You don’t need a professional photography studio to get decent product pics. You just need a little ingenuity!
- North-facing windows have the best light for taking pictures and morning light is ideal.
- Set yourself up a little photo stage: I happen to have a goodly amount of white primed, stretched canvasses laying around the house (painting is one of my hobbies!), but any white surface will do. I’ve gotten decent results with a white sheet of paper and two small pieces of foam core to reflect the light. The bigger, whiter and more angles your setup has, the better. You’re trying to capture as much of the light coming in that window and reflect it down on your photo surface. The sheet of white paper is useful as a background and if I want to take any side shots, the paper keeps the crease between the two canvasses from getting in the shot!
- Next tip is to read your camera’s manual and figure out how to increase exposure when taking pictures and what all the Natural Jewelry Product Photography settings do. Then, just play around with them until you figure out what works for you!
- Finally, you’re probably still going to need some picture editing to make them perfect. Luckily, you can do this for free 🙂 I’ve used pixlr.com with good results. A common thing that needs fixing is increasing brightness and contrast. Maybe the picture’s too yellow or too blue? You can fix that, too!
Original post can be found on Authentic Arts by Jenny Hoople. Republished with Permission.
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I would like to photo some of my quilting projects to sell on line.
That’s a great idea Frances! Make sure you follow some of our photo tips when you’re first getting started. It might take a few tries to get the photos right.
Can you recommend a fairly inexpensive camera? Right now I have a Nikon Cool Pix, 14.0 Megapixels, 3.6x zoom, Easy Auto Mode. Large art/crafts come out okay, but I do alot of tiny things, like around 1″. I can’t get the pics clear enough to get the detail. I think I paid around $100 or so for this one on sale. I actually have to send it in because the battery door doesn’t stay closed. If they send me a gift card, I could maybe get something a little more expensive. I am on a tight budget (on Soc. Sec.) and living with my 89 yr. old mother. I can’t do anything too complicated with alot of attachments. I wouldn’t understand it. Just something practical that takes clear pics of tiny stuff. Thank you, Cathey DeRosa
Hi Cathey, I’m not sure what camera would be best for that besides a big DSLR camera. Those little digital cameras really aren’t made to take those beautiful up-close detail shots. However, you might be able to find a MACRO lens attachment for your camera. You should ask someone about it when you take your camera in. That would probably be the cheapest and simplest solution. A macro lens allows you to take really zoomed in detail shots. I know they sell lenses like this for phone camera, so you should be able to find something for your Nikon. I hope that helps!
My pictures are ok but how do I upload them onto another site, say eBay or etsy?
Hi Dot,
You’d have to set up accounts with bot ebay and etsy to be able to upload any photos.