Etsy Photography Tips: Should I Watermark My Etsy Photos?

If you are wondering whether you should watermark your Etsy photos or not, you have come to the right place.

In this digital era, content theft is not a new thing. A lot of commercial software and ebooks are offered for free on illegal websites. Many Etsy sellers often complain about product image theft. They said that other sellers stole their image listings and the descriptions to use for their shops.

Here are some examples:

ThePepperBug wrote about their experiences about product photo theft in 2017.

This is the original thread.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/Sellers-who-steal-your-images-Grrrrr/td-p/14330479

Another thread started by SticksnStonesWrkshp in 2018

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Creative-Process/Someone-is-stealing-my-images-and-descriptions/td-p/18145524

TheFortuneCat expressed her bad feelings when someone stole and used her images for months.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Creative-Process/Stolen-photographs-Suggestions/td-p/8288930

FortuneCat expressed her bad feelings when someone stole her product images.

As you can see, many sellers are bold enough to steal your product images and use them for their stores. DestinationLtd expressed her bad experiences when she can’t prevent other shops from using her images without permission. Some shop owners will use your images for their shops. Other shops will use them to scam customers. They receive orders and the money from buyers but they don’t send items to them. They don’t do business at all and only want to steal money from the customers

Unfortunately, the situation happens very often.

Table of Contents

How can you be affected when someone uses your images?

Because some shops will use your images and the bad result is that buyers cannot know who is the real creators and owners of your product images. They will doubt and suspect the product and your business. This also confuses buyers when they search for your products and they can buy from your competitors, not you.
As a result, your sales and your business will be affected. People will avoid buying from you and they will not use your products and recommend your business to other people. Your business will decline.

What to do when someone stole your product images

You should contact the shops that stole your images first and told them to remove the photos. Many shops that stole your images will not respond and do what they ask them. But this is what you have to do. You have to protect your assets and business and that is your rights.
You need to contact Etsy’s support and report this situation. Etsy provides you with many supporting channels.
Email: s[email protected]
Twitter:https://twitter.com/EtsyHelp,https://twitter.com/Etsy
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/etsy/

3. You can also visit the Etsy community to report the situation. Here is the link: https://community.etsy.com/ Many sellers will help you and share their experiences with you. Another thing is that you can visit the community and read threads about the situation. You can improve your knowledge and know what to do when you are in the same situation.

4. You can file a DMCA for the things they did with your store and business.

Etsy may deactivate the links of the shops that stole your images. But many people can still open other shops and use your images again. If you have read some threads on the Etsy community, you can see that that situation is possible.

How do I protect my digital photos on Etsy?

1. Back up your photos somewhere else. If you have a hard drive that isn’t always on the Internet, back up your photos there first. You can also use an online backup service to do this for you — just keep in mind that these services may be more expensive than other options.

2. Make sure all your images are under 600px wide, and no more than 1MB each (ideally less than 500KB). This will help ensure they’re small enough to upload quickly, while still looking great! And other people can only download the samples (smaller versions) of your photos, not the highest quality. However, on Etsy, the platform recommends you to use a bigger width for photos, you should consider carefully when choosing the size to upload. If you sell on other platforms or on your own website, you can use a smaller size of your images.

3. Use watermarking software. Watermarking software will allow you to add a text overlay to the photos in your Etsy store that displays your name or company name. This makes it easier for people who try to download your images without paying for them (by right-clicking and saving the image) to be caught. It also helps protect against people who try to steal your work by claiming they took it themselves.

4. Set up an Etsy shop with strong protection settings. When you create an Etsy shop, there are different settings you can use that will protect your work from being stolen or used without permission.

Other Tips to Protect Listing Images

Use photos of your work, instead of your original files.

If you sell digital files like designs, sketches, drawings, you can take some photos of the work and post them. For example, you can create a photo in which you are holding the designs.

Upload images that have the width of 1500 pixels.

It’s tempting to post low-resolution images because they take up less space on your computer, but that’s not recommended for Etsy listings. In fact, it’s against Etsy policy to use low-resolution pictures that don’t do justice to your product. Make sure all the photos in your shop comply with Etsy’s image requirements by uploading large-size images.

Incorporate your brand into your images.

You can protect your images by adding a watermark to them. This is a good way to protect your photos because no one else likes using watermarked photos on their own listings. You can also use some special things like fonts, logos, ways you design your photos to make something unique about your brand. When you do it, it is hard for competitors to use your images because most potential buyers will know the images or designs which are from you, not other people.

Other Steps to Prevent Your Work From Being Stolen on Etsy

If you’re an artist or maker who sells your work online through Etsy, it’s important to know that your work can be stolen by other people.

The good news is that there are some suggestions and steps you can take to protect yourself from copyright infringement and make sure that no one else can steal your designs.

