DIY Auction Pics

Greetings to all the image makers out there,

If you only infrequently sell stuff on internet auction sites then this will be beneficial. Many times when I'm photographing simple objects I don't want to go to the hassle of setting up all the lights and product photography boxes etc. I just want something I can do in less than 10 or 15 minutes or so.

The simple solution is to make a sweep out of tagboard in whatever colored background you desire. A sweep is a fancy photography word for a background that doesn't have corners or creases showing. Tagboard is available in a multitude of colors from office and art supply stores. I buy mine at you guessed it the Dollar tree for 50 cents a sheet. (hear that Dollar Tree Execs?) To make a sweep all you have to do is lean the tagboard up against something on a table top and tape the top to hold it in place. Nothing complicated to it at all. Look at the set up picture to see what I mean

I set the object to be photographed towards the middle front of the tagboard. I put my camera with a flash mounted on it on a tripod at a height close to and higher than the object I want to photograph. I wrap the flash head with a napkin to diffuse the light some. I just wrap the napkin on with a rubber band. The next step is to set the white balance on my camera to flash. Following that I set the camera setting to Aperature Priority and I set the cameras f stop to f22.0 for maximum depth of field. I then focus on the front of the object to be photographed and fire away. OOOPS. But not first after shutting off all the kitchen lights to help prevent color casts from them being in the image. It's that simple and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for a product photography kit or take up your whole afternoon.

Good luck and God bess you,

chris