Photo Tips

[Rayela Art]

Ahem... I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but some of our dear members need help with their photos. Today I deleted over 1200 photos from my hard drive of product that I had sold on eBay while I had my brick and mortar store. Yish! Good riddance! I couldn't believe I was able to sell those items with such poor photo quality. In other words, my photos have improved in the last four years. They are not perfect, but they are better.

Learn from the school of hard knocks!

I don't have a top of the line camera. It cost me a bundle when it came out ($450), but now it would probably be a $100 camera. I've dropped it a couple of times and the battery thingy is taped down, the zoom sometimes gets stuck and I have a hard time getting good purples. I don't have a fancy photo editing software. I use photoshop elements and you DO need to have something to crop, sharpen and adjust colors.

Learning is a painful process, but it's a must in cyber world, especially if you are selling what you make! (Or, most often in my case, what someone else made...)

There are some simple tricks:
1. Photograph outside on a grey day or in the shade. This is to avoid shadows.
2. Buy a large white or black board as a background. Only use colors if you are confident about what you are doing. I prefer white, but some things do look better on black.
3. Don't try to give your item an environment. Don't hang the earrings on a pot. Don't use leaves or flowers as decorative items. Just keep it simple and try to document your piece as closely as possible to the actual thing. Even if you are not selling something, having good photos is important if you want to develop a portfolio, remember what you did accurately, and share the process with others.
4. You must, you must, you must: Absolutely must learn to focus (experiment with different options the camera might offer), crop, sharpen and adjust colors. Have someone teach you those basics. Take the time and just do it!

Doing this will result in a sigh of relief on your part and to others. You will likely be photographing similar things over and over, so make a set up that will work for you. Don't learn everything, just learn what you need. Remember that people cannot touch your item when they see it online, they have to imagine that they are touching it. Make that photo so good that they can feel it. I promise that this will make you happy!

If you know of other tips that are helpful, please post them here. Or, if you have nightmares about your photos and don't know what to do, give us a word here, too and we'll try to help you!

[arlee]

Thank you thank you for bringing this up! Many a time i've skipped over a photo because i can't really see what it is due to darkness or it's a blur!!! People also have to remember that just because it looks in focus at a smaller size doesn't mean that when it's clicked on, it will still be clear! Test your photo with "view at normal size"!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are two examples----not a lot of changes were made, but you can see what the thingies all are :} (This is very old work, so no snickers please)
Old photo:

And using colour/contrast and sharpen:

[Rayela Art]

Great example, Arlee!

[Diana Bracy]

Hi all, I have problems with my digital camera while taking photos of my small aceos, which are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". That is why I did not load them to share here. I did get a decent picture for them on another site and actually traded (ATC) two. I did have to explain that pictures were not my best. Both of the other Artists did love my originals. I am trying out a site to help crop, contrast and do a lot more to your photos. It is called Picnik and the link is here: http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/faq It is free to use but, they do have an upgrade if you wanted more features. It seems that the free site has helped, so far. My aceos needed a little more help from me to take a clearer close up photo. Just as Rayela has mentioned, I need to know more about my camera's functions.

[Rayela Art]

Diana- how about loading a bad one so we can see what's going on?

[arlee]

One thing you can do to get good shots and focus is to invest in a tripod--makes a world of difference. They're cheap enough from liquidators and come as small as 6".
Also if you want to do close-ups----DON"T use the closeup focus on your camera! My Olympus 5.1 SportZoom takes closeups fabulously if i put it on the longest distance focus and then get close to the object i am shooting---wait until it says it is focused then take the shot. You may have to experiment with distance, but i can usually get 6" between the object and the camera and get great clear shots.

You can also use a free program like Irfanview to edit your shots.

[Rayela Art]

I do use the macro option (the little flower?) on my camera, but find that it works best if I am not too close, then I crop it and sharpen.

[Rayela Art]

I took most of the shots on my friend, Abdul's website (I did the site for him) and especially like this page: http://www.afghantribalarts.com/turkmen.htm.

I did use lights for these photos although I prefer to take them outside in natural light on a grey day. I also used to use lots of textured backgrounds and now prefer a plain white.

