Simple At Home Photo Set Up

This works well for small products -

1) Find a large sheet of white paper or lightweight card (bristol board, cover stock) A matt - not shiny - surface is better and without any 'texture'. Smooth and even as possible.

2) Get some tape and find a place where the direct sun isn't shining - a south facing window, or a shaded but fully lit spot. If you put an item down and it casts a shadow, you're not in the right spot - look for a spot where no direct sunrays can get to your objects.

3) If the place you chose has a wall, that's great, you can tape your white paper/card onto the wall. If not, you'll need to find something to tape it onto - a book like an old encyclopedia if it's a small piece of paper, or the back of a chair or similar if it's larger.

4) Place the card so it curves gently onto the floor or table - don't let it crease.

5) Place your object as far forward on the white surface as you can - this makes it easier for the backdrop to fade in your photograph.

6) If you use a prop - like in this sample, make sure any extra bits of strings or such are tucked back and taped down - as long as you can't see the tape either! And KISS - Keep It Super Simple - don't overpower your product with noisy props that steal the show.

7) Now, set up your photograph - choose a setting without a flash - the flash is just like the sun, it will cast strong hard shadows that detract from your product. If you have a point-and-shoot, it should have a function to select 'no flash'. If you have an SLR, choose the appropriate ISO - maybe 100 or 200, choose an f-stop that is fairly open - this will blur the background more and just remember to use a setting that doesn't auto-flash.

8) Before snapping, make sure the whole of the object is contained within your white space - if it goes over an edge you'll have to move it closer to the back.

9) Snap.

10) Crop your photo to cut out any stuff you don't want like the wall behind - and a simple auto contrast should be all the tweaking you need so you don't have to have fancy software to fix it up at all.

Porcelain Vessel Pendant - Finola Prescott

If you enjoyed this tutorial please help publicize the blog by clicking on the ShareThis button below or or sending your friends to have a look - and why not sign up for the RSS feed or to receive email notification of new posts!

Copyright:

You may download this tutorial for personal use or use in your classroom - if you wish to use it for any other purpose, please use the contact form to ask permission.