How To Use Your Smartphone in Taking Your Etsy Listing Videos

In this blog post, you will learn how to take listing videos easily, which will bring your products to life.

Aside from photos, videos are also helpful in making your Etsy listings more compelling. You can use listing videos to highlight creative details and usability, convincing shoppers to purchase your products. 

With smartphones, capturing captivating listing videos for your Etsy shop is now easier than ever.

listing video recording with smartphone

Lay The Stage

Make your products pop by shooting on neat backdrops. Solid colors such as gray or white can work.

Prepare Your Phone

Before you start recording, it would be better if your smartphone is fully charged. You also need enough storage space (at least 2GB), so you can record as much as necessary.

Proper Lighting

Pick a spot to shoot with lots of indirect natural light. This will allow light to fall softly on your product from the side resulting in an illuminating effect. Prevent direct, harsh light in front or behind your product because it will be silhouetted.

Stabilize Your Camera

A steady camera is one of the great ways to make your listing videos look professional. You can use a clip-on stand or a tripod to help keep your phone stable while shooting. If you do not have these tools, you can make your own by stacking solid materials, such as books, to build a level surface.

Frame Your Shot

  • Resolution – Most smartphones have two cameras: front and back. Use the back camera because it has a higher resolution, thus capturing higher-quality videos. Set the resolution to 1080p HD at 30 FPS (frames per second).
  • Aspect Ratio – To keep the listing experience consistent for shoppers, ensure your listing video has the same aspect ratio (width to height ratio) as your main listing photo. (Shooting in the default portrait mode on many phones might result in a 9:16 video that’s difficult to see on some devices).
  • Focus and Exposure – Tap on the subject in the picture to focus the photo. Hold your finger on that point until the camera says the AE/AF lock is enabled if your phone has an auto-lock feature for focus and exposure (most iPhones do). This ensures that your subject remains focused and well-lit. Once you’ve got everything set up, make test videos to ensure everything appears right. Adjust things till you’re satisfied. When you’re ready, hit the record button!
  • Final Touches – Use your phone’s trim function to remove any unnecessary footage at the clips’ start and end; each completed listing video should be between 5 and 15 seconds long. To create a realistic representation of your items, avoid using filters or changing the color saturation on your listing videos. Also, keep in mind that the videos you post to your Etsy listings will not play audio, so don’t bother about deleting any background noise or commentary.

 

Did you know you can also use videos to market your Etsy shop? Read Video Marketing Ideas for Your Etsy Business.

For more Etsy selling blogs. Visit howtosellonetsy.com

About Charles Curry

Charles founded his Etsy shop Wall Decal Source in 2012. He opened his decal shop and decided to create a nursery decal for his sisters new baby. Funnily enough he published the decal as an item for sale on his Etsy shop and people really liked it. Well a few years later and his shop has been almost completely taken over by nursery wall decals. He must still be a kid at heart. As Charles tested and tried all sorts of methods to expand his shop he stumbled upon a few simple formulas for consistently growing Etsy sales and views.
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