Product Composition

Composition: The placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art.

In photography there are a lot of general composition rules.  I covered some of these in our Photography 101 series back in January. Many of them will still apply to product photography. I thought in order to keep us well rounded I should touch on this as part of our placement and perspective discussion this week... because composition and perspective really are interlinked.  In fact, Perspective is the name of one very popular style of composition!

Perspective: The angle at which you shoot your subject. We ended yesterday talking about this... you want your camera to be in line with your product, not off to a side, or higher or lower then your product.

Correct Camera height.

Shot with camera directly in front of product

But if you have jewelry or other items you need to shoot flat.. then you may need to shoot directly DOWN on your item.  I don't suggest it, but I know sometimes you have to. I suggest busting out a step ladder and leaning over your workspace. Be careful not to get in front of any lighting source!

Shooting Down at product. / Product provided by Sweetsies

Fill the Frame. Our second composition rule tells us simple what to do... rather then leaving a lot of extra space around your product, get closer and fill the frame with your item! This will provide better details as well as simply "looking nicer"

Too Far Away.

Full Frame / Product Provided by: Streeter & Co

Tip: If you have a high resolution camera, but can't focus close enough to your product you can crop in! Be sure to read up on the best way to do that, and keep your image looking sharp!


WIDE/TALL: If your product is wider then it is tall shoot horizontally, more tall then wide, shoot vertically.

More Wide = Horizontal Image / Product by: L.W. Hooks

Taller then Wide. Gift Unknown vendor.

Tip: This may also depend on where your images are going! If your uploading to a online shop, your thumbnail images may be more square, be sure to learn about any dimensional restrictions you may have before shooting!

Show the DETAILS. I don't mean just crop in on the same image... but I like to see DETAILS when I shop online. I want to see the different beads, the chain, the clasp... give me DETAILS.

Product Provided by: Streeter & CO

Product Provided by: Crafty Gal Creations

Product Provided by: Crafty Gal Creations

This and That

       Welcome Welcome!

This week brought us to per-registration for my daughters school. YEA! That, I also found out 3 or her 4 friends wont be continuing with us is a huge bummer and the 4th is undecided. I am super bummed about that and now considering changing schools so she will have a larger class.

This week also brought us a possible opportunity that I can't really share yet. However, it puts us in a state of the unknown. Limbo. I hate limbo. I am a planner. Very logical minded and I have to have plans to function... I am not sure when that happened in my life... but it is very true. I deal with change well, but I have to have a plan of attack!

This week I also made a very costly and time consuming error while working on a different project.... yes... I deleted my album where I store my images for this blog. Do you know how many images I put into my posts! Each with a link to a website or vendor page.... That has had me staying up late, and working early to reset everything, and still get all my client work done! I certainly didn't have the time to spend on a project like that this week!

This would be why I am not including images on this post this week...I really wanted to showcase my FANTASTIC new purse and 2 new mug hugs from Zeeuh... but I haven't been able to slip them into the studio yet... that means I will have to work this weekend to get caught up! It will be totally worth it because Alicia does GREAT work and you should really check out the awesome items she made for me!

This and That

Welcome to this and that Thursday! I don't know that I have much to say this week...

This week I spent a lot of time in the studio doing product shoots for a few clients, and it's very time consuming! That I managed to get some work done on next months teaching posts is super amazing! It probably has something to do with all the 4am morning! I guess I should re-read those and make sure I was forming whole sentences and such! I cant wait to share it with you all!


This week also saw us in the dr's office for an emergency eye exam since my kiddo was sent home with the teachers telling me she had pink eye... only to find out AFTER That her friend had been throwing dirt at her on the playground and thats when her eye started hurting, itching and became red... well. Duh! That's why we don't throw dirt!

This week I also made new buttons for my networking group WINNational

so I was inspired to make a few new ones for my site here as well!

That made me excited to spruce up mine here - even tho I have LOVED the texture ones - because its a nice organic element... it doesn't really fit with everything else right now... so I might work on that today if I can get my client designs and watermarking projects done early enough!








This week I also finally finished up my husbands art station in really what should be my desk... but you know sacrifice and all...













I custom built all the little paint shelves, gave extra small things storage with the white organizers above... and made a magnetic strip to hold paper clips and other small things he always has around his crafts... (ok... mini painting supplies, crafts after all not a very "manly" name for it).


So this week end I am back in the thrift stores searching for a few must have items for my office / studio area... hopefully I will be able to share those images soon!