Here’s how:

Step 1. Trademark Your Brand Name

This is the first step in protecting your intellectual property (IP). A trademark is any word, phrase, symbol or design that identifies products or services and distinguishes them from competitors’ products or services. If your business is already a big one, you should consider registering your trademark as soon as you can.

Step 2. Copyright Your Work

Copyright protects original works of authorship such as literary works, musical work, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and architectural works. If you’ve created something original (like a painting or a photo) or any types of creative work, then you can copyright it by registering it with the USPTO. Or if you just want to keep your work safe from thieves, then you should just put a copyright notice on the work itself (like © 2022).

What You Can Do If Someone Steals Your Work

You can report a listing that steals your work to Etsy. And they will take down all the photos or even close the account that is associated with the photos from yours.

Should you watermark your photos on Etsy?

Many Etsy sellers recommend that you should watermark your photos to protect your efforts and business. If you are in the same situation, it is better to protect yourself and your business first. Preventing your images from theft is better than finding solutions to deal with someone who stole your assets. So in general, you should watermark your photos.

When you watermark your photos and add text or logo to your assets, other shops will hesitate to steal your images because they cannot use them for their stores.

You can use your logo as a watermark and buyers will know exactly that those images are yours. Watermark is also considered a marketing tool. The more people see your images, the more they will know your brand.

If you are worried about the quality of the images or SEO when you watermark your photos, it is not necessary. Many watermark software will help you add watermark to your photos easily and quickly without losing quality. The software will also provide you with tools to help you change and make the watermark look good with your photos. You can change the colors, the position, the opacity of the watermarks. And you can do many other things with your watermark.

What about SEO? Do you think that when you watermark photos, Google and other search engines will not index your images and your stores? The answer is no. You don’t need to worry about that. Forget SEO tricks and only focus on your products and services. When you serve your visitors well, Google will serve you well.

What does it mean? It means that you create high-quality products and images, Google still indexes your stores and images. Why? The reason is that Google only cares about the quality and value of your business. Google doesn’t care about what SEO tricks you use or you watermark your photos.

The more advanced web technologies are, the more sophisticated the Google search engine is. The machine learning algorithms behind Google will know that your images and products are good or not. The algorithms will know that your business is worth to be featured or not.

So you don’t need to worry about SEO rankings when it comes to watermarking your product photos. What you need to care about are your business and your products.

Tips to Have Amazing Etsy Products Photos

Take advantage of natural lighting.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when starting selling and uploading your photos to Etsy. The first thing to keep the lighting consistent, and it’s also important to make sure that the photo is taken in a natural light source.

Natural light photographs look better than artificial lighting, and when the photos look their best, it will help potential customers make a purchase decision. Natural light can help you take better photos because it is consistent and easy to work with. You’ll have more control over the lighting if you’re using natural light, which means you’ll be able to avoid harsh shadows or overexposed areas on your subject. You can also prevent uneven lighting when taking pictures indoors by shooting during the daytime.

Don’t use flash.

Flash photography is convenient because it provides bright light instantly, but it can also create shadows on your subject that ruin the shot’s aesthetic quality. It’s better to avoid using flash whenever possible.

Clean up all the dust on your product.

Clean up any dust or dirt on your product before taking photos — even if it’s just a small smudge on an earring or necklace. You don’t want to ruin an otherwise perfect photo by having someone see a dust bunny on the edge of an item in your photo!

Do a little research on your competition or other listings.

Make sure you know what you’re doing. Before you begin your product photography, do a little research. This is important because you don’t want to start your product photography and realize that you’re not capturing the best images.

Check out the listings on eBay and Amazon to see what they’re doing. You can have a look at their product photos and their photo description. You should also check out their competitors.

For example, look at the products on the sellers’ websites. When you look at the website content, and you ask yourself these questions: Are the pictures accurate? Does the description match the product?

You should also check out customer reviews. The reviews should be honest, and you should look for a mix of positive and negative reviews. Sometimes, it is better to read the negative reviews than the positive ones.

Choose a background that complements your products.

It is important to choose a background that is suitable for your product. You can choose the white color for your background or any colors that may work well with them. Experimentation is the key thing here.

Use a White Background

This is true for any photo you take, but it’s especially important for Etsy listings. A white background makes your product stand out from the crowd, and it makes it easier for customers to see what they’re buying. If you have a small studio space or a room with white walls, this can be as simple as turning off the overhead lights and turning on some lamps. If not, try using a large piece of paper or fabric taped down behind your product — this will create the same effect without taking up much space in your home or studio.

Get Close Up

Like with any other photo shoot, getting close-up shots is always better than getting wide shots. You want to showcase what makes your item unique — don’t forget about accessories like ribbons and tags if they’re part of the design! The more detailed you can show via your photos, the more likely your customers will be impressed. And they may buy your products if they imagine about the value of the goods.

Show Your Whole Product

It’s tempting to only show one side of an item. But it is always better if you can show different sides of the product. Customers will easily feel and see the product better than you only have one part of your item.

