a beginner needing some help

[katemooar]

Hello,

I have just started trying to take some photos of my stock following the tips I have read on this web site. As most of my products I make are of fabric and it has been raining so much here, I am having to take them inside. I have played around with the shutter speed, aperture on my camera as well as having the products near the windows to let in some natural light.

It seems hard to make the picture light and bright and keep the colours of the fabrics without making it either too dark in the background or too much light over the fabrics. Is that double dutch or does it make some sense?? Can anyone give me some pointers please??

Cheers
Kate

[Gaurav Prabhu]

Use small mirrors or thermocol sheets to bounce light on the subject & fill in the shadows. It'll also make the subject brighter for you.

Also i feel you will make your subject(fabrics) stand out by using a black cloth 7 then shooting. The birght wall & bright subjects are getting mixed & hence the product doesn't pops out. Hope this would serve well as a starting point.

[zona5101]

i think just improving your backgrounds will go along way to making your product shots better...

[OsmosisStudios]

This depends greatly on what you want to show. If you want straight-up product shots, there are millions of ways of doing it, but you're likely going to need some lighting.

For your kind of thing, I'd recommend environmental shots. So find places in the house where your items look good, and dress the room (the parts you can see) to be photo-pretty. You'd still benefit from some off-camera lighting, but at least this way it's a bit easier.

In either case, use a tripod to avoid motion blur (which you have in several of your examples) and vary your aperture based on what you need to get into focus or not. For example, in your second shot the depth-of-field is a bit short.

[JAD40]

I agree with choosing a better background. Maybe have a couple sheets of white paper out of frame to reflect light at the objects for a more even lighting.