Learning Craft Photography

Course details

The ever-increasing popularity of handmade crafts has spawned thousands of blogs, forums, events, websites, and digital tools. With so much competition out there, the best way to catch a viewer's attention is with an incredible photograph of your incredible craft. In this one-of-a-kind workshop, professional craft blogger and photographer Megan Andersen, aka Radmegan, takes you step-by-step through the basics of craft photography, starting with how a camera and its settings work. She shares composition techniques to make craft photos more compelling, image-editing tips that don't require expensive software, and some great resources for getting craft images blogged about, printed, and seen by the masses. Along the way, learn a little crafting by making three different kinds of affordable at-home and mobile "photo studios." Whether you are taking photos of handmade crafts to sell, looking for tips on product photography, have a blog and want your images to get noticed, or just want to improve the quality of photos you plan on sharing with friends and family, this workshop can help you produce great images.

Topics include:
Getting familiar with the camera
Basic composition and staging tips
Making and buying helpful tools
Image editing with Photoshop
Compressing images
Using the cloud for image storage
Tagging images for search engine optimization
Uploading images for blogging, selling, and printing

Concepts

Introduction

Welcome

Getting Familiar With the Camera

Understanding aperture value and f-stops
What is shutter speed
Using shutter priority and aperture priority
What is ISO
Achieving the proper exposure
Using depth of field
Using point-and-shoot cameras

Basic Composition and Staging Tips

Using the viewfinder to frame the image
The power of negative space
Creating lines to make compelling compositions
Using and recognizing the rule of thirds
Creating clean and zen images
'How'd they do that' - Taking process shots
The benefits of using models
Shooting your crafts in the great outdoors
Creating a 'habitat' with site-specific shooting
Anthropomorphizing - When, where, why

Equipment List; Making and Buying Helpful Tools

Tools for diffusing and reflecting light
Getting resourceful with lighting options
The joys of tripods and remote controls
Project - Making a tabletop light box
Project - Converting your kitchen into a studio
Project - Converting your car's trunk into a mobile studio

Image Editing with Photoshop

Cropping and rotating images
Refining tone with Curves
Correcting color balance
Giving brightness a boost
Removing clutter with the Clone tool

Compressing and Uploading

Compressing images
Using the cloud for image storage
Tagging images for search engine optimization
Sending high-resolution images

Uploading Images for Blogging,Selling , and Printing

Selling your crafts
Selling your shots
Images for blogging
Images for exposure websites
Images for print
Future scope and happy crafting

Learning Craft Photography

Authors

Megan Andersen