Do you need a dedicated space for taking photos for your closet?

No, you don't need a special photo room to take good quality pictures. Light is a key factor in capturing perfect pictures. Take pictures where you have a natural light. You can have a dedicated space in one of your rooms for Poshmark that is really versatile and easy to put away when you have people coming over. Try hardwood flooring that is almost like tiles placed on the top of your existing tiles. It's really easy to stuff under the couch. You can even purchase several options to customize the colors as needed.

Photography style for your covershots

Style depends on what the piece is and how many details are in it. Flat lay allows you to show details much better than showing clothes on a mannequin. It may be too far away to show all the details. You really do have to let the piece tell you how to showcase it right. You have to let the piece dictate what it is.

Be creative, put it on a dress form, hang it on a painting. Do whatever you have to do to make it shine. Sometimes laying it on the ground is not the best way, but it might work on other clothes.

Prepare

For most of us who use phones to take photos, remember to clean the camera lens before planning to take a photo. Sometimes people just don't think about it, but it's in your pocket all day. You take it out of your pocket, take pictures and then look at the pictures and think why the pictures are not as good as usual. So it's very important to remember to keep your lens clean before you start.

Try to take all of your photos during the day. Use the draft feature if you're running short on time, rather than worry about the description, take a bunch of pictures and then when it gets dark or you're laying in bed at night and have some downtime, you can go back and put in the features, sizing, etc. Try to do your best to do all your photos during the day just because lighting is so much better and it reduces the chance of shadows.

Another option: the night before, when you know what pieces you are doing the next day, you can maximize your time by doing the descriptions and everything in the draft. Then just add the photos the next day. That's a good way to take advantage of life when it's daylight savings and it gets dark at like 5:00 p.m. It's like your way to maximize your opportunities throughout the day because we all have busy lives.

If you live in an apartment or you have very little window space and you don't have good lighting, you can try taking photos outside. Go find a nice little green spot and find the best angles. And even when it's dark in your house, but it's still an hour of light outside, go over next to the grass and put a bunch of shoes against the edge of the grass. It adds color and it's simple.

You must embrace your weirdness and don't be afraid to be unique. That may be a signature for you and make it your.

Let the piece dictate where you take your shots. When summer is coming and you have a pool in your backyard, you can take a bunch of board short shots next to the pool to create a vibe. Let the piece dictate whether or not you want to do it outside, indoors, with warmer or colder lights, all of those things. But little things like that will separate your covershots and draw people in from just like the standard. And if it works, keep doing it.

Before preparing to take your photos

Measure everything first if you possibly can. After you take the pictures you will want to list it, but you are not ready. Try to train yourself to do all of it - steaming, measuring, before you start.

Tip when you are taking photos always have your measuring tape out too, and take pictures with the measurements. It might not be a great photo, but at least you have that so you can write it down and have it exactly.

Take measures one across the top and one across the thing and take one shot. That is a smart and efficient way to take measurements.

Try to do the same types of pieces at one time. Angles and lighting are not changing between shirts or jeans. It doesn't work sometimes when you have some new things that you really want to get out quickly. Do that as much as possible. If you are doing hats then try to do all hats in one day or all jeans in one day. Just because you get into a flow and most likely the angles and shots are going to be a lot similar from piece to piece. You just fire off those pictures a lot quicker and get creative and it saves you some time.

Set your camera into square mode so you don't have to crop out later.

Don't have natural lighting

You either go outside or try to use studio lighting. If you feel like it doesn't match the rest of your closet, then you may use an umbrella light to boost any natural light that's left.

Do you need lighting kits? You don't really need one, but it always helps to have one if you want to photograph at off times.

Everyone's got their own thing that's working for them and you can do it without a lighting kit, but if you need a lighting kit you do you.

Lighting kits

If you want to try improving your photo light indoors, then you can try one of these two options.

Selfie ring aka Ring light. It is not essential to have a lighting kit, but you can invest and it costs under $50. You will see a difference in the quality of your photos. You can try to use two lamps with high bright white lights. That's more than enough. You don't have to spend a ton of money, you don't have to have this elaborate setup. It's fine what works best for you and the space that you have. Every household or apartment is different. You don't have to invest a lot of money in that. You can invest less than 60, 70 dollars in your lighting and purchase them even after two years. It's not an essential thing you have to do. You definitely can create great photos without having that lighting kit, but it does help.

A ring light is a simple lighting tool that is commonly used for beauty shots, portraits, and macro photography. It features a number of small bulbs forming a circle or just one circular fluorescent bulb. When used in photography, it creates an attractive catch light on a subject’s eyes. At the same time, it emits even, diffused lighting, similar to a softbox,that helps eliminate shadows. You can position this light in front of the subject, with the camera situated in the middle of the circle. Smaller ring lights can also be mounted on the camera lens for macro photography.

