How to take good pictures without using natural light?

[handmadebyhannah00]

It's been really cold, dark, and windy outside where I live, so it's almost impossible to take good pictures using natural light. Does anyone use light boxes? Is there another way I can take good pictures for my shop? I have a bunch of new items to list but unfortunately my photos are turning out horrible. Thanks!

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

My son bought me a Photo Studio in a Box for Christmas. It's made a world of difference in my pics. My four feature items were all taken with the new photo box. You can see the difference when you compare them to my Christmas items.

[GabriellasTreasures]

I have seen on threads over time that many many use light boxes, I don't as my items are too large, but many here do.

[TheNorthWayStudio]

Natural light is actually best on cloudy, overcast days. Find a window that allows decent light in and get to work! Using a white sheet of paper can reflect even more brightness--so try folding a few pieces in half and just set them around your item, outside of the frame of the photo.

If that still doesn't work, do a quick diy light box and find some natural bulbs. Make sure that the temperature of the light is on the cold side so you don't have yellow tinted images. I found some at Wal-mart that I don't really use--but the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has gorgeous lighting this time year!

[Former_Member]

I have a standard point and shoot camera (sony cool pix I think) and shoot all my pics inside. I use a sheet of white poster board as a backdrop and shine my OTT light on it. A nice "natural light" lightbulb would probably do the same thing. I make sure to turn my flash off and I'm usually in macro mode on my camera. I then use Picasa (free) to adjust the brightness and contrast. Pretty easy and I didn't need to buy any fancy equipment. I think my pictures look good or at least good enough.

[Former_Member]

I used to use natural light but I got tired of being slave to the weather. Now I just take pictures in my basement. People tend to put so much emphasis on what camera to use, I think you can do great suff with the most basic equipment out there. Every picture in my shop I took with my iphone. I bought a roll of white background paper from amazon.com for about $20. Then I bought 3 cheap silver work lights from Home depot for $6 each.If you do a lot of close up work you can splurge and get an Olloclip ($60) which makes your iphone do macro shots but that's about it. To adjust pics in my phone after I take them I use an app called Camera + ($1.99)
Good luck!

[spacefem]

I have to take my pictures while the rest of my family is asleep, so it's usually pretty dark out.

The trick is to use full spectrum light bulbs. I special ordered my bulbs so I could get 25W CFLs that are BRIGHT, but wouldn't create as much heat as non-CFLs (so I wouldn't burn the dang house down if I flipped on six at once).

Everything else about my setup is cheap... cheap camera, PVC-pipe frame for my light box, posterboard background, clip-on aluminum light fixtures from the hardware store. But the light bulbs were key.

[NevermoreGifts]

Just get a few daylight bulbs from Home Depot.

[Former_Member]

It's amazing what you can do with darkish photos in photoshop after the fact using exposure/brighten, selective color tools.

[Former_Member]

I do use photoshop, to simply crop and brighten the contrast on my images but nothing more. This doesn't work so well on badly lit, dull photos. I got one of those portable light boxes for my birthday last year.. and I am yet to properly use it. I really need to though, the weather is so dull and grey at the moment and I have so many items to photograph and list.. they aren't going to sell in the cupboard! Wish me luck...

[Former_Member]

If you have the capability, set your camera on a higher ISO. It allows for lower light situations.

[Former_Member]

I got a light box for Christmas and was so excited until I tried to use it and the light bulbs in the lamps gave a yellow cast. I will see if I can find replacements for them that are natural white light instead. Otherwise I think the white box is the way to go.

[Former_Member]

Just be careful not to go too high with ISO. The higher the sensitivity/ISO the more grainy your photos will become.

[ThePartyDeeva]

Edee nice photos!

[Artgirl56]

All of the photos in my shop right now were taken in natural light (cloudy day) next to a window. I use an automatic camera (sony cybershot) set on macro with no flash. I don't like using an automatic camera and plan to buy a digital 35mm SLR someday to give myself more flexibility.

Winter has imposed its limitations on available daylight here in Wisconsin, so I made my own lightbox out of cardboard this week. I lined the inside with white posterboard and covered the cutout sides with white tissue paper. It's 15" x 15" which is kinda small. Total cost was fifty cents. I plan to make a bigger one, say 20" x 20" but have to find a suitable cardboard box.

I have done some preliminary tests and will be tweaking my set up before I commit photos to listings.

The right FULL SPECTRUM daylight bulbs are key to producing the look of natural light. I think that the bulbs that I purchased will do nicely.

I was told by the electrical clerk at my local home improvement store that the higher the lumens, the more natural the light.

The bulbs I purchased were:

Evolution Full Spectrum by Aero-Tech. 100 watt (actually uses 25 watts), 1430 lumens output. Cost was $4.95 each.

[woolpleasure]

Hannah Greene

you have great clear pictures
I would not change anything.
Happy sales!

[TerraRhapsody]

I have a large light tent and use it in my conservatory where there is good light, but there are a lot of dull days here, so I usually up the f-number and exposure on my camera so that it takes in more light. That requires a tripod and remote control due to the low shutter speed. I use a photo editing package to process images when they need it, usually to sort out the levels

[PrairiePrimitives]

Get a Canon PowerShot. Mine is (I think) the A460; it's at least 5 yrs old. It does a great job of filling in the shadows with enough light from the flash! In other words, I see shadows in the viewfinder (screen), but they're not there when I download the pics to my laptop. :-)