How to take better pottery photos
Just a few simple steps that you can take at home with your phone or camera.
1. Setup
2. Add the background
Put a stiff piece of cardboard behind the book and against the back of the chair. Then drape a single piece of paper over the cardboard to form a smooth, seamless background. Dollar store poster board makes a good background as it can create a nice curve. You can use fabric, but you will need to spend some time getting out all the wrinkles.
Then tape a few pieces of paper on the side away from the window to form a reflector. This will fill in the light in all the shadows away from the window side. Place your pot in the middle of the bottom area. Have a close look at the shadows and highlights. Are those reflectors filling in the light nicely? 3. Take some test photos and look closely
A. Is your background exactly the same colour on your screen as on the background. White needs to be white, not gray, not green or bluish. Check that your image is sharp.
If necessary, shoot on a brighter day and change your camera settings. Shooting with daylight only and setting your camera on the most basic setting should make a photo with the right colour and mostly the right balance of light and dark. Find a teenager to help you, if you need help with this. B. Leave some room around the pot. Our social media folks need room to crop your photos to fit various social media platform sizes. |
4. A checklist before cropping
A. Adequate room around the pot?
B. Colour is correct? C. Whites are nice and white? D. If shooting white items, you'll want a darker background for contrast. If you're shooting white ware on white, the camera will make everything too dark. If your shooting dark items, use a medium or lighter background for contrast. If your whole scene is dark, the camera will make everything lighter than you want. E. Find lots of natural light. This will make the image sharper and your contrast better. 5. The cropped photo
This photo is ready to send to the social media team. It's about 1600 pixels wide.
Please make sure that your email program does not downsize images automatically. We need high resolution so we have flexibility when working with your images! |