image via Auggie Tolosa on Flickr

Photography truly is an art form. One that I do not possess! So like most other things I want to be good at when I naturally stink at it, I work at it.

As far as my photography skills go, I’ve seriously been meaning to get around to working on them for a while, but you know how life goes. I’m busy & this hasn’t been something I’ve really focused a lot of my time on till recently. Here’s why.

I recently read a post over at Oh My Handmade Goodness called Does Practice Really make Perfect by April Bowles-Olin. I suggest you read that post. Now up until this point, I’ve heard April’s suggestions on becoming friends with your camera {& it’s manual} & working on product photography daily if you want to master it, but her newest post was just the kick-in-the-pants I needed to get my bum in gear!

Wanna see what I’m up too?

I’ve decided to take an object & photograph it at different times of the day, in different weather conditions, & in different places. I keep track of everything so that when I need to take photos of something, I’ll know what camera setting is best to use for that time.

Let me show you what I’m talking about

Today I took some photos of some bananas in my makeshift lightbox that seriously needs some love & a complete makeover…I’ll stick that on my to-do list. I was indoors at my dining room table near a window so I had natural light coming in. It was 1:00 pm & it was overcast outside. I didn’t use a tripod & I didn’t use my flash.

In the image below you’ll see all the shots I took. I adjusted different settings with each shot so that I could see which setting was best in the above conditions. What do you think? Which photo looks best? Again…these are unedited.

The top row’s settings are all the same except for the white balance. You’d adjust your white balance settings in order to get the most accurate colors possible. My settings are {left to right}: auto, sunny, cloudy, white florescent, natural white florescent, & daylight white florescent. Other settings: EV – 0, ISO – 200.

In the middle row I’ve changed the ISO from 200 to 100 & I’m changing white balance settings as I go just like before. ISO adjustment alters your cameras sensitivity to light. The lower the ISO number, the slower the shutter opens & closes which can cause blurring if you’re not still. It’s best to use a tripod with lower ISO setting. The higher your ISO setting, the faster the shutter opens & closes which gives you a grainier look to your photos. Not great for product photography IMO. Higher ISO settings are best for low lighting & moving subjects.

Now the bottom row contains photos where I’ve increased the EV {exposure value} from 0 – the standard setting to 1. Adjusting the EV setting will either lighten or darken your photos. In my case I’ve lightened them. My ISO is still at 100 & I’m adjusting the white balance settings with each photo.

 So which photo looks best unedited?

To me it’s the 1st or 2nd photo on the bottom left. They both bright & the have the truest whites plus the color of the bananas look good. The only problem with the 1st photo was that it was blurry…because I didn’t use a tripod. Lesson learned.

What have I learned?

All of the photos in the top row appear too dark to me. Why? I’m inside & it’s overcast outside which means I’m not getting a good amount of light through my window & into my camera.

That means I need to adjust the EV setting therefore I can skip the middle row all together since I didn’t change the EV setting for those photos.

Changing my ISO setting from 200 to 100 wasn’t much of an adjustment so it’s probably not worth messing with. I do know that I should be using a tripod for sure since that low of an ISO setting = a slow shutter speed which = blurring due to movement on my part.

As far as the white balance settings go, sunny did the best job followed closely by the auto setting when it comes to the background looking whitest. The DWF is my next choice since I think the color of the bananas look best there.

So what did my photo look like after editing?

What do you think??

In Conclusion

Now that I’ve practiced taking photos in these settings & I’ve learned what works & what doesn’t work, next time my photo session will be quicker & hopefully I’ll get some great photos due to using the correct settings.

If you want to learn more about digital photography, visit Darren Rowse’s blog Digital Photography School. There’s tons of info on cameras, equipment, photo tips, editing tips, etc. It’s a great resource if you want to improve your photography skills.

Remember…photos are key to selling online! It’s worth the work!

Tell me how you “practice” your photo skills in the comments below? Oh yeah, can you “tweet” about this post…pretty please! 

Photography is a great skill to develop, however, you don’t have to have a PhD in order to take better photos for your shop! Here are 3 super easy ways to make your photos look way better with minimal effort!

1. Use natural lighting

Photos will look their best when you take them using natural available light. The most ideal lighting situation is diffused, non-direct window light.  If it’s too sunny, use tracing paper, a low thread count white sheet, tissue paper, parchment paper or vellum as a diffuser. Simply tape it over the window and voila! You will have beautiful diffused light and no harsh shadows.

Non- diffused light. Notice how the light falls across my table? You shouldn’t take photos in that sort of lighting situation—you’ll get severe shadows!

Diffused lighting. Oh, much better! I used a piece of parchment paper taped to the window to diffuse the light.

Oh, please excuse the mess. This goes to show that you do not need a professional dedicated space to take photos. Grab a table, some poster board and your camera and set up shop near a window! Please do not let not having a dedicated space, or not a lot of room, discourage you from taking the best photos you can!

Remember, whatever you do, DO NOT USE YOUR FLASH! Unless you have some crazy lighting set up with special lights and flashes that synch up with your lights, using your flash will make your photos turn out terrible and unprofessional looking with bright, washed out spots in some areas, and harsh dark shadows in others.

2. Use your Macro setting for small objects or detailed shots.

Most cameras these days come with a handy “Macro” setting. This is typically denoted by a little flower icon. When this mode is selected it will tell your camera that you want to focus on a subject closer to your lens than normal. This mode is the best when you are shooting something small and detailed. I can’t say this enough—make the macro setting your new BFF. You will find that you are able to capture so much more detail with this setting, which is exactly what you want to do when selling online. Make sure you take photos of what makes your product special, whether it is beads, glitter, stitches, or textures.

See the difference?

3. Post editing- adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, etc

Not every photo will look amazing straight out of the camera. Even professionals have to adjust and tweak the contrast or levels. There are several different photo editing software packages out there ranging from hundreds of dollars to free. Some fantastic free options are Picnik, Picasa, and Gimp. I personally like Picnik a lot. Here are a few examples (using Picnik) of simple tweaks to make your photos look their best!

This is the original, straight out of the camera photo. The background didn’t come out as light as I wanted, and I would like to brighten up the dinosaur a little bit.

Under the Exposure tab, go to the Advanced button, and then adjust the Highlights and Shadows sliders to your desired effect. When you’re happy with the results, make sure you hit the OK button.

Next, we’re going to adjust the color temperature and saturation!

The color temperature slider lets you adjust your photo to be “warmer” or more orange, or cooler (more blue) This is great if you want to correct the white balance of your photo. Adjusting the saturation makes the colors of the photo brighter, or, removes the color and make the photo black and white.

BONUS TIP:

To get that perfect looking thumbnail in your Etsy shop, all you need to do is crop your photo into a square and your photo will show up just as you planned!

Here are the before and after photos!

Straight out of the camera….

After adjusting the contrast, brightness, color temperature, saturation and cropping in Picnik!

Thanks so much! I hope that you find these tips easy and helpful!!!!

Hi! I’m April!

I’m a self-taught artist and my true love is painting and photography (I will paint anything that’s not moving…) Some evil friends recently introduced me to the world of knitting and now I’m hopelessly addicted. My real life job is at a small catalog company as their graphic artist and product photographer. I’m tasked with creating all the images for their website & email campaigns, as well as photograph products for the catalog and website. I get to play in Photoshop and play with my camera every day–I’m doing what I love for a living and it’s AMAZING!

Please stop by and say “hi!” http://www.aprilbern.com