On Nov 24, 1:26 am, Maneki Neko wrote:
Greetings,

I've been trolling about the group for a while now and the thought
occurred that maybe I should ask for some advice. I have been running
my own business making chain mail jewelry and other fun metal things.
I have fount that the hardest part of running my online business was
getting good pictures of my work. I was hoping that perhaps some of
you folks could hop over to my site and comment on my pictures. Any
advice would be helpful as I am only a beginning photographer. Please
be brutally honest.

a href="http://manekinekodesigns.com"Maneki Neko Designs/a

Amanda Shaw


Hey there Amanda,

It looks like you have a good enough camera, as the image quality and
your 'bokeh' looks pretty good.
The crispness and approximation of your object is satisfactory as
well.

I think you have the right idea and you're on track but a few things
could easily be changed
to make a MASSIVE difference in the quality of your photos...

- Tripod... Use one. Essential when shooting still objects for
clarity.

- Light.... Super critical to your photos ! Natural light is
available during the day (obviously) and it
cost's nothing to use it...so,...use it. Go to the front and side
windows of your home and snap a
few photos of the same piece and notice the different results your get
from all sides of the house
at different times of the day.... It's pretty amazing. Now althought
this sounds like a lot of work,
it will really give you a sense of how light is controlled and how you
might duplicate it.
Remember that just like a light box, you can change the 'amount' and
color of light coming in by
merely using tissue paper, an old bedsheet or what have you as a
filter (taped against the window
or vertically around your work)

If you want a more contolled setup, build yourself a simple lightbox
which can really be made of
anything. One of my favorites is my PVC pipe box (jsut straight
pieces with elbows..) with a
very cheap see-through white shower curtain draped over the
structure. For backgrounds I use
a lot of the 16 x 20 colored paper you get get from craft stores, and
similar.... Also, for reflection
and distribution of light within the 'box or tent', I use those dollar
store reflector things some
people put against their windshields to keep their car cool when the
weather is hot... Those
things work GREAT ! Other things like GOLD and SILVER gift wrap make
great reflectors too.

If light filter is what you are after, the colored tissue you see used
in gift bags works REALLY,
REALLY well. They come in a virtual endless array of colors and are
nicely transparent, letting
in a lot of light.

***MAKE sure that you only use these things with the COOL WHITE
bulbs*** Any regular bulbs
will surely catch the paper and or light box on fire and
well.......that usually ends up very bad...
(to say the least.)

As far as bulbs go, Use the "Cool White" brand of lights (the funny
looking coil type) and you'll
get as near to natural light as you can without spending a lot of
money. The "Cool White" bulbs
are in fact just that.... Cool to the touch and shed "very white
light" while at the same time,
saving you a lot of electricity ! (I use them throughout my entire
home.....) I use them inside
a standard inexpensive silver clip lamp (the silver dish type with the
pressure clamp on the end.)
and clip them directly to the PVC or a chair or whatever's handy. I
usually use between 3 and six,
depending on the effect I'm looking for.


Also, for your backgrounds, I wouldn't suggest grey and silver too
much, as it distracts the viewer
from the piece. Because your medium is mostly metal, don't be afraid
to use a lot of light. If you
bounce it back and forth across the lightbox you'll be pleasantly
surprised at how much detail you
end up seeing in your jewelery because of the different angles of
light source.... You can buy these
on E-Bay or even make them if you wish. I make most of mine simply
because of the control I get
from making my own.... Gold, Silver, Bronze and copper foils can
really make a difference in how
harsh or soft the light becomes.... Don't be afraid of colored
backgrounds either... If you have enough
bokeh (depth of focus), even a pumpkin orange background can produce
some really nice shots.

One of my favourites is shooting down or straight on the subject using
'FLOOR TILES" as backgrounds.
They're REALLY inexpensive, and come in a HUGE amount of sizes,
textures and colors.. The
slate and marble tiles can make ANY metal pieces look like a MILLION
BUCKS without detracting
from the piece itself..... I sometimes use a spritzer or eye dropper
and wet the tiles first and then
place the piece on or against some river rock, etc... You can also do
this with SKIN (i.e your model).
Try using a bit of baby oil and a spritzer and gently dab it off...
Metal against that skin will create a VERY
cool effect.

-Tripod
-Light
-Controlled environment
-Props, Backgrounds
-Take a ton of photos, till you get it right...

Hope some of this helps,

/CM