I made a crude tent with white card and diffused white materials some time ago to photograph small items, and was moderately successful with electronic flash on 2 sides. I don’t use that now. I tend to use diffused natural daylight and selected backgrounds. People like Warehouse Express and others sell all sorts of light tents of different sizes, small to very large, and some competitors may be on E bay.
My advice is to not spend a fortune on a light tent , but give it a try.
I bought a Metz circular macro flash, which is similar to a ringflash, and has inbuilt miniflash units on either side of the lens, both fully adjustable.
I have had amazing results with that, and taken ceramics and mosaics for people, but requires a bit of practice to use and is not cheap. The advantage is you can eliminate most of the shadows when close up, or have one side stronger than the other to give subtle shadows. Cheaper ring-flashes are available second hand or new.
You can pick up cheaper small flashguns new or second hand in better camera shops, or online. If you use something like an ipad or iphone for your images, may be better to use a tent initially.
We bought a decent camera about a year ago so was hoping my pictures would improve but now I’ve realised I actually need to learn how to use the camera to its best ability. I’m constantly saying to hubby that we need to go on a course together so that we both know how to get the best out of it.
A light tent is a brilliant investment. I got mine cheap on Amazon, it came with the lamps and a tripod( which I haven’t used) and several different colour backgrounds. I then use square on my ipad. I am no expert but it is so much easier to be consistent. Heres an example.
Thank you all so much for your advice and i’m really loving seeing the photos that you have put up.
Ronald, thanks so much for your advice. I can’t wait for the tent to come now and i’m sure that I will spend many many hours working it out, but nothing ventured as they say. I’m not very savvy when it comes to my digital camera. I use the macro setting ( is that the close up one for more detail? ) and that’s about it and then fiddle about with them on photoshop, but if they are too dark to start off with, they don’t look great when lightened. I’m really hoping that the tent and lights make it easier for me to take my photos anytime as I really am desperate to get the uniformity in all my photos.
Pauline, That’s exactly what I need to do with my camera. I’m sure if I knew more about it, i’d be able to get better photos.
The flower photos looks great. I loved seeing the amount of detail in it.
Megan, that bowl is so lovely. I’ve never used an ipad to take photos before. Never knew you could… Shows you how much I know…he he.
I did a little bit of editing before posting this picture, but maybe could have done with a bit more. I used the piece of white felt inside my tent but no lights, on square setting on my ipad.
Hi, instead of using just card if you create a card structure & then use it to lay a continuous piece of fabric from the top edge of your structure & then along your work top you will illuminate any seams & therefore no cracks. Hope it makes sense. If not I’ll try to create a picture of what I mean.
Hi, I dont profess to be an expert at all - quite the opposite in fact but recently I had a major photography experiment to try and get some better pictures. I’m not much of a writer either but thought I would write up my findings on a blog so if it is of any help to anyone here is the link.
Pauline,
I had a go at tweaking a couple of your pictures. They were given a bit of adjustment in levels, unsharp mask, and shadow control in software. Even free software out there should be able to help you. Getting the lighting, composition and focus right in the camera is the golden rule, but software can also improve things dramatically. The bear in the balloon required the least work. The daffodils could probably do with a bit of white balance colour adjustment still.
I’m in the middle of purchasing a Genuine-Nikon-MC-DC2-Remote-Cord-Control that works with my Camera. I’ve been advised by another photographer to do this which helps reduce camera vibration. I’m also looking into buying a electronic ringflash when we next go to the USA, that’s where I bought my camera from.
Thank you for all this information which is very useful. It will also help when it comes to taking photo’s of my hubby when he’s out on the water in his Race boat.
Don’t Despair ! It takes time to get photos to be consistently good. Check that where you have placed items against a background, that there is sufficient contrast between the two.
For example, the zig-zag with butterfly is a lovely piece, but perhaps the detail in the butterfly could be seen better with a slightly different coloured or textured background ?
Some of the images seem to need a bit of “punch”, in that they may be too flat, and lack contrast. Software has controls for “levels” and “contrast” and “shadow/highlight”, which you can play around with. Jewellery and similar should not be over-saturated in colour, but also not so pale that it blends into the background.
Also, a trick that pro- photographers use is to illuminate the item from below using a light-box. That works exceptionally well on anything with glass, crystals, silver and gold chains, and even some clear plastics. You can either make a simple lightbox with daylight- corrected mini fluorescent tubes, or buy one.
Thank you so much for your feedback it is so appreciated. Can’t wait to put some of your suggestions into play just wish I had 48 hours per day to fit everything in!
Just to let you know I’ve put some of your hints & tips into practice & my photos are improving no end. They have gone from this to this . From this to this . I’ve got loads more to re-take & no doubt overtime they will improve further but I just wanted to thank you for your help.
Stunning pictures !
Great contrast and impact, good focus and depth of field, really nice backgrounds, and I love the shot of the necklaces against black - that’s really a pro’ quality shot.
Glad to be of assistance, anytime.
Is anyone interested in a light/cube box with 3 coloured backgrounds in white,red and black…has 2 halogen lamps on stands and folds away in to its own bag/carrier…
to this
.
From this to this
. I’ve got loads more to re-take & no doubt overtime they will improve further but I just wanted to thank you for your help.