Photographing your projects

[annscraps]

Anybody have any tips to get a good photo of your hybrid projects? My stuff looks MUCH better in person...I'm not much of a photographer

[MariKoegelenberg]

Please I want to know too!!! he he!

[cherpea]

Good natural light near a window... prop the item up with something. make sure there isn't anything else in the background that you don't want...

try not to use the flash if you can help it... I have been busted up on my bench trying to not block the light but get a good photo of a piece...

fill the frame with your piece as much as you can and try it on a standard full auto without flash setting and then perhaps on a macro setting again no flash...

just a few things I do...

[kelleighr]

Yep! I do the same, but I put it on a solid colored background, then edit my photo. Play with curves, increase saturation, unsharp mask, etc.

But, I'm often very unsatisfied with my photos. I can't get them to stay in focus!!

[JenTapler]

I'm the same Kelleigh with the focus!! I set up a very lame "photo studio" using 3 pieces of white shelving....one for the "floor", one for the background, and one for the side that is sort of angled away from my light source. I set it up in the late afternoon right next to the window and NEVER use a flash. I often have to play with the saturation, levels, etc to get something that looks right. I usually add an orange photo filter too, decreasing the intensity of that to about 12%. We need to get Nicole to post her tips in here....she has some REALLY good step-by-step tips (that's where I got most of my ideas)....

Nicole??? paging Nicole Seitler.....

[wildblueeyez]

I'm so glad someone asked this because my photos of my projects really stink too! LOL....

[nicoleseitler]

Haha! I heard you call, Jen! Let me dig up that super-spiffy post...

It's mostly about Actions, but I start off talking about tweaks you can make yourself: http://www.craftcritique.com/2008/03...photoshop.html

I would say good lighting and a pleasant background are key! When I made cards, I used to prop them up next to a stack of books and take a snapshot of it under the end table lamp. Then I'd tweak the colors to get rid of the yellow. This was with a crappy point and shoot and PSP:



Hope that helps!

[lupimentel]

I love these tips ! Thank you !
I´m thinkg to do a macro studio to try some better photos ... Anyone try that ?

[putri]

I try to do natural light as much as I can. I have huge windows at home and so I just plop my work on my dining table facing the window and shoot. This gives me even lighting. If I have to submit and it's late, I use two lights, one on the left and right. I also shoot in RAW and edit in Photoshop (CS3 is what I have) and adjust the temp. and all that jazz.

You can check my blog for some of my pics and also in my digi tut there is a RAW editing tutorial too.

[AndreaBurns]

OK!

Natural Light near a window is a GREAT start.

You could get a rectangle of white or black fleece and kind of drape it up like a background.

Set your camera's aperture to 3.5 or so, and make sure your project is a good foot or 18 inches from the backdrop. Make sure your image is properly exposed, maybe even overexposed by 1 stop.

In photoshop you can adjust levels or curves (for curves, pull it in a slight "S" shape). You can even dodge the background a little lighter or burn darker.

Do an UnShapMask to sharpen it.

HTH!

[jjstar]

Outside of the photography points, I also like it when people include other things in the shot that go with the theme. Like plastic easter eggs next to an spring card, etc.