Achieving More Professional Looking Pictures

When I ask for critiques of my etsy stores, I always hear that my pictures could be better. I've learned a lot about photographing items since I started selling in February; I've learned about macro mode for small items, and lighting. A few months ago when my primary craft was making jewelry I made a light box/macro studio from a tutorial I found on the web. It worked fairly well, definitely better that my first shots, but I was still having a hard time getting enough lighting into my photos.



So when I opened up my second store that focused on teeny tiny polymer clay jewelry, I wasn't sure how to photograph it. I started by going outside when there was a lot of light and taking pictures under natural sunlight. The problem with this is that I can't just drop everything and go take pictures when the sun is shining. By the time my husband wakes up to watch the baby for me, the sun has gone down. So I finally broke down and bought one of those studio in a box things that I've been looking at on the Internet for months.




I purchased the American Recorder Studio in a Box- on their web site it sells for $120, but I got it from amazon.com for just under $60. It comes with two lights, two backgrounds, a light box, tripod, and it all folds up neatly into a carrying case. I really like it. I don't have to edit my photos at all, just crop and I'm done. The only thing that I don't like about it are the background colors. You have a choice of cobalt blue and gray. The gray makes everything look horrid. The blue is what I'm using for most of my photos. I found that I could get white/black backgrounds from their web site for around $20, and I might do that later on.

They say that better photos will lead to more sales, and hopefully with my new camera and studio I can achieve that. We'll see.