[Rayela Art]

Strumpfkunst from Etsy has some good photo tips on her blog: http://etsyforeveryone.typepad.com/my_weblog/photography/index.html

She also has a lot of other good tips for Etsy sellers in general. Hmmmm... maybe she should join us here. I'll go invite her!

[Morna Crites-Moore]

Here is my photo set-up. Actually, I have two.

One is in the dark, dank basement. It is a table pushed against a wall. Then I got a roll of photo backdrop paper at the photo store. I use white. I tack it to the wall above the table then let it come down to the table top and roll it out toward me to the edge of the table. I thumbtack it to the wall. This way, I can take a picture and not have any corners, or floor-meeting-wall- type lines. I've always called this "infinity" paper, from my photographer days. Next, I have a large, white foam-core board standing vertically on each side of the paper background - these are for reflecting the light back onto the subject. Which brings us to the light. Such an important factor. Go to Home Depot or a hardware store and buy fluorescent tube light bulbs that are rated "daylight" - they only cost a few dollars, plus a dollar or so for the metal fixtures to hold them. I have two - one at each side of the white paper, facing toward the back wall. I could use another one. The next really important thing is to use a tripod. I can't stress this enough. When shooting, try to compose your subject so you won't need to do a lot of cropping. Get physically as close as you can. I definitely use my macro (the daisy) setting whenever I can. I can get 1 1/2" from the subject - amazing, and handy when shooting things like earrings and buttons.

My second photo set-up is not as "good" but I use it all the time because it is easy and it is in my studio, so I don't have to lug everything to the basement. Basically, I just set up a white board as my backdrop, then usually I drape fabric of some sort over it, in order to get the "infinity" effect. I have a lamp I use at my work table - it is a "daylight" lamp which I bought at a craft store that specializes in yarns and threads. I think it cost about $50 retail, but it was on sale. I also have several goose neck lamps attached to the table. So, I just focus all those lamps on the subject - put them really close - and I add the daylight lamp to balance the quality of the light. I use whatever is handy and the right height to rest my camera - my homemade tripod.

The other thing I have learned to do, in both settings, is to take my camera off the auto settings and fool around with the speed and the aperture. Just try it! It's not as difficult as you might think.

Hope somebody picks up a good tip from this!

p.s. I don't agree with the dictum to not hang earrings on pots and such. I do it all the time. For example:

If that looks bad, please tell me, and I'll stop doing it!

[ThePaintedTiger]

Rayela asked me to drop in, so I did!

For this photo, (and most of my photos), I have a black velvet shirt as my backdrop (it's the blackest you can get, and usually disappears. If you prefer white, you might try white velvet.) I'm set up right next to an east facing window, in the afternoon. My camera is positioned by the window, so the light is coming from behind the camera. I actually like some shadow, as it gives the yarn and fiber some depth and life. I have a Canon S3IS, and use the Macro and SuperMacro functions A LOT. I also use the light control functions to get the colors to be more true. I do have troubles with photographing items that are only blue or purple, but a slight tweaking in Nero generally takes care of it.

So, my set up is simple, really. I tried the whole cardboard box with the tissue paper thing, and although I got a few great pictures, it was more hassle than I found worth it....especially since my items are bigger.

The picture above is on my new business cards, BTW. I took at least 30 shots to get it just right so I wouldn't have to stretch or squish too much to fit it on the card properly.

[ThePaintedTiger]

Morna Crites-Moore said:

If that looks bad, please tell me, and I'll stop doing it!

I don't think it does. You didn't show the whole prop, you are just using it as a backdrop and a place to hang them. The yellow in the pottery is reflected into the pearls, making them creamier. It could have looked very weird with another color, but brings out the beauty here.

[Morna Crites-Moore]

ThePaintedTiger said:

Morna Crites-Moore said:

If that looks bad, please tell me, and I'll stop doing it!

I don't think it does. You didn't show the whole prop, you are just using it as a backdrop and a place to hang them. The yellow in the pottery is reflected into the pearls, making them creamier. It could have looked very weird with another color, but brings out the beauty here.

Thanks! Good to know.