Basic Product Photography - Part 4

We have come on a long journey of helpful ways to take photos of your art or craft works to sell on internet sites or in catalogs. All of that has lead to this article in which I will tell you about a way to eliminate all of the complications that result from what I presented in Part 3 to create your home studio. Remember that I spoke about indirect and diffused lighting and creating neutral backgrounds that involved creating boards to hang them on. I am going to be the first to say that is a real pain. You want an easier solution than that and a way to work your lighting so that you can achieve the soft, no shadow light that you want. Why did I go through all of that then in Part 3 - because not everyone wants to make this small investment. And that investment is in a light tent.

A light tent is an enclosed cube with translucent walls that allow light to pass through on four to five sides. Many web sites have instructions to make one and what can be made will work - but rarely are you making something that will be easy to store and that folds conveniently away. I have found an inexpensive light tent that is just like the more expensive tents sold in camera stores. I wish that I had found this before I purchased mine which I bought in a camera shop for about $75.00. This one is half the price. I is found at a company called Harbor Freight. Harbor Freight is a tool retail company that sells imported tools as well as gadgets. They have a web site, a print catalog, and retail stores around the US. I first saw the light tent in person at one of their stores. Here is a link to the tent on their web site. They call it a photo tent (same thing) and it sells for $28.99. This is a great price and makes going through the time and effort of collecting the parts and making one not worth the effort. I have no stock in Harbor Freight and I get no commissions. I just think that this is an ideal way to get an essential part of a home product studio for very little money.

As I said, I do not have this inexpensive light tent. I paid twice the amount for the same thing. Here is a photo of my home product photo studio. My studio is set up in my basement. And this part of the basement is a small room that also contains the furnace, the heating oil tank, and the washer/dryer. You can see how nicely this fits into a limited space and the best part is it all can be folded up and put away. Commercial light tents like mine and the one that is sold by Harbor Freight fold flat. Now, there is a trick to folding them that takes a bit of practice, but once you get it and realize that the frame is flexible enough to twist as it is needed to be twisted to automatically fold down, it becomes easy. The tent is sitting on a square board that is just the size of the tent and that board sits on a folding "Workmate" work table made by Black and Decker. The Workmate is there in the basement to use to work on projects so it was an ideal choice spot for my studio set up. It could just as easily be a folding card table. In the photo you can see the light arrangement that I use and you now can see the lights that I spoke about in Part 3 - around $6 each at Home Depot stores, Walmart, etc. I like the third light above to add extra light and knock away any shadows that I can't get rid of with the two side lights. The advantage of a basement is that you can put a nail in beam above and do no harm so the top light hangs down from a strip of wood with a hole drilled into it at the top and the lamp clips at the bottom. The two side lights are clipped to old folding music stands. This makes them easy to move and direct to where I want the light inside the tent. As you can see the lights are outside the tent and shine through the walls. This diffuses the light. The lamps are pointed to give the best light on the object being photographed. With this set up there is no need for a flash. You cannot see in the photo that in front of the tent and table is an overhead flourescent shop light. I will often put this light out so that it casts no shadows inside the tent. I have also kept that light on and compensated for it with the tent lights. You are standing in front of the opening so it is unlikely that any light will come from the front, but if it is a concern this particular tent included a front that velcros on with a split in the middle for the camera. On the Harbor Frieght tent you will see in their photo that the front is a small circular opening which also cuts the forward light. In one small easy to set up space you have everything that you need to set up, take down, and set up again your product photo studio.

Now what about the background? Again, I recommend the flannel that I spoke about in Part 3 and in the same nuetral colors. The tent that I purchase also included backgrounds - velvet look panels in red, blue, and black. These each have velcro on the back at the corners and attach to velcro that came inside the tent. Because they have the velvet look they do collect dust particles that need to be removed before shooting your photos. A bit of velcro sewn on to fabric panels that you make easily allow you to attach the panel inside the tent. And the panels cover the back and the floor of the tent - taking care of the all that will be seen under and behind the item you are photographing. The Harbor Freight tent does not include panels but does include "hook and loop" fasteners (velcro) inside to hang your backdrops.

Here is a view inside my tent. You can see the black panel that is included. On top of that I have draped light grey flannel over a small cardboard box. This was for the set up of photos of the lucet that I sell on Etsy. I lean the item on the fabric and against the side of the box so that it stands. I do not use a tripod as my camera has excellent image stabilization so I can handhold the camera while taking perfect macro photographs. I stand in front of the tent and shoot away. If you are going to use a tripod as I recommended in Part 1 then you would set that tripod up in front of the tent. We are going to talk more about tripods in a later article.

Simple, easy, and certainly portable - the light tent weighs next to nothing and folds flat to about a square foot or less.

Next we will talk about what to do with the images once they are in the camera.

To be continued...

Basic Product Photography - Part 3

In our last article we talked about shooting your product photos outdoors. In this article we are going to move your photo "studio" indoors. There is more to shooting inside than putting your item down on the kitchen table and taking out your camera. Believe me, I have tried it when I have been in a hurry and there are always problems.

When shooting indoors there are three things that must be taken into consideration - lighting, shadows, and background. If you control these three things you will easily take good product photos.

While you do not have to dedicate a space for your photos full time (who has room for that?) you are going to want to determine a space that you will always come back to when you need to take photos. Look around your house - or apartment - and find a space that you can take over for the times when you need to take photographs of your craft or art work. This space needs a table or counter that is already there all of the time or a place to put a small folding table. The height of the table needs to be comfortable for you to work on so a low to the floor, living room, coffee table is not ideal. Your kitchen table will work. The table on which you create your craft will work (as long as you don't keep your tools out all of the time - you don't want to need to completely clean up and put everything away every time you need to take a photo. If you do and you are like me, you will never take any photos.) Find your space and use that space every time.

Now to start controlling each of the three variables mentioned above. First let's talk about lighting. If you see a picture of a professional photographers studio you will see that several lights are used to light the subject. Look closely at those lights and they usually are facing away from the subject and there are reflective umbrellas in front of them which bounces the light toward what or who they are taking the photo of. They do this to get indirect light focused on the subject. Another method (more used years ago than now) was to put translucent covers on the front of the lights. Indirect light or diffused light provides a soft light that will not create a glare on what you are photographing. Generally, these photographers are not using a camera flash pointed at the subject because the flash will cause a glare as well. So you want to create a situation where you can get good light on your item that is not pointed directly at it and not use your camera flash. Digital cameras can adjust to take photos with very little light. Two problems can result from that - one is that it will set the speed that your shutter opens and closes too low - so the very slightest movement will cause blur - and the second is that the camera will change the ISO setting to one that is so high that small blotch spots will result on your image called "grain". When cameras more commonly used film, the film would be sold to work at a certain ISO setting. You would set your camera to what the ISO setting was on the film box. Then as now, the higher the setting and the lower the light, the more likely you would get grain on your photos. Technology on digital cameras has pushed the level way up from what film settings will result in, but as you approach 1000 ISO and beyond you are going to have to deal with grain. Some image software has corrections for grain, but none really work as well as taking your photo correctly to start. For product photos leave your ISO setting on "AUTO" and let the camera handle it. As long as you are providing the right light this will not be an issue. Your tripod and a steady hand pushing the shutter button will stop the blur from a low shutter speed. But again, sufficient light makes this problem go away.

So what are you going to do about light. Your room lights may cause you a problem. Ceiling lights too close to your shooting space can cause an overhead glare. Try to offset your photo space out from under overhead lights. You are going to need lights to take your photos. No, you don't have to spend a lot of money. The cheapest way to deal with this is to purchase clip on utility lights at a home or discount store. These lights sell for about $6.00 each and use regular household light bulbs. The lamp has a metal clip on the bottom and a large, round, metal hood around the bulb. I use incandescent light bulbs but you could use the new twist shape fluorescent bulbs that everyone thinks are so wonderful right now. Let me caution you right here - those bulbs are EXTREMELY dangerous if they break. Read the package. You are supposed to deal with the broken bulb and the room as if a hazardous substance spilled. I am not going to get into this now, but use incandescent light bulbs in your photo lights. You are going to be moving them around and there is too much risk that something is going to fall and break and you do not want to be dealing with that so called "green" bulb if it breaks. You are going to want at least two lights. As you read further you will see why you might want three.

You are going to need to be able to clip these lamps to your table in front of the spot that you are going to place your item - one on each side. By directing the two lights you can eliminate one of the the other variables above - shadows. Two lights with their beams or light crossing each other will eliminate shadows. When two don't do it, a third light from above added into the mix usually will. Set your item down - on its photo display (just like we talked about in the last article) and start moving your lights so that there are no shadows and no glare - and, obviously, so that the lamps are in no way in the picture. Now, I talked about indirect or diffused light - we'll get back to that.

Let's move, for a moment, to the last variable - background. Look behind your item and what do you see. Whatever it is, it is going to be in your picture in some way - even if it is blurred out. Look down at your table under your item and what do you see? That too is going to be in the image. You can also get glare coming up from the table top. Let's do something about that first. A neutral solid color piece of fabric makes a nice "table" cloth to go under your item. Some colors work better than others. Avoid white because you are going to struggle more in correcting the white balance of the cloth in the picture than of the item. Light blue is good. Light grey is good. Light tan is good. If your item is very light in color you might even want to use black. I like to use flannel. It gives a softer look to the cloth when photographed - and it is inexpensive in fabric stores. It will also absorb light rather than reflect the light - which is something that you want when you are looking to avoid light where you don't want it or that you cannot control. As to what is behind your picture... A cloth backdrop works well here too. Again, the same solid colors in a cotton flannel are recommended. Do not use a pattern. Remember, you want to focus attention on the item - not what is behind it or around it. A pattern - even a subtle one will bring the eye away from the item. Attach the cloth to a board that will stand at 90 degrees to the table - and won't fall over. You can purchase corrugated plastic in many craft and hobby stores in poster size sheets. It is easy to cut with a razor knife and you can attach your fabric to it. Cut it down to a managable size but large enough to fill the background of your photo in the space that you are working in. Use the remaining plastic board to create a stand - much like the ones that you find on the back of table picture frames.

You now have your space set up. You know how to but it up and take it down - and more importantly you can put it up exactly the same way the next time that you need it. Set your item in place and start moving your lights so that you have no shadows either on the background or on the table. Now I am going to repeat what I wrote in the second article - At this point you are ready to shoot and all you need to do is swap your items in and out of this position on your table to take your photos. Set up your tripod in front of the object (or get into a comfortable position with your Optically Image Stabilized camera with no need for a tripod), set your camera to Macro mode, set your white balance to sunlight, and check the distance that you are from your object. If you are within the macro range specified for your camera then you are ready. If not, then move your tripod or yourself to where you need to be. You might even want to use a ruler or tape measure to make sure you are where you must be. Check each photo on the screen of the camera as you shoot each shot - look closely and you will see if you are ok or you need to make an adjustment. Always take several shots of each set up object. It costs you nothing and it is all disposable and you are only limited by the size of the memory card in your camera.

All of this will work, but this set up has its pitfalls. There is a much simpler way to accomplish all of this. For just a small expense you can get yourself a light tent. And that will be discussed in the next article - when we also get back to all those things that I said I would get back to.

To be continued...

Basic Product Photography - Part 2

In the first part of this series we talked about the features that you want in a camera to take good product photos of your crafts. We will now explore what is needed to set up the pictures that you are going to take. But before we do, let's add one more thing to your camera.

All digital cameras should take a memory card of one type or another. One of the most common is an SD Card (SD for Secure Digital). You want to get a card for your camera with two features - one, that it is as large a capacity as you want to pay for and two, that it is a "fast" memory card. Memory these days is cheap. You can get a large capacity card for as little as ten dollars in the right stores. Two gigabites (2 gb) is the largest capacity that an SD card comes in. Some cameras that take SD cards MAY also take SDHC cards which are High Capacity Secure Digital Cards. These cards are always more than 2 gb - from 4 gb and way up. Some cameras will only work to a certain capacity card and you may want to look into this BEFORE you purchase a camera. Not all cameras that work with regular capacity cards willwork with high capacity cards. This is all common and easy to know by looking at the package when you are purchasing a card. The second feature is not so obvious and easy to know - the speed of the card. The faster the speed the faster the time is between the moment you press the camera shutter button, the picture is taken, and the camera becomes ready to take the next picture. For product photography this is not essential - but you paid enough for your camera to want to use it for other things, right? Not all of the brands of memory cards will even mention speed. Some do by describing the card as good for video - video needs a fast card. Some do by placing a number after model names - Ultra, Ulra II, Ultra III. Some cards will specify a rating. A "D" rated card is perfect for digital cameras and is fast. If the only card you can find has an unknown speed don't knock yourself out trying to find one, but if you can find a fast card get one. Now that you hvae your camera set up to take hundreds to thousands of photos - yes, higher capacity cards will hold thousands of photos - you are ready to get shooting.

In some way you need to create a photography studio - nothing elaborate but a place to take your photos. The simplest studio is the great outdoors. You can set up your object to be photographed outside which eliminates the greatest necessity for indoor photo shoots and that is proper lighting.

Taking product photos outside requires a clean table (picnic tables left out all year are not always the most desirable places to layout your beautiful craft piece), a place with a neutral background, and something that you can rig around the object you are photographing that will stop any wind from moving it. This last part may or may not be necessary due to the weather and the season - or your determining whether or not to shoot based on the wind that may or may not be blowing. You do not want to fight the wind when you are shooting a macro or closeup photo. Remember, from the first article - the slightest movement will blur a macro photo. Even with image stabilization if the wind moves what you are shooting you are not going to get a good shot. First, it moved - out of the position that you will take so much care in putting it into to take the picture. Second, the movement is going to change the picture - even if shooting with a fast shutter speed which can capture objects in motion - but generally with a price in quality.

Set your table up in a clear spot with attention to anything that results in a shadow falling on the table top - trees overhead, edges of buildings, etc. When you look at the surface of the table you should see a nice and brightly lit from the sun clear surface. The position of the sun will effect the shadows that may be created on your object. At noon the sun is overhead, but at other times of the day you may want to adjust your position by the direction that the sunlight will fall on your object and then the table. The sun behind you may cause unwanted shadows. The sun in front of you may cause a problem in the proper lighting adjustment of the auto adjusting camera lens. The best thing about a digital camera is that you can see immediate results and then with the simple click of a button erase those results, make adjustments, and start again.

If you are photographing an object that does not stand on its own you will need something to hold and display your piece on to photograph it. This is where imagination can come in or you can resort to standard displays - much like or exactly what you use to display your work for sale at craft fairs (presuming you do craft fairs). There are all types of jewelry displays, mannequins, etc. that may be used. You may want to step outside the common box and look for artistic things to display your piece on such as large rocks, shells, etc. Just be sure not to display your work on anything that is going to distract the eye from what you want the buyer to see most - YOUR WORK. I have seen many product photos that I have to look at for several moments until I figure out what is being sold . They are all very nice pictures, but I see the shell before I see the earrings. You can just get a piece of neutral color fabric and pin your work (if it can be pinned) and have that fabric placed over a cardboard or wood that is made to stand on the table. When you have set up your piece exactly as you want it on the display put it down on the table - or set it up on the table if moving it will cause it to move out of place. Now, look behind what you are photographing. What do you see? Do you see your neighbor's swing set? Do you see a trash dumpster at the building next door? Take a test photo and see if that item in the distance has blurred away to the point that is is unrecognizable - it should when shooting in macro mode. If it doesn't you need to move your work in another direction so that you have a non-distracting background behind your object in the photograph.

At this point you are ready to shoot and all you need to do is swap your items in and out of this position on your table to take your photos. Set up your tripod in front of the object (or get into a comfortable position with your Optically Image Stabilized camera with no need for a tripod), set your camera to Macro mode, set your white balance to sunlight, and check the distance that you are from your object. If you are within the macro range specified for your camera then you are ready. If not, then move your tripod or yourself to where you need to be. You might even want to use a ruler or tape measure to make sure you are where you must be.

Check each photo on the screen of the camera as you shoot each shot - look closely and you will see if you are ok or you need to make an adjustment. Always take several shots of each set up object. It costs you nothing and it is all disposable and you are only limited by the size of the memory card in your camera.

Outdoors, the perfect studio! Well, not really. As you can see on the clearest day you have to contend with shadows, a breeze, what is behind your yard, and where the sun is. Outdoor shooting is a great thing and many use it, but what do you do if you need to shoot pictures for a new internet listing and it is raining and the forcast has rain for days - or if you would like to shoot at night - or it is 98 degrees or 12 degrees outside?

No outdoors is not the perfect studio. Sometimes you are going to need to move indoors - and for that you must wait for our next installment....

To be continued...

Basic Product Photography - Part 1

For those selling on-line or in catalogs good photos of your items is essential. When you sell in person your customers can look at the actual piece, hold it, and see its beauty and value. When you must convey that with a picture you want to be sure that picture is perfect. This is just a basic guide to creating photographs that will best represent your work.

The first thing required is a good camera. There are many levels of digital cameras on the market. You can certainly do everything that you need to do to take product photos for your purposes with a point and shoot camera - one that has auto focus and auto exposure (which are basic to most). You do not need the best camera available but you do want a camera that has certain features that are required for good product photography.

The first feature that is a must have is Macro mode. A macro is a close up photograph. A camera lens has a set range of distance at which it will take clear images. This range determines how close you can get to the subject to take a focused image. Generally the shortest distance most lenses on point and shoot cameras will focus on is about three feet. While this may seem close it is really not close enough for product photography where the aim is to get close detail of the product. For this you need to be able to focus as close as six inches or closer and that is what the Macro mode setting on a camera will do. What is important to understand about macro mode is that this has a set range of distance also - and that range will change at different changes between the wide angle and telephoto range of your lens. So, if you set to macro and you are set to full wide angle you are set to the closest distance that you can get an image in focus. This range will always be specified in your camera's manual. If you move the telephoto control on your camera you will change that range and you will need to move the camera further away from the object in order to get a focused photo. Again, these ranges are stated in your camera manual. Some cameras add a Super Macro mode along with Macro mode. The Super Macro mode will allow you to get as close as a fraction of an inch to your image. This will make a remarkable image but generally this is way to close for a product photo. Remember, you want detail but you don't want your work examined as if under a microscope.

A second feature to look for on a camera is the ability to change the white balance on the camera. Most cameras come with auto-white balance, but there are situations where the auto setting will not do what you need it to do. White balance is the adjustment of the photograph to the light that it is taken in. Incandescent lights give off a yellow glow and when an object is photographed under regular room lights the image tends to look yellow. Auto-white balance should correct this but it does not always do so. Many cameras - but not all - will allow you to set the camera to the light you are shooting in. The type of light is indicated by little pictures - a light bulb for standard incandescent light bulb light, a bar with little rays coming from it for fluorescent lighting (which tends to give off a blue tint), a sun for sunlight, etc. When shooting under room lights you will want to set your camera manually to the incandescent setting to get a balanced, non-tinted image.

A third very valuable feature to look for on a camera is a good optical image stabilization system. This is a system built into the camera that will compensate for any movement of the lens when a photo is taken. This is especially important when macro shooting because when shooting that close even the movement of the camera button will blur the image. Canon Powershot cameras excel in Optical Image Stabilization. Other cameras offer this feature as well, but many rave over the results from the Canon cameras. This has been my experience as well. If you have a camera without this feature then a must have is the next thing to get for product photography.

