My photo box setup

During Claypen chat last Thursday, we talked a bit about taking better photos of our clay creations. I wanted to share my own low-tech setup.

First I take a drawer out of the rubbermaid rolly cart.

I have tried many different lighting setups. Right now I choose to use natural sunlight. Lots of indirect sunlight if possible.
If I absolutely have to take a picture after sunset, I put lots of lamps around the sides and top of the drawer.
I also tweak the settings on my digital camera. I am SO not a digicam guru. I don't even know what the settings mean...but I have found what works for me is:
Changing the 0.0 setting to +0.7. It lightens the picture a bit. I use macro mode (looks like a little tulip flower icon). I also use my cheapo little tripod. (Less than $10 at Walmart) ANY movement while using macro mode makes for blurry pics.

I use white printer paper as the background inside the drawer:
It's normally sitting on a table next to a window.
Even my best pics need tweaking afterwards with a program. I use PhotoImpact, but there are many others. I made a little tutorial to demonstrate cropping out background. Sadly I've never finished it to include color tweaking. I'm sure you can Blingo tutes for your specific program.

You can also use free online photo editors. No need to go buy a program. I have not searched extensively...but here's a few to get you started.

Here is a before/after of an edited photo.

Now clearly I'm not an expert at it all. But I've seen worse. :)

Back in the saddle

I started this blog to host a weekly recipe swap. That idea flopped, floundered and died. But oh well. No biggie. It was not my first bad idea...won't be the last. :)

I had also used this blog to talk about my clay work. Almost every item I make has a story behind it. Not always interesting stories...but stories nonetheless. Personally, I find it fascinating how the stream of conciousness idea works. Ideas and thoughts sprout new ideas, and they morph into new ideas, and maybe because of special circumstances they change again, and so on. This is how most of my clay things come to life. In my sketch book they start out completely different. Perhaps the journey to the finished products will only be interesting to me. But again...no biggie. That's why I love journaling. Looking back and reading about what once was and how it came to be.

With that in mind...I'm going to go crop/edit/and upload a couple new pictures. I'm frustrated with a current idea and I need to talk about it. :)