Light boxes. The way light boxes look is like an item is in a box and everything around is white. Sometimes things just look yellow because you haven't figured out how to maximize the lighting. If you want to have a stark white, that is the way light boxes look. But if you are always struggling trying to position the lighting, shadows try to change to a ring light and you might be able to manage a ring light a lot better. Everybody has their own best way.

A light box (or a light tent) is like a mini studio and contains everything needed in a photography setup sans the camera. The conditions of a light box allow photographers to capture high-quality, professional shots of small products such as makeup, food, jewelry, and electronic devices. As with any piece of equipment, there are different types of light boxes that come in varying sizes and materials with different settings and features. With some research and patience, you can even make your own DIY light box. Whether you've spent hundreds on a professional light box or managed to build your own with a budget, they all have the same purpose: it allows you to capture every detail of a subject, which is necessary for product advertisements. This is thanks to the white background inside the box.

What props to use

Props can be a little bit controversial. Some people say that they can distract from what the focus is - your closet.

You can use a few props, mainly other things that are in your closet. Your flatlay can have four items and try to have three of four items from your closet. In this way you can have one shot with all these items to advertise them and make sure all other shots are only showcasing your main item. With these shots you will create a little bit of a vibe and create outfits for the potential buyer. An idea of what that piece could be. In this way, if people are interested they will message you if it is still for sale or maybe you sold it already, but you have something similar. It's a way to advertise more than one thing at a time. If you're going to use a lot of props, make sure that your description is on point and make a little bit more details in your description.

You can use a couple of small things that adds something that might catch someone's eye. It is about having a vibe for your closet and making your buyer feel some good emotions about your closet.

Try to imagine how your listings look next to other people's. For example, you have Hudson jeans size 26, what's gonna make your picture stand out? Maybe just something simple. You don't have to do a lot of fancy stuff in order to sell. You can stick shoes that are similar size to the jeans because maybe the same person will want both things.

The main thing with using props is not to annoy people about having too much in the pictures. Because they can't tell what's for sale. Make sure if you are gonna put a pair of shoes to kind of just sneak them in, maybe cut off the back of the shoe or only show half of it or something like that. It has to be very obvious that you are selling the item that's picking up most of the screen.

Additional editing to your photos

Nine times out of ten you will be good with any built-in photo editor. They are good enough for some basic editing. Try to keep editing minimal. Let the piece dictate exactly what it's supposed to look like. The worst is when someone gets something and it isn't what he saw, it isn't the color, so you want to avoid that as much as possible. Be mindful that your edits don't kind of depict the item in an unnatural way. Additional tool to try is VSCO because you can edit something and then copy that edit. That way you get the exact same edit on every photo. You can literally create what you feel like is an accurate depiction with light of a one shot and then copy and paste that edit to every single piece that you take. Be in the spirit of truthfulness and honesty. Let the piece dictate, but at the same time, sometimes it's necessary and you actually are going to be more honest by editing. For example, to get the most accurate color.

Using your 16 photos and how do you decide which one's gonna be the covershot

You can add up to 16 photos to your listing. One way to choose your covershot is to look at everything that you took and see which one draws you in. Make sure all of the care tags, all of the material content, measurement photos if possible and flaws are in there. That way you don't have to talk about it like it's just in the listing. You still mention it in the description, but it's not negotiable because there's a photograph of it.

Flaws should be the highest priority in your photos. It might be different than most people think. You need to be honest about your flaws because it's always gonna come back and get you. Being honest with photos of your closet doesn't have to be the cover shot, but definitely have them within your 16 photos. If there's too many flaws maybe you shouldn't be selling it but be honest.

Make it easy for people to just buy from you without asking you a million questions. Use all the pictures and if you can't fit 16 then make a little collage to fit all. You will get better ratings if it's exactly like the person thought. They're gonna give you five stars, even if it doesn't fit them, because they're gonna be happy you told and showed them everything and they decided to buy.

Top tip for poshers who want to revamp their covershot

It's very helpful that there's so many Insta boutiques, just websites for online shopping in general. You can kind of browse through those websites, and not copy, but just find inspiration and figure out your own way. What draws your eye and maybe you like something, but maybe you could replicate something in a way that's yours. Look for inspiration on Pinterest for example.

Steam your clothes or iron your clothes. Do whatever you have to do to make sure your item looks like someone would want it. Don't forget that you're selling it to a stranger and they don't know how cool it is. You have to make it look like you care about it and if it's clean and pressed and just well set somewhere. If you don't care about it, why would someone want it?

Let the things you're interested in guide you on what you want to highlight. You'll evolve and keep changing things up, so there's always a starting point. Definitely just finding inspiration and things that you find interesting, things that attract you and you'll be on the right path.

Happy Poshing Everyone!

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