Question for taking pictures of our work

[TAIrving]

I can never seem to get the lighting quite right for taking pictures of my scroll projects.  It either has shadows or glare on some part of the picture or it is darker on one side or the colors do not show in the picture as well as in person or something else.  I put the work on a white background and try to aim the light and adjust the viewing angle, but it never seems quite right.  

I am now looking at a small portable photo booth on A***zon.  Do any of you use one?  

What do you use to photograph your projects?  What do you do to get the lighting just right?  

[Sycamore67]

First, what camera do you use to take pictures.  I now use my cell phone a Samsung S21 Ultra.  It takes excellent pictures.  I do not use a white background as it reflects light and seems it causes exposure issues.  I have used a blue sheet background and seems to work well.  This is an example using my cellphone with blue background and soft lighting.

[OCtoolguy]

I take most of my pics in my shop with just the overhead LED lighting and laying on ny workbench. BUT I'm not selling anything. Strictly for "bragging rights". Lol

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I at one time used those photo tents but they were a pain in the butt. Stopped using them. Now just use various white boards, or blue material or white material and shine a couple photo lights at them and shoot. I have shown countless photos here of my work and within that there are my many methods. I only take photos for forums and weather they are a little blurred I do not worry about it. 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2024 by JTTHECLOCKMAN

[BadBob]

I use one of the photo tents. I like it. However, the one I purchased is not large enough. I struggled with the colors for a while until I discovered that the tent was not white. It is pale grey.

Lighting is extremely important in photography. If you get the lighting right, you can take great photos with a simple camera. A tent diffuses the light and reduces the number of sharply defined shadows, but it is not a magic pill. I don't use color backdrops because they alter the piece's color.

Unless you have very bright light you need to shoot from a tripod for best results.

[TAIrving]

Thank you Larry @Sycamore67, John @JTTHECLOCKMAN, Ray @OCtoolguy and Bob @BadBob.  

I now understand that lighting is my major issue.  I have tried positioning one LED light and see that one will never be enough.  The photo tents I have looked at might help as they include multiple lights.  But I will still have to position the objects to eliminate shadows and reflections.

I usually use my cell telephone camera, couple of years old model, and think that is probably ok for the purpose.  But I do have a nice SLR if I want to get serious.  

[kmmcrafts]

I have one of those homemade very expensive lightboxes .... Get yourself a large enough cardboard box to fit most projects you do.. I painted the inside of the box with some white paint and then cut out a square in each side and cover it with white tissue paper.. I then got a plastic white poster board ( paper will work fine but plastic cleans better ) and taped it to the top of the back of the box as a contoured backdrop. I have two tripod lights that I shine through the tissue covered holes I cut into the sides.. ( some people will cut one hole in the top and shine light through the top )

That all being said.. I also recently ran across a app or website that'll remove the background.. you just load your image into the program and it'll remove the background or you can choose a color for the background.

Check it out and give it a try. https://www.photoroom.com/tools/background-remover 

For selling on Amazon they require a white background so I run my photos through this program for my photos.. even though I do my photos in the light booth box I made they still are not a bright white that Amazon favors... 

I got the tripod lights years ago when my wife got me a light box from Amazon for Christmas.. the issue I had with this lightbox was that it was made from cloth fabric and was collapsable. Problem I had was the tent was white and had many backgrounds.. however the cloth would be flimsy and would get wrinkled even just leaving it set up all the time. The wrinkles created small shadows etc. and eventually it needed washed and no real way to give it a good cleaning.  

I just use my 8-10 year old iphone to take photos. Here is a sample of a standard photo and then a photo of it run through the program linked above. Also will show you how this program works with a cluttered background.. I feel it did pretty darn good even then.. it did keep the stove pipe in the photo but you can also go in and manually remove stuff as well. 

 

[barb.j.enders]

I don't sell on any platform, so my photos are for bragging rights as well.  I have a niche, where the doorbell chimes were hung, that I will use.  I turn on the hall light and go from there.  I will also remove a painting to hang a piece for a photo. 

[BadBob]

I don't find the wrinkles in the material to be much of an issue. They might be an issue if you are not using a camera that allows you to control the depth of field. In this photo, can you see the wrinkles in the backdrop? Yes, you can but you need to be looking for them.

 

I tried a bunch of different lights before I settled on LED Daylight Floodlights on stands. I wasted money on the cheap tabletop lights they sell on Amazon. If you don't want to use a tent, you can get umbrellas to diffuse the light.

 

[BadBob]

This old photo shows the umbrellas, floodlights, and tent. I rarely use the umbrellas. I clamp the tent flush with the table's edge and set the lights against the tent, pointing directly at the item. The overhead lights are daylight LEDs and are part of the lighting. Someday, I will have a boom light.

You could use flash, but this gets very complicated because you can't see the photo's appearance until afterward.

 

Edited March 31, 2024 by BadBob

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

When you talk wrinkles there are 2 type. One where you celebrate as I did with my pen photo and then one where  they are not welcomed like in my billiardball clocks. That was shot in a photo tent with a light grey covering. As I said i got rid of those things. They are not needed. As with that one that was shown you could accomplish same thing without tent and just focus lights on the object. I use a diffuser over the light bulbs. that is how the top pen was shot. If I wanted to get cute and play with all the image things and settings you can get even better photos. Your photo is only as good as you start with. I find these photo editing programs do very little other than size and maybe add some sharpness. That is just me. Again not shooting for sales and thank goodness. I do not have the patients for that stuff. 

[OCtoolguy]

15 hours ago, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

I at one time used those photo tents but they were a pain in the butt. Stopped using them. Now just use various white boards, or blue material or white material and shine a couple photo lights at them and shoot. I have shown countless photos here of my work and within that there are my many methods. I only take photos for forums and weather they are a little blurred I do not worry about it. 

 

 

Niiice stuff JT.