Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Getting A Good Picture

Oh, what I time I had yesterday! I finished the latest of my necklaces and wanted to get it listed online. First I had to take the pictures. Oh, my, was I in for a challenge! The beads in this necklace reflect the light in a thousand different directions and NOTHING was working!

Since most of the necklace is clear, I wanted a dark background. I hate working with black. It picks up every bit of lint. I found this nice piece of dark green that I thought would work. It didn't. I couldn't get a good shot no matter what I tried. Mediocre pictures resulted as seen here:





Then I tried white thinking maybe just because I thought it wouldn't work, it might. Ever get that feeling? Well, I got pretty good pictures of the necklace, but you can't see it against the white background. I know because I posted them on Etsy and that was the first response I got. Here is one I used:




Back to the drawing board, or I should say photo shoot. Meanwhile, all this time I had a forum thread going with all kinds of suggestions on how to fix it. Most of them I'd already tried. A black background was suggested, so I dug around in my material stash until I found something other than the black velvet I had. Actually, it is the back of a blue sparking material, but it's black. I took over 50 pictures before I got this and several that were equivalent. I ended up using a dark room, with only one photo light. I set my camera on a slow shutter speed and got this:




Here is a closeup of the beads that shows where the problem lies:



I'm still not completely satisfied, but it's better. Any photographers out there that can help?

Here is a link to the item and the rest of the pictures
. Ice Castle

10 comments:

Kay said...

That's beautiful! Even without perfect photos, it looks spectacular.

Stef H said...

it's a gorgeous necklace and personally, i like it on the white!

hugs,

Bonzai Beadwear said...

wow, great photo of the beautiful necklace!

Celestial Charms said...

Lovely necklace. The last photo that was the closeup looks fabulous. It really shows all the details. Great creation!
Maureen

Blue Forest Jewellery said...

Really pretty necklace. The story reminds me of frustrating times trying to get good photos! Pearls are my worst nightmare :)

A Rose Without A Thorn said...

Thank you for discovering my blog, I thought I must take a look at your blog and I have to say that this necklace is simply stunning. It makes me think of coral, wonderful creation......

Linda said...

Hi, Sandy, First thank you for stopping by my blog and posting such a lovely compliment. I am so glad you did or I wouldn't have found you. I love the necklace. I have the same problems with pictures. I am never happy with the background because so much of my work is white. Try a Navy blue background. It seems to work the best.

Have a Pinkalicious day !

karlascottage.typepad.com said...

I can tell how lovely the necklace is, but I know what you mean. When I have a sparkling jewel to sell, I want the photos to sparkle too. The only thing that works for me is the natural light from the North window. Not direct sunlight, or a artificial light.

Good luck!

karlascottage.typepad.com said...

Hand made is the way to go!!

Thanks for visiting, its nice to meet you.

Journal Swag said...

What an absolutely gorgeous piece! I think the photos shown with a black background show all of the detail. On the white background, it's pretty, but you have no idea how gorgeous it really is (all of the detail). Beautiful!

Thank you for visiting my blog!!

Hugs,
Sheila