Photography Tips

It’s sunny again today so I’ve been able to do some more photography :)

Since I opened my first Etsy shop I have always been trying to improve my photography and I have been helped  along the way by finding lots of great advice in forums etc.  I thought I would share some pictures of the set up I’m using at the moment (it is very low tech!!)

This is where I take photos of my products – luckily most of my things are small enough to fit here.  I’ve found daylight is the best light for taking photos so I get my items as close to the window as possible.  I have a big cardboard box on top of a fold out table, then a board on top of the box which is about the same height as the windowsill.  Unfortunately the English weather’s often too dull for taking photos but my reflective board (made of a box wrapped in foil) helps brighten up the table.  My room faces North/ East so I don’t get much direct light but that’s not too bad as bright sun directly on this would be too bright with harsh shadows and reflections from the foil.

I often use large sheets of white paper to photograph my items against but I also have a selection of coloured papers to use.

I then take the photos into Photoplus (very similar to Photoshop).  This is how the photo of my cards looked to begin with…

Often the whites can look grey/ blue, most of the time I can fix this in ‘Levels’.  There’s a little dropper tool which you can use to click on the area of the photo which should be white.  This is what the photo looks like now…

Now I crop the photo – I like the first photo of a listing to be square as I think it works better as a thumbnail.  I have also adjusted the Brightness/ Contrast…

Although my photos are better now I still have plenty to learn about photography (I would love to be able to get a decent shot of my fish tank!)