Backgrounds and Cameras

[Former_Member]

Let's share... What background(s) have you found to work best for your shop? And what about the camera that you use, do you love it?

I have experimented with many different indoor backgrounds, settings and lighting. I have even created a pretty nice photo light box. But above everything hands down I have found that the best way to get the nicest photos of my items is to take them outside in natural lighting.
I hang my items from a really great "rustic" looking wooden fence I have right in my back yard.

Right now I use a very basic Nikon digital camera (10mp). It's pink! It has done me well over the years and is a pretty nice camera but now I am researching and looking to invest in something new. Something nice. Something higher quality.

Would love to hear from the rest of you!

[Former_Member]

I would love to be able to take my things outside to photograph, but I live on Main street in a building with no yard. So I just take pictures on white paper with natural lighting.
I have a purple Kodak camera and it serves it's purpose well enough, but I would like to get one that doesn't have that annoying "auto" feature because sometimes I can't get good shots because the camera thinks it should focus on something further off :P

[LoveJewelryByJ]

i use the slate tile on our back patio

i now use my husband's "old" Nikon D90 with a macro lens - love it!

[hbjewelrydesign]

I use a light box outside. Then I have different props: seashells, rocks and bark. Dichroic glass gets a glare, so it is hard to shoot it direct sunlight and the light box helps to diffuse light.

[SangriaSilverDesigns]

I have a light box I made from a collapsible laundry hamper and sometimes use my shells as props. I'm wanting to do something different though and thinking of a piece of stone. I have a Nikon 3100 and boy howdy do I struggle getting the lighting right! I purchased a couple daylight bulbs. I liked my photos better that I did in the beginning when I went outside, but I can't always do that.

[Former_Member]

Anyone else have a camera that they love that captures awesome photos for your items?

[Former_Member]

I'm a fan of Panasonics

[dalystudios]

I use a Canon G10 and I love it. I'm digitally challenged, yet it forgives me :-) I just use a sheet of white watercolor paper on a table in my sunroom, parked right next to the window. I often nab a piece of foliage or flowers from my garden outside the door as a prop. In the winter use a sprig of a houseplant. I have flat rock from the back field that appears in some of my pix also.

[ArtistiKat]

I'm still trying to find that perfect background.

as far as my camera prowess, I work on the law of large numbers. Take LOADS of photos and hope I get a few that look good.
;)

[Former_Member]

I have an old Kodak and have better results on an overcast day outside. I am probably the only person happy to see a cloudy day!

[birdmom9726]

I use a Nikon DSLR (can't remember the model, I think it's a D3000), with this setup: http://www.amazon.com/MyStudio-Professional-Tabletop-Continuous-Photography/dp/B0015450T6/ref=sr_1_2...

I found that my photographs improved immediately with this outfit. Yes, it is a little spendy, but I tried other setups and they just didn't work for me for one reason or another. I am only photographing jewelry so don't need a huge setup, just tabletop size. The lighting is really good, and I love the plain white matte finish of the background. It has the "infinity wall" look, even though I don't really use that feature much because I'm taking pictures of such small items that I have to be really close up to get all the detail, never mind the background, except that it's white and matte. And when I first started out, I did exactly what ArtistiKat did - took LOADS of pics of each item and then picked through them to find five that were passable. Now I'm down to 6 - 8 per piece and usually have pretty good results. The one problem with my camera is that it picks up EVERY detail - the stray cat hair, dust, fingerprints on the crystals - so everything has to be perfectly clean before I take its picture or it will tell on me! I am just so glad we have digital photography - I could never afford to develop and then throw away the tons of pictures I take that don't make the grade. Love SD cards <3 !!!!!!

[Former_Member]

I have a Fujifilm FinePix S4250. I love it. I have an older model previously until it broke (user error not the camera). Takes very high quality pics. It is sort of an in between step between a stand point and shoot and a DSLR.

[SangriaSilverDesigns]

@Becky: can I ask what mode you use on your camera and do you have to edit them in a program? I'm having difficulty with my camera reading dark and picking up blue. I've taken relative's advice that do great photography but jewelry is a different animal. Such wonderful shops in this thread!

[Former_Member]

Thanks Christine the photos on your shop are so great! Looks like your Canon G10 is really nice camera, and the white paper with just natural lighting seems to work as a really good background.
I'll have to look more into watercolor paper.

[dalystudios]

Sarah, I only chose watercolor paper because that's what I have on hand. My husband and I are both watercolor painters so we have a closet full!

