wire ... metal ... fibre .... unique handcrafted jewelry and accessories for men and women

Thursday, July 24, 2008

there are some jobs which are not portable ....


guest model, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

.... and product photography is one of them!

I have a window ledge set up as my photographic studio. It's north facing so the light is usually bright but diffused even on sunny days. I use a piece of vellum to further diffuse the light over the item. This can work really well or flop about and be a total pain! Photographic sessions can also be accompanied by lots of swearing - another reason to only attempt them when the wee guy is out of the house.

Taking product shots takes (me) a long time. I click, I run to the computer with my batch, upload, check and re-shoot as neccessary.

.... and then there's the editing! Once I'm pleased with the pictures I settle down in front of the screen, notepad in hand, jotting down the files of the images I want to use.

Then it's off to the photo editing software. I use PhotoStudio 2000, a program which came with my scanner and it's worked well so far. I also have the Adobe Photoshop thing and have downloaded GIMP but just haven't had the time to play with and familiarise myself. One new program I am spending more time with is the Flickr-associated Picnik which is also available for free download as well as within Flickr (NB: you can now batch upload into Picnik for editing at the same time as Flickr Uploading!). I like its 'intuitiveness' as it means I won't have to spend ages working out how to complete my task list, and I like the results. There are lots of special effects!

Photo editing isn't really a portable task either but I am a little more mobile within the home since acquiring a new laptop and wireless internetting! If you see me lazing on the deck I'm probably lazing with the laptop these days.

Every little helps!

 
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