This is interesting Ronald. Would the polarizing filter help eliminate that “moire” pattern too? It’s a problem I often have when photographing books with bookcloth covers, especially in bright light.
That’s very helpful - thanks v much!
Lizzie,
Polarizing filters don’t usually sort out moire patterns, but always worth a try.
Changing the angle of the camera/lens can help sometimes.
I think Professionals use Adobe Photoshop to remove or reduce moire, but that is expensive.
The cheaper Elements or some of the other software eg Picasa can be used with a bit of trial and error. I have used the ‘Blur’/‘Gaussian Blur’ control on Elements on buildings pictures ( such as the ‘walkie-talkie’ in the city of London, which is a nightmare to photograph without moire patterns). You have to use it very selectively, though.
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Thanks. Camera angle and lighting have to be the thing for me then. Editing won’t give a clear picture of the item, once the “dreaded moire effect” has occurred! It tends to happen when I’ve used a fabric like linen - especially with a strong/ loose weave pattern.
I just need to take more care with my photos then!
I’m a digital artist. I specialise in making bad photos look good. Here is an example of my work. These days, there’s so much you can do digitally to enhance your photos so having a top of the range camera isn’t such a necessity these days. 
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I just want to say
I’ve got my DSLR Minolta Dynax 5D back from the menders and I am a very happy bunny.
I use it so much that it needed a complete new top section as the old one was worn out !
In future my trusty Minolta will be housebound and reserved for photographing my glass.
No more carting it out and about on day trips with the grandchildren or to the beach, transported in the scooter backbox !
Holidays and other photos will be taken with my new camera - which Santa will be bringing me and which will undoubedly be a mid price range compact bridge system and which will be as good as I can persuade my husband I need !
Thank goodness I don’t need to photograph my glass anymore with the inadequacy of my phone camera - I may have some good photo editor software but even that can’t fix out of focus photographs where the phone just refuses to see the glass I am pointing it at !
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I feel your pain re photographing glass Joy… and of course I make it worse for myself by rarely using colour in my glass work…
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I’ve been taking photos of spectacles for my day job.
I’m far too lazy (and don’t have time between patients) to edit them, so they all have reflections of my chest, or the strip lights in the lenses.
I’ve tried taking the lenses out, but that just looks a bit rubbish.
Maybe one day, when I’m not lazy, and not wasting all my free work time on forums I’ll get round to editing!
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I have been working through my pictures to try and improve them, by taking them in natural daylight. This has improved a bit, my husband and I are going to browse new cameras at the weekend.
Esterina xx
I’ve always found photographing my items really hard. I’m not a bad photographer, I have an eye for composition although all my photos aren’t perfect- but when it comes to photographing my own creations something comes over me and I find it really hard to feel happy about what I take.
I’m going through a re brand at the moment though and have some new items I’m really excited about photographing- and I’ve come up with an idea and colour scheme that’s going to make me feel more confident about photographing my own work. The idea I have is also going to make it easier. I think sometimes when you take photos at home just the lack of space can sometimes make it harder to take photos. I have a lovely studio to work in- but there isn’t enough natural light for photography. I take everything outside, but usually it starts to spit half way through my shoot!
The trouble with taking your photos in natural light (which i have to say I have to do as stained glass photos and unnatural light don’t work) is that the light source gets more and more limited as the year progresses.
My work pattern in summer is completely different from winter.
In summer I make glass all day and when I’ve finished i take my photos, edit as necessary and set up my listings from the pieces I’ve made that day.
In winter I photograph the previous day’s work, in the morning, once it is fully light (which can be quite late on dark days) and then I make my glass for the day until it’s too dark to see the colours properly under the artificial lights.
Roll on spring 
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So, I took on board the comments and suggestions so helpfully posted here. And I had a go with my new items.
I think the photos for this book have come out pretty well (mostly). They’re better than many I’ve taken before.
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Definitely getting there, Lizzie !
Perhaps you could try bringing up the ‘levels’ a tad more, and even maybe the contrast, although that is not bad at all. But too much contrast and the image looks artificial.
One thing important for those taking close-ups of objects, is whether you want everything in focus or you want to emphasise part of the object and let parts start to drift out of focus, like some magazine shots do. That takes a bit of practice.
Your picture communicates the object well to the viewer, and the small amount of shadow adds depth and realism, in my humble view.
Some might remove the shadow at the right hand end of the book, but I like it. So well done !
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Joy, you have raised a very valid point here.
Also, the colour of light changes throughout the day and throughout the year, i.e. the colour temperature, which varies enormously, and why pro’s like the control of electronic flash, which can simulate daylight.
Some also use special filters on the lens to compensate, but many modern cameras can be adjusted to ‘tweak’ the colour balance too.
If you try to use ‘bounced’ electronic flash, you can control the light much more, but will take a bit of trial and error to ensure it doesn’t look artificial.
Stained glass is a bit of a special object to photograph, and needs particular care.
@memicrafts Not sure if this has already been mentioned but have you tried picmonkey.com? I’ve been using it for the last 6 months or so and my photos are much better than they used to be, and I find it very easy to use.
I’ve also found that photographing either in the early morning or late afternoon work out best - although with winter now showing signs of moving in, it’s difficult to find a really good time. Sun behind clouds is what I find best, but the sun is slowly disappearing unfortunately.
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The problem here is that my craft is glass and that is what I concentrate my time on. The fact is that in order to sell my glass online I need good photos but I can’t devote an undue amount of tme to photographing my work or I won’t have time to do all the other glass related tasks which are needed.
As well as chief photographer at Joysofglass I am also Purchasing, Packing, Mailroom, Invoicing, Quality control, Stock Control, IT, Customer Services, General Admin, PR - and that’s before I start actually designing and making my glass 
Phew I’m exhausted now I know what I do all day.
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Ah, thank you Ronald!
Hi All - haven’t gone back through the whole thread but just thought I’d also mention PicMonkey - great for special effects and collage’ed photos and FotoFuze - for getting a flat white ( or black ) background. Both free and worth checking out - I use these a lot/
How funny. Is it new ?
My daughter suggested it to me only the other day - when I was struggling without my good camera. Not heard of it before but it did look pretty good.
I’ve been using picmonkey and fotofuze for a while. At the risk of being a bit spammy this listing of mine uses fotofuse in some pictures to get a flat white background and then picmonkey for collaging. On the listing you can see some pictures of fabric options which I did in picmonkey and find VERY useful when discussing fabrics for custom made items http://folksy.com/items/6534208-Horse-Custom-made-in-Vintage-Fabrics
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