Guest Post: Tips for taking better photographs of your craft projects

While Kelly is on vacation she asked if I would help come and keep her blog fun and active by guesting for a post, well YES! How fun! So today I’m going to share some tips of mine to help you take better pictures of your crafts and creations. I’m not a professional photographer and these are things I’ve learned thru trial and error, reading and experimenting. They may or may not work for you but in any case I hope they are helpful!

For me, I am typically taking pics of cards, scrapbook LOs and other crafts like embroidery hoops and felt bits. Nothing that is a huge item so these tips are really geared toward that.

This is a little felt pincushion I had listed in my Etsy. Needing great pics on a daily basis, especially for Etsy can be good inspiration to hone your skills and great pics don’t need a fancy set up. This picture was taken using a point and shoot digital camera on my table and it was taken at night. It needed almost no computer editting besides resizing.

Tips I use:

• Do not use the flash! It casts harsh shadows on your project and washes out colors.
• Natural daylight works best but if you’re like me and don’t have a good spot with good light look into getting some Daylight bulbs.
• Experiment with your camera settings. Auto settings can work but by reading your cameras manual and experimenting you can get even better results! Knowing how to use your camera’s macro settings is a big help.
• Take LOTS of pictures from LOTS of angles. You never know what will turn out and that’s what digital cameras are for!
• Pick a neutral or complimentary colored background to make your items pop!

Here is my set up…

Nothing at all fancy You can read how it was built on my blog.  The poster Board is used to reflect light back onto my project to help eliminate dark shadows. Also I don’t point the lights directly at my project but across the area toward to poster board. Both lamps (cost less than $15 for both) have daylight bulbs that I taped a piece of vellum to the front to disfuse the light which helps prevent harsh shadows.  The lamps are adjustable so you can move them around easily to get the best lighting.

The camera I use is a Canon Powershot SX20 IS. I started out using the auto mode but now I get the best pictures when I use the Manual mode with a couple custom settings. Let me share those with you. The pics of my camera are from my web cam so they aren’t the most awesome. Getting pics of your camera is a weird thing.

Te biggest thing that I adjust is my shutter speed. It determines how much light is let in for your pic and it helps to adjust this manually so you don’t get over exposed pics. The setting in the pic is typically what I settle on. The other setting I adjust is the use of Macro Mode. You can utilize it by finding the button/setting on the back of your camera that looks like a little Tulip. You can see it in the pic below on my camera on the right next to the function key.

Macro mode helps your camera to focus more clearly when getting those really up close detailed shots.

I hope these tips have helped you to take a look at your pics and strive to make them look as great as your projects! You can do it with whatever you have to work with

Thanks to Kelly for having me.

About the Author:

Kristy is the owner and artist behind Some Odd Girl stamps. She lives a crafty life in a tiny town in Michigan near the Lake Michigan shore with her two kiddos, hubs of 8 years and new kitty. She enjoys drawing, art, reading fantasy books and coloring with her copics. Visit her blog The Odd Girl or check her out on Twitter and Facebook.