Until recently I photographed my pots on a white sheet of paper, using natural light from the big studio window. This had several disadvantages: I had to wait for a bright day with sunshine, but had to do my shoot before the sunlight hit the inside of the studio. Even then the light was changing in strenght and colour all the time. I used my Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, a great little point-and-shoot camera especially for close ups, but limited in that it does not have a white balance, so I could not use a grey card but had to colour-correct every picture. Bothersome, and depending on the weather sometimes just impossible.
For some pots this worked all right, but the results could be rather bland and flat. So I invested in some new equipment:
- a DSRL camera (Nikon D5100 with 18-55 kit lens)
- a simple tripod
- softbox
- a gradient background white/black
- a grey card.
The set up looks like this:
I still use the natural light from the window, it gives the pots a bit more natural presence.
Compare the results, before and after:
The Canon compact I keep using for details, it really likes to come up close:
Please check out my pots on:
www.etsy.com/shop/kleiwerk
