My birthday came early this year

Ever since my beloved old Nikon bit the dirt and I replaced it with my current Canon, I've been horribly missing the macro function the Nikon had, that the Canon needed a separate lens for.  I put it on my Amazon wish list and forgot about it for awhile.  When I went back and looked a couple of years later, it had doubled in price. I put it on the back burner again, and the next time I checked it had gone up another $200.  Bummer.  But last week, when I checked, I found a factory refurbished lens for almost half the current retail price for a new one.  It was still $150 more than it would have been if I'd just bought the silly thing when I first got the camera, of course, but that's water under the bridge now.  I shouldn't really have bought it, not when we just paid the taxman and car insurance last month, but if I'd let it go I would totally be kicking myself for months.

So here it is:



Previously I've been taking large pictures as close as the stock lens would allow, and then cropping images down in Photoshop.  No more!

Here's a couple of comparison shots between my stock lens and my new baby:









I'm going to have to play around with the depth of focus for a bit, obviously, but that won't be a hardship.

Off to go play now....



.

Stock photography tips

Realizing that I have been a bad blogger. Bad kitty! I thought I'd do a little bit on tips for photographing your stock for listings. You get five shots on Etsy, and 10 on Artfire if you're a pro seller. Mix it up!

For quite some time I was using just a plain piece of ivory satin as my photo backdrop:



I switched after a bit, to a piece of white on white embroidered fabric:



But the white washed out a lot of my pieces. I started mixing things up by using a slate tile, for texture and depth:





Then I started mixing in different pieces of scrapbook paper, for color contrast:





I made an earring stand from some base metal wire and a stolen smidge of my daughter's Play-Doh:



And I got a necklace form to try to showcase a little better how the pieces would look when worn:





Because being able to coordinate with my husband to have him take pictures with me modeling pieces doesn't happen all that often:



But my favorite images have come about when I added something else into the picture:





Now that's not to say that a plain background can't still make for a stunning shot:



But mix it up! Have different backgrounds, move the piece around in different positions, take shots from different angles, or on necklace forms or draped over different props:







Don't be afraid to retake pictures, especially of older stock. Your eye's changed since you took the first set, I assure you. I go through phases where I pick one category and rework all the pictures for those pieces, and it usually does result in a spate of sales. It's a lot of effort, but it does pay off.



~