I’d like to share a creative way to showcase your handmade items and products, a way that really draws your audience in to click on your product, hopefully resulting in a sale.

I’ve found that this technique really helps to draw your potential buyers into to clicking on your product. By spending a bit of time creating a ‘hero’ image for your product you can help to encourage your audience to click and invite them for a better look. This technique assumes you’re able to use Photoshop or some other graphic editing software. If you’re not good with that sort of thing then I would be more than happy to help you.

01 – Photograph Your Item on a White Background Head On

Firstly we need to photograph the item head on (or top down). This will help us to achieve the desired effect of our item in a scene. A plain background will make it easier to cut out using the pen too (or other extraction tools within photoshop)

02 – Cut Out Your Subject Matter Using The Pen Tool to Extract It
We’re going to be layering up or comping together our own themed image, in this case something halloween ‘esque was quite fitting. Here is my doggie cut out with no background. 

03 – Start Layering Up Your Image
I knew that I wanted my doggie to be standing on a base of some kind, so I found a free stock image of some wooden planks that I distorted to the right proportion to the dog. Already this looks good but it could be better, the image on the left is the doggie just on top on my wooden background. The image on the right is our doggie with some subtle shadows under his feet to add a touch of realism.

04 – Add A Background
Again, using freely available stock images I found this cool background image that would really set the mood for my hero image. This looks really good as it is, and I could have stopped there. Even this alone makes for a captivating hero image that really drawers the viewers in!

05 – Add Additional Elements
You can go as far as your creativity takes you with this type of thing. If you’re showcasing a really big image either online or in print, it’s definitely worth spending a bit more time on making something really cool. Don’t forget this type of creative showcasing can help you get featured around the web and even in craft books and magazines. It shows that your investing time into making sure your product something extra special that demands to be seen.

As you can see here I added in lots more elements to really build up the final piece  which I think looks great. Don’t forget to save a hi-res version for the web and a CMYK version if it’s going to be printed or featured in a printed publication.

Here are Some Other Examples of Creative Hero Images I’ve done that you could try:

Nautical Theme:

French Theme:

Christmas Theme: