Starting up on Etsy, but...

[handcrafted]

I am pants at taking pictures! The best i have is this!

http://www.craftsforum.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=626

Its too dark and the background is boring. I dont want to do anything fancy, but want them to to at least be seen. I have a rubbish camera. Canon digital IXUS 75.

Any easy tips?

Im tempted to just stick these on eBay at the moment!

[woodtattoos]

Ian Beckerton is the resident photographic expert that you need... perhaps you should PM him and ask him to look at this thread to give you some tips.

Si.

[goldy1]

Is this any better. Just 2 minutes playing around with brightnes and contrast in my photo programe.


http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/goldyone/craftuk.jpg


I hope you don'y mind me playing with the image.


As Auntynet said in another thread try displaying them on the rim of a wine glass or something simelar.
http://www.craftsforum.co.uk/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/goldyone/craftuk.jpg%5B/IMG%5D

[woodtattoos]

Is this any better. Just 2 minutes playing around with brightnes and contrast in my photo programe.


http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/goldyone/craftuk.jpg


I hope you don'y mind me playing with the image.


That looks better! I've sent Ian a PM asking him to have a look at this thread... I felt like I was requesting Batman by shining a big torch in the sky... :D

Si.

[handcrafted]

Oh wow thanks people :D That does look better! I should be able to do something this end? With proper position of lighting.

[Tip Top]

You can lighten your photos easily when you open them for editing in image or something similar - there is a little 'sun' button - have a faff and see!!:D

[LunarraStar Jewellery]

id try and take the photos in brighter light, i used security lights, they were very hot but only cost 4 each and wed switch them on and off. I had to adjust my camera settings for indoor lights :)

I think daylight is the best thing if you can take your items outside :)

[cloudhopping]

I like plain backgrounds, doesn't detract from the item, so don't worry about it being "boring".

Just have a play around with taking photos at different angles too, on etsy you can use 5 different photos so its nice to show your work from different perspectives.

Try different rooms of your house too - some rooms get more light than others and produce a nicer picture.

And those photo editing programmes are fab!

[Ian Beckerton]

Hi Guys,

I have looked at what you have here and I can see where the problems lie.

The lighting needs to be sorted out first. I don't think that it a good idea to light from behind as the earrings are here. All the shadow gets thrown forward and makes the front look dark whilst the back is too light. It would be much better to light the earrings from directly overhead as this will drive the shadow down wards and so reducing it. The exposure is all over the place, the foreground is underexposed and the background is going toward being over exposed, again overhead lighting.
The camera will not expose correctly with so much white in the background, it will always underexpose.

I understand that perhaps you are not looking for perfection but with some simple steps you can improve on this image without resorting to anything more that a few pieces of white card. Hang the earrings in some white card or paper and have them in front of the window as you did with the original image but hanging vertically. You will need to be far enough from the window to enable you to get the camera in reasonable line but not producing a shadow over the earrings. Use a Tripod you can't hold the camera still enough to get a sharp image. The light should now be coming from over your shoulder.

The exposure is the tricky part because the only way you are going to get a good image is to use the manual settings. If you look at the settings the camera thinks it should be using, these are displayed in the monitor screen. Transfer these settings into the manual settings bit on the camera, take an image, it will be the same as if you had used the automatic mode for the camera. You will see that the white is grey, now you need to adjust either the speed (this is a better bet as it wont upset the focus) or the aperture (the bit that regulates how much light is being let through the lens). Slow the speed down and you can keep on doing this until the image looks bright with good whites. As the earrings are darker than the white brightening the image will increase the contrast and improve the colors.

No amount of twiddling in some photo manipulation tool will improve the image, you can only do that if the exposure is good to start with. With a little practice you will begin to understand what the process is that you are trying to achieve and the images will improve.

If you go and have a look at my profile / albums you will see an album called Forum images. I had a little play with the image and changed it a little!



Regards,
I..