Great Product Photos on a Budget Series, #3--Editing Your Photos

UPDATED!  Anything between ** is an updated portion of this tutorial!

So you've made your light box, learned your camera's settings, and taken your photos.  The next step is to edit those photos.  It will be very rare that a product photo will not need editing.  If yours don't...congratulations!  You are an expert at the previous steps!  But for the rest of us, this is where an editing program comes in.  While an expensive program like Adobe Photoshop is ideal, most of us artists and crafters cannot afford it!  The program I recommend is Google's Picasa.  It is free, downloads to your computer, and is easy to use. If you are not able to (or choose not to!) use this particular program for any reason (i.e. you have a Mac or another editing program), this tutorial will still be helpful.  Just skip down to #3 and ignore any program specific directions. 

First you must download the program. 

1.  Go to http://picasa.google.com/ and click download Picasa.  This program is compatible with XP/Vista/Windows 7.  I don't think it's compatible with Mac.  Follow all the directions for installation.

2.  Once installed, whenever you open a photo, the Picasa photo viewer should come up, and there should be a button at the bottom of your screen that says "Edit in Picasa".  Clicking this will open Picasa and bring you directly to editing that particular photo.

3.  The first thing I do to my photos is crop them.  In Picasa the crop tool is located under the wrench icon in the upper left corner.  Crop out any unnecessary background or other items by dragging the sides and/or corners of the image.  In Picasa you can always preview before cropping.  For product photos I recommend most of your pictures show the entire item, except for close-ups to show texture, etc.  You should have at least 1 of those. Remember you can always undo anything, so don't be afraid to try different crops!

4.  Next on the to-do list is to edit the brightness and contrast.  The brightness of an image is basically, well, the overall brightness.  Contrast is how much difference between the lights and darks there is in your image.  A low-contrast image will appear flat.  In Picasa, and many other programs, have an automatic contrast button, or the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.  Do not use this!  It never seems to get it right, especially Picasa's. Well, I guess you can try it...I always do...but don't settle on it if it's not right. You really should adjust your contrast manually.  In Picasa, you can tweak brightness and contrast by the fill light, highlights, and shadows bars.  These are located under the tab with the half black, half white "sun" image in the upper left corner.  What I normally do is first adjust the fill light, which bumps up the overall brightness (pull the slider to the right).  You will adjust this quite drastically depending on your starting image.  Adjust it to and just past what you think is too bright.  You will balance this out with the shadows in a second.  After fill light, adjust the highlights so that your lightest areas on your photo are pure white.  Then adjust the shadows until the darkest areas of your image are stark black.  You know your image has good contrast when the values (amount of light or dark) show a range from blackest black to whitest white.  After making all adjustments you can always go back and adjust anything as needed.  And if you have multiple similar photos, you can go up to the edit menu, click copy all effects (this does not include cropping, retouch, etc), move to the next photos, and click edit--paste all effects. 

5.  The next step is to adjust the color temperature if needed...if the color of the item in the photo does not match its actual color.  **Update:  I have found that using Picasa's auto color button works fairly well.  Try this first.  But if the photo doesn't show close to the color of your item, undo the auto color and adjust manually**  Use this sparingly!  In Picasa, this is a slider located under the shadows bar.  If your image needs to be slightly more red or orange, pull the slider (only slightly!) to the right.  If it needs more blue, pull to the left.  I cannot stress enough that this adjustment should only be used when really needed, and then only very slightly.  If you find that you just cannot get the color right with this, go back and retake your photo.  **Often just using slightly different lighting or a different setting on your camera is enough.** 

6.  If your image has any icky spots, you can use the retouch button (located under the wrench again) to take those out.  Please do not use this to change anything on your actual item, as this will misrepresent it to buyers. But use it for unintended spots on the photo, like dirt on the background or a speck of dust on the camera lens.  When using this, set the brush size with the slider to the smallest size you can get that still covers the spot to retouch.  Click on the spot, move the brush to a spot with similar color and value (usually an area right next to the spot), and click again.  It should magically disappear! 

7.  The last adjustment I will discuss is the text button.  One reason you would use this is because your items are hand made and you wish to add your name to the photos for copyright purposes.  Using Picasa is a down-side in this regard because you cannot use layers like in Photoshop to add your signature to your photos, and you don't have access to 100s of fonts and text colors, but you can still add text.  Click the text button (under the wrench icon), click anywhere on the photo, and type.  You can adjust the text color, font, size, etc in the upper left corner.  If you want to move your text around after applying it, you can just click on the lettering.  You can also tilt it by clicking on it and dragging the white circle with the red dot in the middle.  If you want to have multiple formats to your text, there is a process with multiple text boxes.  For example, on my photos I wanted to write my business name, Erika with a K Designs, and have the "E" and the "K" be large, the "rika" be smaller, and so on.  To do this I clicked the text button, clicked where I wanted the text to be, typed "E", formatted it to the font, size, and color I wanted it, and then clicked apply.  Then I repeated this for each section of my text.  And if putting text on multiple images, you can go up to the edit menu and click copy text, move to the next photo, and click edit--paste text. 

There you have it!  These few adjustments are usually all I use for my photos.  Picasa has lots more to offer by the way of fixes and image processing, but I don't recommend using any of the processing techniques as they may misrepresent the color of your item. 

