Capturing the Light

As I mentioned last month, in my post about a new pin I had made, I created a new photography set-up. I am finally getting around to telling you guys about it today.

I am a member of the handemadeology team on etsy, which is a business and promotion oriented team open to all. There is a great blog set up by the founders of the team that you can visit at http://handmadeology.com that  is a wonderful resource for and support for etsy sellers. They have advertising tips and photography tips, and they also promote sellers, which is always appreciated!

I decided to build a cheap little light box based on the instructions provided by handmadeology here.  I didn't want to buy foam board as the tutorial recommends because, as we all know by now, I am CHEAP. Rather,  I currently have several large rolls of lovely artist paper that I bought on sale from a local art supply store, and I figured I could use that instead to line the cardboard box. So, I cut off two sides of a small cardboard box, and measured the bottom and sides of the box against the large roll of lightly-textured white paper.

Ta-dahhhh!  This is my wee little lightbox. I didn't do it perfectly, 
obviously, since there is a little area the paper 

doesn't cover in the corner. I need to do something about that.

I also covered one of the sides I cut off with aluminum foil
to make a little light-reflecting tool.

I know this is a weird picture of an odd little bag 

of home-made animal crackers, but I think it shows 
that the light-box distributes light 

really evenly around this small object.

This shows the way in which the little light-reflecting sheet 
helps to lighten up the front of the crackers.

This shows the crackers inside, away from direct light, 
and without the light-reflecting tool. It's subtle, but it seems to me

 that the shadows are more uneven and darker.

An example of an unedited picture of my stripy collage pin taken in my little light box.

An unedited picture of a new brooch (not yet on etsy!) and prop in direct light.

My newest pin!  I love the way the bright colors look against the white.
This is edited to pump up the colors a bit and to bring up the exposure.

The evening light was soft and muted and is coming in from the left.

I have the pin on a book in front of the lightbox in order 

to provide some more texture and shadows, but I like the way that the book 

and lightbox give it a simple, monotone background. 

Handmadeology has other great tips on improving photography, too:

• This article is about adding shine and brightness
• Another way to bring shine and a simple background
• A different kind of lightbox with artificial light