consistent.</strong> One glaze should not look like three different colors across one listing.</li>
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<li><strong>Photograph details intentionally.</strong> Texture is part of the value of handmade work.</li>
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</ul>
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<p className="mb-6">
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You can browse our <Link to="/collections">current collection</Link> to see how we approach consistency across listings, and our <Link to="/atelier">atelier page</Link> for the studio atmosphere those images grow out of.
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</p>
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<h2 className="mt-16 mb-6 text-3xl">This is craft, too</h2>
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<p className="mb-6">
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Product photography for small businesses is a craft skill the same way trimming or pulling a handle is a craft skill. It takes repetition. It takes attention. And it gets better when you treat it as part of the work rather than something separate from it.
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</p>
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<p className="mb-12">
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Beautiful pots deserve an audience. Good photographs are often how they find one.
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</p>
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<div className="mt-20 pt-12 border-t border-stone-200 dark:border-stone-800">
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<h3 className="font-display text-xl mb-6 text-stone-500 dark:text-stone-400 uppercase tracking-widest text-sm">Sources & Further Reading</h3>
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<ul className="space-y-2 text-sm text-stone-500 dark:text-stone-400 font-light">
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{SOURCES.map((source) => (
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<li key={source.href}>
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<a href={source.href} target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" className="underline decoration-stone-300 underline-offset-4 hover:text-stone-700 dark:hover:text-stone-200">
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{source.label}
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</a>
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</li>
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))}
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</ul>
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</div>
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</BlogPostLayout>
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</>
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);
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};
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export default ProductPhotography;
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