Editing your photos correctly takes practice.  Just remember this is a learning process and that you can always use the undo button! 

Great Product Photos on a Budget Series, #2--Point and Shoot Cameras

Again, the secret to selling or showing your work online is great photos!  Once you have your light box, the next step is to learn to use your camera...

Whatever camera you have, get to know its settings, and NEVER, and I mean NEVER, use flash.  Flash creates glare and hot spots, and makes it virtually impossible to get the colors correct.

My point and shoot is a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W330.  I use 2 settings for product photography.  The one I use the most is "ISO-high sensitivity".   On your camera look for a similar setting that is high sensitivity, blur reducing, with no flash.  Combined with a light box, this setting should take high-quality pictures for most of your items.  However, when I need to get a good close up or am taking pictures of very small items, the "gourmet" setting works best.  Every camera has a similar setting, one made for close-up shots.  Often it has a picture of a flower next to it.  On my particular camera these are all in the menu button under scene selection.

Most point and shoots do not have a way to control this, but another thing to be aware of is depth of field.  This basically is what parts of the photo are being focused on and what parts are being blurred (see photos below for example).  On my camera, when I depress the shutter button, a green box comes up showing where the camera is going to focus.  My camera automatically focuses on what part of the photos it thinks is most "important".  If your camera has this feature, great!  Just be aware of it so the most logical parts of your item are in focus.  With my camera, if I do not like what area it is focusing on, I can change my angle slightly and it will focus on a different spot.  Again, learn about your particular camera to find out how its focusing works!

Click here for Listing! 

Here are photos to demonstrate how important depth of field and focus are.  In the one above, the focus was on the chain, blurring the most important part of the photo, the pendant.  In the photo below, the focus is on the pendant, creating a much clearer and more interesting photo.  Do you see the difference?  

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Another thing on your camera you should be aware of is white balance.  Getting the right white balance setting will get you the most true to life colors as possible and reduce editing time.  My camera has a good auto white balance setting (also under the menu section), but I know this because I tried all the other settings.  The best thing you can do to learn your camera's settings and find which ones work best for you is to do trial and error.  Take pictures of the same object with each setting to see what each one does with color, light, blur, etc, and take notes.  Until you get to know your camera you will take many, many bad photos.  Don't be satisfied with blurry (even a little!) photos or ones where the colors are way off.  This is too hard or impossible to fix with editing software and misrepresents your item to potential buyers.  And while it is best to get your photos as close to perfect as possible right away, if your photos are a little dark, are not cropped correctly, are slightly too red or blue, seem flat or don't have enough contrast, don't worry.  This can all be fixed in the editing process.  I almost always end up tweaking the contrast and brightness as well as cropping my photos in editing. 

Getting to know your camera is just one part of taking great product pictures, but is not good enough on its own.   Look for my other tips on how to make a light box, how to set up your "photo studio", and how to edit pictures in Picasa, coming soon!

Great Product Photos on a Budget Series, #1--Light Box Tutorial

If you are trying to sell or show your work online, you MUST begin with good photos!  And you don't need an expensive DSLR camera or photography studio to take them. All you need is a simple point and shoot camera, a free editing program like Picasa, a good light source (either sunlight or, even better, a couple halogen lamps), and a light box, which you can make yourself.  Here's how you do it:

Light Box Tutorial:

Here shows the 3 sides cut out and the background taped in.

Materials:

Cardboard Box
Marker and Ruler
Box Cutters
Tissue Paper
Tape
White or Black paper or cloth

1.  Cut the flaps off the top of your box and tape the bottom of the box shut.  The top will become the opening and the bottom will become the back of your light box.

My tissue paper was too small so I used 2 pieces and taped them together.  

2.  Using the ruler and marker, on 3 sides of the box make straight lines to cut an inch or so away from the edges of the box.  This is to create the cut out areas on the top and sides as shown.  Make the lines on the inside of the box for easier cutting. 

3.  Cut out the sides along your marked lines on each of the 3 sides.  Place the side you are cutting on the floor and cut on the inside of the box to prevent bowing of the box. 

4.  Cover each cut out with tissue paper cut to size, and tape down.  You may need to use more than one piece depending on how big your paper and the holes are.  Tape the pieces down as best you can. 

5.  Tape or pin your background paper (you may need more than one piece taped together) or cloth to the inside top back of the box so that it hangs on the back and floor of the light box as a background for your photos. 

How easy is that!?  You can see my light box is well loved.  It has made my photography process so much easier by reducing glare, creating the ideal light, and reducing my editing time.

Once your light box is finished set it near a window for natural light and/or put lamps on either side.  Halogen lamps like my OttoLite on the right are perfect for producing true to life colors, but almost any strong light will work.

I use white for my backgrounds because I can't seem to get a good photo with a black background, but I recommend you experiment to see which color works better for you and your products.  

My Light Studio!

I have tacks on hand to hang clear fishing wire to the back for hanging earrings on or tacking up different backgrounds.   

I don't photograph big objects so my one small box works fine.  But if you take photos of a variety of products, I recommend making 2 or more sizes of light box.





The photo of my mask below was taken with my light box using the techniques described in this series.  Check back for more tips on how to use a point and shoot camera and how to edit photos using Picasa!

This photo was taken with my light box!