[Former_Member]

I actually take most of my photos on my desk =)

it's a very colourful and busy desk too! i've got all sorts of pens, pencils, brushes, beads and notebooks on it, too lol but the surface is white and I use a A3 piece of white cardboard to cover the colourfulness.

well actually I leave the cardboard out for general views, and you can see a lot of colour in the background, but it's quite blurred, not too distracting, and I like it that way in some shots - provides a nice contrast to the white background in the other ones.

for my close-ups though I do prefer white - I lay the items down on my white desktop and put a white cardboard on one side of it; I also use a white neck stand for some of the shots.

I only use natural light - that's why I started using my desk in the first place, it's right near a window, as most desks are =) also, I find that if I use lamps it adds weird colour tints which are hard to control, so I prefer daylight.

I use Canon 60D and absolutely love it!

[SweetAngelVintage]

I have a no-name but 10 megapixel camera I bought online like 6 years ago...it is simple to use and has great clarity.........video feature too, but I don't use that.........the camera cost me 35.00.

As for lighting, I live on a busy Main St. also, but thankfully I have a very large picture window that serves as my natural lighting as needed.

[PotteryLodge]

I use an iPhone4 : )

Natural sunlight and white foam poster boards. I think this method works best for me.

[Former_Member]

I have a Canon Rebel with the lens kit it came with. Can't afford anything else and I've had it for years. For backgrounds, I use whatever I have around - most of my modeled pics are taken with the white wall of my patio as the bg:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/114355247/extra-soft-forest-green-fingerless

and I often use a sheet of white cardstock as the background for small things:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/124035440/mens-black-beaded-leather-wrap-bracelet

I'm also really fond of taking photographs of jewelry for my blog on the steel blue cover of a notebook I got from manipulatedpaper.etsy.com, or straight up on my desk. You can see more of my work on lixhewettphoto.wordpress.com and aclassicnotion.wordpress.com

To me, the camera does make a huge difference, especially in terms of how easy the photos are to edit into shape afterwards. I love and swear by my Canon. But I do okay without any other equipment. It may make things easier for you, though, and if you can afford it, I say go for it. I'd probably have a lot more things if I could buy them - at least a tripod, a remote, a lens that didn't get stuck and a better lens for full body shots. But I make do with my lovely camera and natural sunlight. My room gets really good light from midday to 5 pm or so. Excellent to shoot small items. And my patio's okay in the morning and the late afternoon for modeled shots.

[Former_Member]

I realized that I too currently use a basic Canon camera (was thinking Nikon by mistake). From the comments above it sounds like staying with that brand when I upgrade will be a great way to go.
Right now everything I do goes on the wooden fence background because I love the "rustic" feel and personality it gives the photos and it's the only way I'm able to get natural light outdoors.
I am wondering though if a white background would allow for brighter more accurate colors or maybe just a higher quality camera when I get around to purchasing one will make all the difference.

[Former_Member]

Right now, I'm using white or off-white watercolor paper. Still figuring out the photography, as it's my weakness.... I'm thinking of investing in a light box. :)

[Former_Member]

I love my simple to use Canon powershot 580...........

[MariasWorkshop]

I use a Nikon Coolpix point and shoot. I am happy with it since I learned the basics, but I would like to get a better camera in the future. By trial and error and great advice from an Etsian, Kat Landreth, I have improved my photos, but they are not the best, yet.

I tried the light box, but finally just use a window very early in the morning. I mainly photograph small items of jewelry. I tried to use a white porous piece of paper on top of a table, but noticed that no matter what I did or the settings in the camera, the background in my photos always looked blue. Then I used Fotofuze, but I am not too happy with that either. I then bought a tile from Home Depot. It is beige. I am currently using that as my background, but feel it is too dark. I will buy a white one soon, hoping that because of the nature of the tile, the background will not show as blue in the photos.

I hope the above makes sense, I am so sleepy.

[Former_Member]

I use a Nikon D600 (Ridiculous overkill but I do some professional photography as part of my job) perhaps to counterbalance the huge over-investment in camera I just use a roll of white gift-wrapping paper stuck to a wall and draped down over a table by a window with tissue paper taped to it for my background. And sometimes fancy paper of the sort used for scrapbooking and wedding invitations.

[Former_Member]

Such great suggestions on camera models. Thank you everyone! It's so helpful to hear what really works before making a large investment