[#31cbcbcJanuary 2013] Increase Traffic to Your Crochet Blog with “Pin-able” Photos

Pinterest is currently THE fastest growing social media platform on the Internet. Not only that, recent statistics reveal that “crafts” is the number one topic that interests Pinterest members in the USA, 80% of whom are women. These facts alone make Pinterest an excellent vehicle for getting traffic, both direct and referral, to your crochet blog.

To increase the likelihood that your blog posts will be pinned and re-pinned, you’ve got to have at least one high-quality photo to share with your readers. Here are some tips on how to take great photos of your crochet products and projects.

You don’t need the most expensive, top-of-the-line, DSLR camera to take good photos. Your point-and-click digital camera and even your mobile phone will produce great photos, as long as you know HOW to take them. For that, you’ll need a steady hand (which you can achieve with a tripod), the right lighting, staging, and image editing.

You want to take your photos in soft, indirect natural light which you can get whether you’re indoors or outside. If you’re outside when the sun is brightest, take your photos in the shade to prevent jarring shadows and areas on the photo that are too bright. Indoors, place your piece near a window for the best natural light.

If natural lighting isn’t available, use bright artificial lights and the camera’s flash. You may have to do a bit of image editing if the resulting photo isn’t bright enough or there are shadows you want to eliminate. Therefore, don’t be afraid to experiment with lighting to find what works best for the kind of photos you want to take.

Keep your staging area as simple as possible. Too much clutter takes the focus off your photographic subject. If you’re featuring a product for your Etsy store, for example, it might be a good idea to stage it against a white background with nothing else in the photo.  On the other hand, a few, simple props in a true-to-life setting that compliments the subject of your photo is a great way to show off your completed projects.

If you’re creating a photo tutorial, you’ll want only those items in the photo that will enable you to convey what needs to be accomplished in each step of the tutorial.

A simple photo editing program is all you need to put the finishing touches on your shots. Cropping lets you to center your photographic subject and bring it into better focus by eliminating unnecessary items (like your foot) you may have captured when you took the shot.

You can also adjust the photo’s brightness to lighten dark areas (and vice versa), as well as create a sharper image by gently moving the contrast lever to the right until you’re satisfied.

As you can see, taking “pin-able” photos doesn’t have to be rocket science. With the right lighting, staging, and image editing, your blog posts will be going viral in no time.