Setting up for Sucess

Why bother to shoot your own products if your not going to take the time to be SUCCESSFUL! The point to having photo's is to showcase your images, so people can see what they are buying right? So let's make sure we have the tools we need to from this....

To this!

Product Provided by: Crafty Gal Creations

Depending on your product, and set up you need to think about how the light will hit the items, what part will reflect, what shadows can be created, and what adjustments do you need to make so you don't see shadows, as well as making sure each part is shown, and showcased the best it can be.

There are a few secrets to this.

1. Tweezers are your friend. I use these to place each stone, bead and chain in just the right place.
2. Cleaning cloth. I use my soft clothes from cleaning my lens to polish stones and remove any finger prints, fibers or dust that may be on a product
3. Cotton Gloves. These are so I don't get new finger prints on items as I am working on them. They are special gloves from the photo lab, same quality that they use when handling negatives. You can also use latex or even finger cots (found in the bandage section of your drug store). I never cared for them, but its a viable option.
4. Time. Don't try to do this in a rush
5. Stable work area. Placing product on a table that can be bumped or with a fan moving in the room can be a nightmare...please save yourself the headache.

Now, if you have been following along in this series we have covered...

Why you want to shoot with a CAMERA

Backgrounds: Part 1 Part 2 and Part 3

Finding the right location for your home studio

Finding the right light

White Balance

Setting up your DIY studio*

and now, collecting the tools to success.

Which brings us to product placement, posing, and perspective.

These will be our focus this week! Be sure to come back!

*I have delayed the release of the DIY studio available light - as well as a followup to the Dollar Store studio due to (of all things) TIME to shoot the images for them! I hope to get the images done this week and fit them back into the schedule - but I wanted to make sure you still had some great information to chew on this week! For now, you can view the First part of the Dollar Store Studio from the link above - it gives you some basic guidelines and some very helpful tips!