Photographing Hybrid Projects

[julifish]

Sorry if this is a subject that's already been discussed, but I'm curious what kind of set-up you other hybrid artists use at home to photograph your projects. I'm not happy with the current pictures I'm getting. So show me your set up or describe it to me and give me some tips so my projects will shine.

TIA!

[alien21xx]

Hi Juli, my home's kinda messy and it shows in my hybrid photos LOL! I try to put a chair or small coffee table by the window corner photograph from there, so that it's bright and I have daylight instead of natural light, with the white wall as a background, though I don't always have that luxury.

[ColleenSwerb]

I really want a light tent, but all $$ right now is going towards wedding related things, so that's on hold. Maybe for Christmas.

For now, I just use my glass topped desk. I try and take it using natural light, but sometimes that means lines from my window panes in the photo, which looks bad, so I wait til that goes away and use my speedlight. I can keep the shutter speed fast enough to make the background as dark as possible, and rely on the flash to light the project itself.

[lovely1m]

I take mine on my wood floors in the corner in front of my patio window. It seems to work out well.

[JenTapler]

My hubby built me a little "photo box" out of matboard and a leftover piece of white particle board shelving from an old bookshelf we were getting rid of.

basically, the book shelf is the base, then there are 3 pieces of matboard glued around it - one on each side and one on the back. I have 2 clamp lights I picked up for about $8 each at Ace Hardware clamped onto each side piece that have daylight bulbs in them. I take almost all of my photos here. I try to take them during the day so I can combine the daylight bulbs with natural light, but because I work, etc - that doesn't always work out for me. I still have to do some editing with levels and saturation and stuff in PS sometimes, but overall that light box thing works pretty darn well and only cost about $25 total to make.

I'll go snap a photo of it and come back and post it so you can see what I'm talking about (it's hard to describe)

[JenTapler]

OK - here are some pics of my home-made light box thingie. It's glued together and then heavy duty tape is over it to make it even more sturdy.

The first pic is with the clamp lights (daylight bulbs) on. The others are with them off so you can actually see how the thing is put together. Please ignore my super messy craft room!!! LOL.

[livelys]

My DH had been promising to build me a box for ages - I'll show him your pic Jen and that might stimulate him into actually making it!

In the meantime, I use a small white table from Ikea jammed tight against a wall so that I can balance an A3 pad of white paper behind it - then I crop out all the junk and old wall paper from the resulting picture! I attempt to photo when the sun is shining, but generally settle for am rather than pm light. I suck at photography and so rely on my little kodak to do all the work for me - I just point and click. Not ideal, but it usually works.

[lltheo]

OH, I struggle with this same question almost DAILY!! Thanks for posting your pictures, Jen! I, too, am going to show this to hubs to see if it kicks him into high gear.

Is that foam core board or wood or what? Just curious.

I've always said my hybrid projects would look SOOOOO much better if I could photograph them better. I always love my projects and think they are top-notch, but the photos say otherwise. I've got to figure something out though, my pictures are killing me!!

One of my main problems is that I always photograph my projects in the middle of the night (UGH) in my yellow kitchen (DOUBLE UGH) with glaring fluorescent lights (TRIPLE UGH). So, the pictures are always terrible. Photoshop helps, but come on...it can't perform miracles!!

I'm going to do better though. And, I'm gonna start with your picture, Jen! I know hubs can duplicate this...just gotta get him started!

Thanks again! I'm still going to stalk this thread for any more pointers!!

[JenTapler]

The base is wood (leftover shelving) - actually, I don't think you could consider it REAL wood - it's like that MDF stuff that's in a cheap bookshelf. The sides & back are foam matboard. I bought it in a pack of 3 (Elmer's brand - like the school glue) at Officemax I think and then just cut them to the sizes I wanted. I think it's meant to be used to make a display like for a Science Fair or Trade Show or something??

Really - my hubby built it for me, but I probably could have done it just as easily. It wasn't hard at all!

[julifish]

I have the same problem with usually photographing at night. I think my other main problem is all the CF lighting in my house. It's not really "white" light - it has a yellow glow that is hard to get rid of. I use a desk in my bedroom and either some white wrapping paper or a black piece of fabric (which trying to keep kitty hair free is not easy!). I have to lamps I use.

I think I'm going to make something like Jen has. Although, when I can get outside then I like to put pieces of pottery in the yard to prop my projects up to photograph. The color always looks so much better in day light. I guess I need some day light bulbs.

[jazzettsmommy7]

if you girls want those boards cheap micheals has them right now 4 for 5.00 and they are huge! same brand

[cindyg]

I take all my photos outside on my lanai - its works great because its in the outside light but not in direct sunlight. I have the same clip-on lights like Jen with daylight bulbs and I will use them sometimes when I'm working on a project at night and have to have step-by-step photos of my project for a tutorial but always wait to take photos of the "finished product" the next day outside.

[bellbird425]

good topic! i usu use th top of a white cabinet next to a window and our sliding glass door but the light switch is above it (yah i could PS it out but lazy) - u can see it here: http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/...all&ppuser=858
i'd love a box and clamp lights but storing it somewhere when not in use is my main problem .... and i'd love a room with a blank wall for portrait shoots too but i aint got no free walls either (sigh)...

[webseitler]

That is super-cool, Jen!

I really struggled with the lighting in my house when I was trying to take some pictures of a project recently. I found it made a world of difference to get out the tripod and try to use my camera on it's "manual like" setting. And sunlight was a big help. LOL!

When I used to take pictures of my Stampin' Up! cards for my blog, I'd always use these old books as a backdrop. They were under the lamp on my end table in the living room and it was a super easy place to get good light at night and not have to set anything up. LOL! I always had to Photoshop my images a bit to get the color right, though.