Finally a light box!

It's been for 3 months that i'm looking to make my personal light box and improve my photograph skills. Well, the skills are slowly improving, the light box is finally made.
Today, after a relaxing shower, i decided to continue my relax in front of my pc, then i saw the cardboard box of my chocolate Easter egg...mmmm...
After 15 minutes i had between my creative hands the finished light box! I also found the way to recycle a bakery sheet that i used in my experiment of fusing plastic bags (that went not well).
Here is the how to ^^
Materials:

* the box of my Easter chocolate egg that otherwise my grandma would have thrown away;
* baking paper, that i used to fuse some plastic bags, and would have been a waste to throw away, but i could not use to cook something;
* scrap yarn;
* glue, not recycled, obviously;
* cutter.

You can also find this project on Cut out + keep and on Instructables :)

About photos...step #2

In this step we will edit our photos to reach a quality image. I use Gimp, that's a free program very powerful!

A lot of people think that the photo editing is unfair, but i think that, if used in the right manner, it can make the difference: the photo is the key for success and a photo, to be successfull, mustn't have to appear edited.
If we put a lot of love in our handmade items, i don't see where is the problem in making it stand out with good pictures, edited with love :)

Open the program and the photo. The first thing to do is to crop the image. Think about that the image that you want to be the preview (and then smaller than the full size image) has to be interesting: in this image we will show only a part of the item, the more interesting, eye catching and particular.

Then, open Colors >> Levels. You'll se an istogram that indicate if your photo is over or under exposed. Place the arrows under the istogram near the start and the end of the graph...the result is wonderful! Do thi step only one time, or the photo will be worse than the initial shot, and take all the time you need to place these little arrows and reach the best result.

If you want your item to stand out, try to adjust the saturation, and make a darker border all around the photo: this trick is used by professional photographer to grab the viewer eyes, and it makes the photo more deep, giving strenght to the center ;) be careful to not saturate too much: we want to achieve the true color of the item!!

Try also to duplicate the background layer, add the alpha channel and play with the modality of the level, playing also with the opacity. Take all the time you need...the best solution is to take confidence with the effects before you start to photograph your items, so you'll already know how to modify the photos.

About Photos...step #1

The photo is the MOST important thing of a listing. You can write beautiful stories about the creation of your goods, but a ugly photo will shatter all your words. Wear the buyer clothes: what's the first thing you see of a listing? The photo. Simple. If you want your buyer to fall in love at first sight with your items, you must have beautiful photo. The good news is that you can achieve all with basic instrumentation :) In this tutorial i will consider that you have familiarity with your camera and with Gimp.

In this first step we'll talk about taking the photo.

* Ensure to have enough power, we will take a lot of pictures to have enough choice;

* Place & light: try to take photos with the natural and non direct light, absolutely no flash. Near a window will be the best solution. Place your item on a white backround (or contrasting if the item is white) to take the particulars, and then place it in its natural setting for an overall photo. Be creative and show how the buyer can use your item. I love the white background, it gives a very professional effect to the photo ( it also allows you to check the white balance ) but you can use coloured or textured backgrounds, depending on the color of the object: the only limit is that we want to focus the attention on the product, not on the background ;) use this link to make a light box;

* White balance: the white in your photo has to be white, or all the colors of your precious good will appear different. It is very important when you are using a non natural light. You can find the white balance in your camera menu;

* Over/under exposure: also useful when you are using a non natural light pointed directly on the item (that's always bad...try to use non direct light). The photo will result too bright. The opposite when you have less light than you need. Under expose in the first case, over in the last (you'll need a tripod to have a sharp image);

* Macro: truly important to have sharp images when taking photo near the object.

And now, we are ready to shot! The only advice i can give you is to center the item, because the camere will focus on the center of the image. And then...be creative!

Tips i learned during an Etsy Lab: don't photograph your item on felt or wool, because it's easy to reach a blurry effect, and don't add watermarks, because they don't feature on the front page photos with watermarks!

Soon step #2 about editing :)