Lighting your work for sale online

I have a terrible time taking pictures where the color looks right, and the background doesn’t distract from the item I want to sell. Things that shine, like glass and metal, are extra difficult to photograph. So I went to the local expert at the Clemson Arts Center, Del Kimbler, and he was generous enough to take a look at my photos and tell me how to fix them.

1. Don’t have a distracting background. For this quilt, I put it up against the side of the house. Although our house is white, you can definitely see the siding which creates additional lines distracting from my piece.

You can also see that my piece didn’t hang flat because of the breeze outside that day. Outdoor pictures are a last resort. A better idea is to get an inexpensive easel and put a piece of white non-shiny cardboard on it. That would have given me a stable non-distracting background to shoot on.

2. Use only one kind of lighting. While it matters what type of lights you use (halogen, incandescent, ott lights, outdoors, florescents, etc) use only one kind at a time. This picture was shot using a mix of ott lights and incandescents. Each one has a different spectrum which makes it hard to get true colors. This piece is actually lavender, not brownish.

In fact, Del suggested not using ott type lights at all. It has some spikes in the color spectrum that make it difficult to get true colors. He said that for the best image, halogen lights are the way to go.

3. Use a light tent! A light tent diffuses the light shining on what you are trying to photograph, so you have fewer “hot spots” (really bright points of light) in your picture. Fewer hot spots means less editing. Here is a 32″ light tent I bought from Harbor Freight. It folds down for easy storage in case you don’t have a permanant place to take pictures. At $28.99, it is cheaper than trying to build your own, which is what I did the first time.

4. Last, but not least, be sure to show off your work! Take it places, show it to perfect strangers and hand out your card, especially if they complement you on it first! Put it up for sale on your favorite auction site. I’ve been using Etsy and Artfire. I’m terrible about listing every day (which is what you are supposed to do to keep people coming back to your store) but I tend to go on listing frenzies. That is what I did yesterday afternoon with these 2 pieces, and a whole bunch more besides.

So good luck, and I hope this helps! Oh, and if you are thinking of using Artfire, I am still looking to sign up 5 more people. If I can do that, I get a free account for life! Then you can sign up 10 people, and get free listings for yourself too. So pleasepleasepleaseplease use my link to sign up.

February 6, 2009 · johoff · No Comments
Posted in: Tutorial