General Tips & Tricks

Lisa Pavelka’s Favorite Digital Photography Tips

While I don't profess to be a photography expert, I do have the benefit of having some photographic background in my previous career in television production. Having a degree in journalism also required some basic photography classes, although much has changed with the advent of digital photography. The essential principles have remained the same.

Keep backgrounds as simple as possible. Avoid using props unless they make sense with the piece and are absolutely necessary.

For vertically standing items, use large sheets of (variously colored) butcher paper or solid color fabric to create a seamless background. Tape or drape this background over a box or frame constructed from PVC piping and fitting joints. Alternately, you might invest in a graduated background which can be used with the the color sweeping from light to dark or dark to light. Prop these against a box to create a photo sweep. These backgrounds can also be used flat for work that is best displayed flat such as jewelry.

Make sure your background provides a sharp contrast to your piece. Do not try to color coordinate the background (i.e. placing objects with browns on a beige or tan background.
White is best when the need to cut out an object graphically is required. Black is the most dramatic, but it doesn't work with all objects.

When a piece is properly lit, reflective surfaces such as glass or plexiglass can give a subtle halo around the piece being photographed. This highlighting aura can be quite pleasing when showcasing your work.

If auxiliary lighting is not within your budget, the best way to shoot your work is outdoors on an overcast day. Bright sun will cast extreme shadows in most cases except for under the noonday sun in summer.

Lights can be inexpensive incandescent bulbs and clip-on lamps found at pet stores. These can be attached to tripods or homemade stands. Three lights are ideal for most photography: the Key Light (for direct overhead lighting), and two Fill Lights to diminish shadows created by the Key Light. An optional fourth light is a Back Light to define the edges of a piece.

Make sure to learn how to adjust the "White Balance" of your camera. In different lighting situations the color of your work will be dramatically affected by this setting.

Thanks to websites like Ebay, many companies offer affordable lighting packages with three lamps, and a photography tent that allow the light to be diffused, reducing shadows. The backs of these tents often have Velcro tabs that allow for the attachment of various fabric sweep backgrounds. Search the Internet for "tabletop photo studios."

"Bracket" your shots by taking 4-5 exposures of your work before uploading to your computer for editing. The color, tone and exposure in your camera's viewfinder may differ significantly from you computer monitor. This way you'll have several choices for exposure to choose from when selecting the best shot.

Most close-range photography will require shooting in the Macro setting in order for auto focus to work properly.

Invest some time in learning about your camera's adjustments, especially for photo size. Very large file sizes (3 mega pixels and above are best when a photo needs to be printed for publication or on photo paper.) It's not necessary to shoot photos much higher than this unless the print out will be poster size or larger. For uploading photos to the Internet, use smaller settings between 1.5 and 2 mega pixels. Larger files take longer to upload or e-mail. Some e-mail recipients have mail servers that strictly limit the size of e-mail files. I shoot almost everything with a variety of bracketed file sizes. You never know when you'll want a smaller file size for e-mail or uploading to the Internet and conversely, when you'll want a larger file size to submit for publication or printing.

Aquatint yourself with at least one basic photo editing program that is compatible with your computer such as IPhoto or Photoshop Elements, in order to correct color, exposure, contrast and touch up imperfections in the photo.

There is a huge amount of resources that expand on these tips considerably. Use your favorite search engine to explore the wealth of knowledge on art/object photography and the proper use of digital camera. I hope those of you reading this found this helpful.