The second thing required (unless you have a good optical image stabilized camera) is a tripod. As stated above, when shooting in macro mode the slightest breath of movement will result in a blurred image. A tripod will hold your camera solid and steady. It also has the advantage that it sets a fixed distance between the camera and the object that you are photographing. You want a decently made tripod that will hold your camera steady. They attach easily with a screw knob to a screw hole that is on the bottom of most cameras, put there for just this purpose. A floor standing tripod is best, but you will see small tripods and similar gadgets that will hold your camera on the table you are shooting on. These can be just as good, but they are not as steady as a good floor tripod.

To be continued...

ETSY

There are a number of internet sales sites and I have tried several of them. The best that I have found so far is ETSY. This is a site that you list your work of art or handcraft and it is offered for sale to the thousands and thousands of buyers who know and visit Etsy regularly.

Setting up a shop on Etsy is easy. You register first as a buyer and then convert your account to a selling account. There is no fee to register and it is free to have a shop on the site. You pay a 20 cent fee for each listing you create. The listing will remain for four months for that one 20 cents fee. When the item sells you pay Etsy a very small percentage. Buyers may pay through your Paypal merchants account or you could just accept checks or money orders. Etsy is an international site but all sales are transacted as US Dollars.

This is not an auction site such as Ebay. You set a price for your item, list how much the shipping will cost for that item and it sells for the amount that you have specified.

Of course, the greatest question is do shops make sales on Etsy? The answer is yes. I cannot say that for other sites that I have tried that are similar. Are sales guaranteed? Of course not! But if you make an effort to get your shop and your items noticed you have a very good chance of making sales.

On Etsy promotion is key to success. You can open a shop, list items, and walk away and wait and you will not make any sales. If you work at getting found you will make sales. The simplest and free way to do this is to use the forums that Etsy provides to both buyers and sellers. The promotions forum is the place to start with forum threads calling attention to what is in shops for sale. The promo forum can move fast on some days and at certain times. The secret to using this fforum successfully is to start a thread with a title that will not only get buyers to look but that will also get other sellers to add thier listings to that thread. This is OK because that thread will stick around for a while on the first forum page and each time someone clicks on that thread YUOR item is at the top and is the first thing that is seen.

Other Etsy forums will bring you attention as well. Answering questions, adding your opinions, aksing questions will get those on the site to notice you, look in your shop and maybe make a sale. Participating in the forums is FREE advertising!

Of course, as with all sites and venues, Etsy has its drawbacks. There are not only thousands of buyers, but there are hundreds of thousands of sellers. Now, often sellers are buyers too so that is ok, but with that many sellers you can figure out how many things for sale there are at any given moment. Shop design is very limited to one standard Etsy template with no way to modify that.There is no way to rearrange the order of your items in your shop - they remain visible in the order they were listed. This is something that has been requested over and over again, but the Etsy administration has yet to change that. The checkout process on Etsy is lacking in that it reaures two buttons to be found and clicked to complete a purchase all the way to payment through Paypal. This is a stumbling block for many first time and even experienced buyers and will result in lack of payment that requires the seller to contact the buyer and explain the remaining process so that the item is acutally paid for. Etsy claims to be working on this.

Does Etsy work? Yes! Have I made sales? Yes! I cannot say that for other sales sites that I have used.

If you would like to see two different examples of Etsy shops come and take a look at
Past Perfect and Q Branch Ltd.

DAISIES

One of my newest photographs is being offered at a site called RedBubble. The photograph is titled simply Daisies.


RedBubble is a site that hosts photography and graphic artworks for viewing and for sale. Different than sites such as Etsy or Ebay, RedBubble does the actual printing and shipment of the images that it hosts. The benefit is that the artist creates the photograph and allows the host site to fulfill the sales. One of the drawbacks of this site is that the artist only is paid when a minimum dollar amount in sales is reached and that amount must be reached each time a check is to be issued. An advantage is that photograph sizes may be offered that may not be in the artist's ability to print. There is also the ability to offer graphics on teeshirts and there are a variety of interesting tee shirt creations that many artists have designed. The work that RedBubble does when printing is fabulous!

RedBubble is based in Australia but all of the sales are handled in US Dollars. It is a site worth checking out. You can see other works by this photographer there as well - several not offered on other sites.