Millinery Market – Tips for Taking Good Photos of your Millinery
With over 1,000 hats listed on Millinery Market, you want your hats to stand out and be seen. The best way to do this is to make sure your feature photo shown on the home page is visually appealing and shows the entire hat.
You’ll also want to include a number of clear photos from a few different angles as well as shots of the hat being worn to help potential customers know exactly what the hat looks like, which will help increase the chance of you making a sale.
Here are a few tips to consider when photographing your millinery:
1) The Photo Background
Find a blank, preferably white, or block coloured wall.
In my house, I don’t have a lot of blank white walls with good natural light but the bottom of this wall and the kitchen splash back will still work.
2) Lighting
Make sure there is good natural light and in an open space without shadows. It’s better to take photos during the day rather than at night. Consider using lamps to illuminate dark areas.
3) Hat Stand
Find a stand to sit your hat on, whether you have a mannequin head or you use something else like a vase, cup or lamp with the lampshade removed.
You can purchase a styrofoam head off ebay for under $10.
4) The Photo Frame
Take your photos in landscape (not portrait) as that’s how they are displayed on Millinery Market. Position the hat in the middle of the photo frame leaving some space around the edges so you can see the entire hat.
5) Take Photos from all Angles
Take photos of your hats from all angles, so customers can get a good idea of how it will look.
Here is the hat photographed against the white wall.
Here it is against the kitchen splash back.
6) Photos of Hat Worn on Head
Include photos of your hat worn on your head so customers can see how it will sit.
You can even include a photo of the hairstyle you had done with your hat to give customers ideas for their hair.
7) Photos of your Previous Customers
If your hat has been rented multiple times, you could ask customers if they mind you using their photo in your listing, to give other renters an idea of styles it can be worn with.
8) Photograph any Damages or Defects
Photograph any damages or imperfections of your hat. It is very important to list any defects, such as a broken feather, marks on your hat, wonky brim etc., so that a customer will know this before they rent it. If they discover the hat has defects when they receive it, they could request their money back.
9) Choose a Nice Feature Photo
Select your best photo that shows the whole hat as the feature photo.
The feature photo is the one that gets shown on the Millinery Market home page and is the first photo in your hat listing. To make a photo the feature photo, just edit your hat listing and drag it into the first position as shown below.
On the home page, feature photos are displayed with an aspect ratio of 3:2 (3 wide to 2 high). Note if your image has a different aspect ratio, the photo is cropped about the centre to fit a 3:2 aspect ratio.
It’s good to check how your listing appears on the home page. In the example below, you can see the hat isn’t visible at all as it’s been cropped out.
To avoid this, prior to uploading an image, you can edit your feature photo to suit a 3:2 aspect ratio. You can use a free photo cropping site called Croppola and select the 3:2 aspect ratio as shown below.
Can I use Milliner’s Photos in my Listing?
Often when you purchase a hat or get a hat made, a milliner will send you some photos they have taken of the hat in their studio or they will post some photos to Instagram or Facebook.
It’s important to recognise that these photos belong to the milliner and using them in your hat listing may infringe on their copyright. As such, we request members to take their own photos of their hat rather than using a milliner’s photo.
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