Thursday 24 May 2007

Photographing crafts

This has been a problem of mine for a while - how to get the perfect photo of your crafts. On a forum I belong to we have been discussing light boxes and if they work. See the exact thread here. Some one suggested using a light box but I had a look and they are quite expensive so I had a search and found this tutorial on how to make your own light box - it's very simple and inexpensive. Here is a photo of it set up in my study. It consists of a plastic storage box, two clip lights bought from Ikea, poster board and a white pillowcase.

I decided I need to brighten up the photos of my stuff on etsy, in particular, the photos of my Peter and Jane badges. They look okish once you click through to them but I would like them to be brighter on the front page of my shop so that people can see what is there rather than going 'Huh, what's that?' I've not yet got the hang of it though - I'll show you in these examples here!
This is the original photo on Etsy of one of my brooches.

Here's the one I took in the light box with the two clip lamps on and no flash.

Apart from it being wonky it is very pink - it didn't look like this on the preview on the camera! The next photo shows the same brooch in the light box but with the flash on.

It still has a pink tinge to it but it looks so much better with the flash on - perhaps I need another light? This looked far too bright on the preview though which is why there is no close up photo! I think I will have to keep practising.
The Peter and Jane badges look better - even if they are a little pink tinged! I'm sure that if I keep practising then I will get better - I think I'll take some more photo's tonight.








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