Take advantage of props.

Props are a great addition to make your photos more interesting and engaging. Find something that’s special about your product — whether it’s an antique or some kind of jewelry — and incorporate it into your photos as much as possible. Think about what your customers may want to see, and then try using those items as props to add to your photos. For example, if you’re selling handmade jewelry, watches, rings, or necklaces, it is great if you can include pictures of models wearing them. we mean you add the human element in your photos. Customers can see how they look on real people instead of just flat images of the product itself. From that point, they can easily buy the products you sell than before.

Don’t forget about angles!

Use different angles when taking pictures, so each item has its own unique view point.

Creatively compose your images.

You can use your creativity to compose your product images in different ways. Actually there are no limits to how you can do it. You can even create better images than anyone else, so be confident.

Take different types of shots.

It is great if you can shoot different types of shots for each product. You can shoot from an above perspective or shoot one side of the product. Or you can put the product in different places or backdrops to experiment.

Leave space around your items.

Space is needed for all items to make your photos have a good composition. Try to arrange or leave props and different items in their proper positions.

Take photos horizontally.

When taking product photos, be sure to capture the product from multiple angles. This will ensure that your customers will be able to see all sides of the product.

Always take a close up of the product to ensure that your customers can clearly see the product details. You should also take photos horizontally. This will allow your customer to view the product from the top, bottom, left, and right. Horizontal photos allow for maximum depth of field and horizontal photos also have less distortion, making it easier to crop your images.

Clean your camera lens.

Clean your camera lens. This will ensure that your photos are clear and sharp.

Try not to zoom.

Try not to zoom. Zoom in to only the part of the image that you want to show, not the entire photo. Horizontal photos allow for maximum depth of field. This means that the background is blurred out while the subject is sharp. Horizontal photos also have less distortion, making it easier to crop your images.

Well Lit, Clean Background

Whether you are selling something online or at a physical store, you should always take the time to make sure that your photos are well lit, free of distractions, and have clean backgrounds. And you want to give customers a good first impression.

Bigger Photos are better

Shoot products with bigger photos. The bigger photos are, the better customers can see your products.

Notes on Etsy Listing Photos

Tips for uploading listing photos to Etsy

The photos should be horizontal or square, but the center of the photos should be in focus.

Etsy will Rotate Your Images

Etsy often rotates the listing photos automatically to make sure that the photos will match customers’ needs and wants. It means that they often make your product photos look their best.

Create listing image thumbnails

They recommend sellers to crop the photos horizontally, and use an aspect ratio of 4:3 for the best quality.

Other Essential Tips For Product Photography and Etsy Sellers

Get To Know Your Camera Better

Get to know your camera. Before you go out to shoot, make sure that you are comfortable with your camera. If you are not a professional photographer, it is recommended. You don’t want to miss a shot because you’re not familiar with your camera. The best way to get to know your camera is to use it often. You need to understand how to use your camera’s settings, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc.

Plan Your Photoshoots Carefully

Before you start shooting, make sure to plan out your photoshoot. This includes the location, lighting, props, and product.

Use Suitable Props

Make sure to use props wisely. You don’t want to overuse them. The main objective is to show off your product, and to make it look professional.

Have Your Own Style

You don’t want to be too formal, or too casual. Think about what kind of style you want to create. What mood are you trying to convey? Are you trying to capture a natural, candid photo, or are you trying to create a more stylized photo?

Keep Your Photo Files Organized

This means keeping all of your product photos in one place and in a particular order that you can remember and find them later easily. You should also make sure that you keep a backup copy of your product photos. This way, if something happens to your computer, you won’t lose any of your photos.

How To Edit Product Photography

Balance Exposure

Before you start editing your product photography, it’s important to balance exposure. When you’re shooting a product, you want to make sure that the light doesn’t overpower the subject. If you’re photographing a product in a window, you should make sure that the light isn’t too bright or too dim.

You can do this by using the Lightroom presets. You can use the Exposure slider to adjust the exposure. You can also use the Brightness/Contrast slider to adjust the brightness and contrast.

Sharpen Details

After you’ve taken the photo, you should sharpen the details. You can use a photo editing software, such as Photoshop, to sharpen the details in your image. This will make your product look more realistic.

Get Rid Of Unwanted Objects

If there are any objects in your photograph that don’t belong there, you can get rid of them. You can use a photo editing software to remove unwanted objects.

Crop Photos To Perfection

The world of Etsy is a world of perfection. It’s a world where every product is expected to be flawless. And, if it isn’t perfect, it’s going to hurt sales. So, it’s important to edit your product photography to perfection. Use the crop tool to cut away the unwanted parts of the photos.

Resize Images To Etsy’s Standards

It is the most important thing to follow Etsy’s guidance, especially for listing photos. If your images are too big, you should resize the images for proper sizes.