Advanced Craft Photography

Covers advanced techniques for staging, lighting, and photographing your handmade crafts, as well as for sharing the images you create.

Introduction

• Welcome

1. Beyond the Basic Camera Settings

• Foundations of composition and staging
• Foundations of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed
• Camera Raw: What? when? why?
• How bracketing can save your exposure
• Understanding key tones
• What is dynamic range?
• Reading and understanding histograms
• Creating striking images with contrast
• Shooting crafts in black and white
• Metering light to get it right
• Minimizing and maximizing shadows
• Getting awesome shots in low-light settings
• Crafting moods with light

2. Advanced Composition and Staging Techniques

• Understanding the golden section: ratio, triangles, and spirals
• Using vanishing points in craft photography
• Establishing the temperature of an image
• Angling for the wow factor
• Handy tools for staging
• Hinting at motion in a static image
• Creating simple animations with still images
• Lenses: Choosing the right one for the job
• Project: Shooting a highly reflective handmade craft
• Project: Shooting an extremely fibrous handmade craft

3. Image Editing in Photoshop and Lightroom

• Removing skin imperfections
• Using layer masks to improve backgrounds
• Adding watermarks and copyright info

4. Next Steps

• Shooting for a client
• Caring for your gear
• Forecasting challenges
• Respecting spaces
• Keeping it simple