Product Photography; a lesson in staging

After

Sometimes I can get a little lazy when I taking photos, especially when I'm up to my eyes making work. Over the years I try to make the extra effort and it always pays off, and then I slip back into being lazy again. While looking at the work of Rachel Corcoran I realised that my photos needed more than a little sprucing up. Last week I took some very middle after the road shots of my new writers 5x7" cards and listed a few of them online. Today I did a whole new set up and I think they look far snazzier. Simple props like this large sand timer and some old books really helped enhance the mood of the cards. 

Before

After

I did the same for the original series of paintings that I did. I had quickly snapped pictures of the mounted pieces while they were still in their plastic (what was I thinking!!). With a few simple props of my paints and this antique skull and books I made this photo much more interesting. I didn't use any fancy camera or lighting, these are all taken on my Samsung Galaxy S3. I know it's a lesson I learn over and over, but it is really worth the extra 20mins or so coming up with a good initial set up, after that it's plain sailing.

I've spent the last couple of days listing all of my new items in my shop, hopefully by the end of the week I will have everything up in my shop. 

Before

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Mini Photography Studio

I've been trying to post more photos of my work on this blog and also on my Facebook page. The temptation is to be lazy and not bother with photos as it can seem like a really time consuming task. Mostly it was the set up that kept putting me off, having the bother of clearing a space, and trying to get good light. Something had to change!

I looked around my house and saw that I had a really bright spot in one area of my studio, I was using the top of a chest of drawers to store envelopes and packaging stuff. I cleared it all away and made a permanent photography area that would always be ready for me to take a few quick snaps. I set up a back board that has vintage material draped on it, and placed a matching base material to cover the table. New backdrops can be added really easily if this colour theme doesn't suit my subject, behind this floral material the board is covered in blue gingham wrapping paper(which you can see below). I covered another board in tinfoil, this helps to bounce light onto my objects being photographed, and allows me to take pictures a little later in the day by pulling in a little extra light.

I force myself to keep this area tidy and not let it build up with clutter, unlike every other available space in my studio! Because of the tinfoil board I've found that I barely have to edit my pictures afterwards which also saves me tonnes of time. Below are some examples of before and after shots, on the left are the new pictures and on the right are older ones that I took over the years. I'm using a bog standard camera, a Canon IXUS, so I'm pretty happy with the results I was able to get.

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