I've recently finished reading Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos
by Heidi Adnum. This is a great book for anyone who wants to sell their crafts online or have a craft blog.
The book begins with a section on choosing and using a digital camera. The pros and cons of digital types of cameras are clearly set out so this is very useful for the complete beginner.
If you are taking photos on Auto, this book will help you take steps to switch to manual by taking you through the basics. It will help you to tell your story through composition, choosing backgrounds and using props. It even has a section of tutorials for DIY accessories, including a light tent, (I have made this tent and you can see the results over on Frugally Peachy!)
The rest of the book is divided up into chapters for different types of craft. Even though not all the products on these sections were relevant I still read them as there was more information on compostion and the uses of props and backgrounds. There are FAQs and common problems after each section which I found particularly useful and interesting.
What I liked about this book:
- It's informative but not dry
- It explains photography terms and because of this book I found out about white balance which has made such a difference, it was an eureka moment!
- There are inspirational images throughout
- There is a section on troubleshooting showing examples of common mistakes which is a handy reference.
- There are interviews with professional crafters sharing their experiences and advice.
- I find the glossary explaining the jargon a useful reference.
- The book explains different types of image files and which format to choose.
- It doesn't stop after taking the pic, it takes you through post production and offers business advice when using your images.
The final chapter touched on editing but it only refers to Photoshop Elements 9 which I don't use but there are so many types of software out there that one book could not cover them all. However, a lot of editing programs work in a similar way so there were some pieces of info I could relate to. If you take the advice of the book, with practice you can take a photograph you are proud of at the time of shoot and you shouldn't need to do more than tweak the brightness and maybe crop the image.
Have you read this book? I'd love to know what you think of it or if you have read any other photography books that you recommend please let me know.
Disclaimer: The Amazon link is an affiliate link
Sounds like a great book! I've found there is a certain shade of grey-pink which will not photograph well no matter what I do. I've encountered it twice: once in some Kidsilk Haze, and once in some acrylic (!) I'm using for an afghan. It shows up way lighter than it even is, and often the camera can't auto-focus on it either. If I change the mode to grayscale, it turns out perfectly, though. This post had inspired me to spend some more time fusing with the camera settings to see what helps.
ReplyDeleteHi Katherine, I'm glad this post has inspired you to spend time with your camera settings. I think that practice and playing with your camera settings is the best way to find out what works. Maybe play with different coloured backgrounds as this might help with the grey-pink colours, let me know how you get on.
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