Showing posts with label photography tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography tips. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tuesday Tip Jar # 3: Easy Editing for Great Photos

There are many free photo editing programs available for download on the net, I like the simplicity of Picasa by Google. You don't have to purchase expensive software to get great photos.

Start by getting up close and personal. Although it's great to have at least one photo showing your subject in it's entirety, if you're selling online, your potential buyer will want to see details!

Here is my original photo of one simple bead.



And here is my original photo after I cropped it



And here is my final, sharpened copped photo, with added shadows and fill light. Not significantly different from the second photo, but enough to make it "just right".



Play around with it and have fun, you'll see how easy it is to have professional looking photos in no time!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tuesday Tip Jar #2 Taking Great Photos


Can't touch it, feel it, smell it. Share your love of what you do with eye-catching, well edited photos. Whether selling online, posting to a blog or an online photo sharing site, great photos speak volumes.

You don't need an expensive camera to take great photos. I use an older model Pentax Optio M10 6.0 megapixel "point and shoot". What you do need, is a macro setting. While you can use a digital camera at the standard settings, you can often see much more detail by using the macro setting on the camera. A macro setting changes the focus of the camera so it can focus on very close objects. The macro setting is for photographing objects within a few inches away.

You don't need an expensive, elaborate photo studio to take great photos. My best photos are taken outdoors, in natural light, on a cloudy day with no flash. This isn't always feasible, so an alternative is an inexpensive do-it-yourself set up such as this Macro Studio posted on Strobist.blogspot.com



Take many shots from several different angles, keep the background simple and uncluttered. I recommend purchasing a table top tripod, you'll get better focus and clearer images. I usually take 15-20 photos to get 1 or 2 I'm really happy with.

Next Tuesday I'll share my tips for photo editing, to make these great photos even better!