Hi all! I'm back today after almost 2 weeks of not having home internet with a project I have been dieing to share with you. Do you ever feel like there is one thing that is holding you back in your crafting?
Mine is that I don't ever feel like the photos of my projects do them justice. Because of this I have spent countless hours doing research on product and jewelry photography and asking some of my scrappy friends/crushes their secrets. Take a peek at one of my biggest photo quality crushes Lea Lawson over at Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine. Not only are her cards amazing but the photos of them are too!
My first step was investing in a new lens for my camera. Previously I took all my photos with an 18-55mm lens on my Nikon D70. My new lens is a 40mm micro lens by Nikon. The second step I took was improving my lighting situation. Almost every blog/website I visited on this topic said LIGHTING was the key to solving all of my problems.
This solution involved a trip to the hardware and office supply store for some cheap lights, pvc piping and foam core board. Because I'm a tightwad I wanted to do this on my own and on a budget. So for about $55 this is what I came up with.
I used the pvc ($1.99 for a 10 ft section) to make a frame to clip my cheap lights (about $6 each) onto and put Ott-lite brand daylight bulbs (about $6 each) into my cheap lights. My box is made out of foam core board with squares cut out of the sides and top to let the light through and the entire box is covered in muslin fabric to diffuse the light.
In my old set up I would always have to to take my pictures at a certain time of day so my lighting would be just right and I was still never happy with them. The details of the cards were always lost. Gems looked like studs and the colors weren't quite the same. In my new light studio I can take pictures any time of day. If you noticed my new set up is also in my basement (no windows). I was a little leary about this at first but I couldn't be happier with the difference in my pictures.
Here are some photos of a card taken in the old set up and then one in the new light studio.
Do you see the detail and color difference? I think I'm most amazed at the color. Now I know I have a lot of practice to do on my photos but at least now I know I'm moving in the right direction.
Here is one more picture to show you the diffence in the details. Look at the gems on this card.
One other tip that I have not taken advantage of yet because I can't find my equipment is to use a tripod.
I hope this helps some of you that struggle with some of the same issues that I do. I'd love your feed back and tips if you have any to share with everyone. Thanks for looking today!
Mine is that I don't ever feel like the photos of my projects do them justice. Because of this I have spent countless hours doing research on product and jewelry photography and asking some of my scrappy friends/crushes their secrets. Take a peek at one of my biggest photo quality crushes Lea Lawson over at Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine. Not only are her cards amazing but the photos of them are too!
My first step was investing in a new lens for my camera. Previously I took all my photos with an 18-55mm lens on my Nikon D70. My new lens is a 40mm micro lens by Nikon. The second step I took was improving my lighting situation. Almost every blog/website I visited on this topic said LIGHTING was the key to solving all of my problems.
This solution involved a trip to the hardware and office supply store for some cheap lights, pvc piping and foam core board. Because I'm a tightwad I wanted to do this on my own and on a budget. So for about $55 this is what I came up with.
I used the pvc ($1.99 for a 10 ft section) to make a frame to clip my cheap lights (about $6 each) onto and put Ott-lite brand daylight bulbs (about $6 each) into my cheap lights. My box is made out of foam core board with squares cut out of the sides and top to let the light through and the entire box is covered in muslin fabric to diffuse the light.
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| Here is my old set up on my sun porch |
Here are some photos of a card taken in the old set up and then one in the new light studio.
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| Old sun porch set up |
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| New light studio |
Here is one more picture to show you the diffence in the details. Look at the gems on this card.
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| Kindness mini |
I hope this helps some of you that struggle with some of the same issues that I do. I'd love your feed back and tips if you have any to share with everyone. Thanks for looking today!
1 comment:
Nice! I was surprised by the color difference. I just bought an inexpensive set up (somewhat similar to your old one) and am pleased with the difference between that and nothing. One day I'll catch up to you;)
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