Photography set up
Camera settings
Editing for Website
Other Important Resources
Photography set up:
Yourbackdrop is your first concern. Where will you take pictures of yourproduct, craft or object? Outdoor light seems to be the mostrecommended background. The outdoor lighting helps to create beautifulpictures. For jewelry, this option is not the best. It is harder tophotograph jewelry than other crafts. For jewelry there are many otheroptions for setting up a small photography studio.How to Make My $15.00 Photo Studio Home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com
Lapidary Art: Basic Jewelry Photography
Photographing Jewelry for Print and Web
Camera settings:
Eachcamera comes with their own terms. You will have to read your manual todecide what term they use for each of these settings. There are a fewsettings that you need to make on your camera.
Quality - I use the middle setting. This takes really nice pictures, but does not use up as much disk space.
Picture Resolution - My camera has either High (1760 x 1168 pixels) or Standard (896 x 592 pixels). Use the Standard setting.
Usinga scanner to take pictures - Use the highest setting for you scanner toscan your pictures. Then edit as you would pictures that you have takenwith a camera.
Editing for Website:
Before we begin editing your photos there are a few things that you should know:DoNOT save your photos in JPEG format until you are DONE editing. JPEGfiles do not take any changes very well. If you save it as a JPEG, thenchange the size, the picture quality goes down. Each time you open andchange it, the quality keeps getting worse. Save all of your originalfiles in your photo editing programs format such as .psd for Photoshop.
Saveall of your website pictures in the size that you will use them on yoursite. Do NOT change the size of them once you get them onto yourwebsite. This will cause them to lose their quality. I like my"thumbnail" pictures to be 125 pixels x 125 pixels. The smaller thepicture, the quicker it will load.
When you use the "thumbnail"tool, you are VIEWING the picture smaller, but your file size is stilllarge. This causes your pictures to load just as slow as when you putthe large picture on that page. This is why you save yourpicture the size that you want it to appear on your website. Ifyou want a "thumbnail" sized photo, save it that size.
Irecommend Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (the less expensive versionapproximately $80 at Buy.com) photo editing. There are many moreproducts out there that are less expensive.
Following are the steps to take to edit your pictures for you website.
1.Once you have taken your pictures, download them to your computer. Savethese files in your photo editing programs format. Since I usePhotoshop, I save them as .psd files.
2. Open your photo editing program and open your picture. Crop your picture two sizes.
-Cropone picture for the "thumbnail" sized picture. I crop at 125 pixels x125 pixels for square or 140 pixels x 125 pixel. You will have todecide how large or small you want your pictures. Just remember thatthe larger that they are, the slower they will load. (crop, save thisfile, then click "undo" to crop your next picture)
-Crop onepicture for the larger picture that people will see once they click onthe thumbnail. I use 300 pixels x 300 pixels, or 300 pixels x 275pixels.3. Use your photo editing tool to sharpen, and adjustbrightness. These are all tools that you will have to play with to getthe look that you want. I suggest that you read the tutorial on thephoto editing program that you are using. Once you have the settingthat you like, write them down and use them for most of your pictures.
4.Once you are happy with the appearance of your picture, it is time tosave it for your website. In Photoshop they offer an option to "Savefor Web". Once you have clicked Save for Web, it will take you to atool that allows you to save it at the quality that you want. You cansave most pictures for websites at 60%-80%. You will also have to playwith this to find the right balance between picture quality and loadtime. For example:
-Picture saved at 60%, not real clear, loads in 3 seconds
-Picture saved at 70%, pretty clear, loads in 4 seconds -- Best Bet!
-Picture saved at 80%, very clear, loads in 10 seconds
Ifyour program does not offer, Save for Web, you will have to read thedirections on saving for a website. **Just make sure that you save allof your website pictures in the JPEG format.**
5. Always keep acopy of your original (saved in your photo editing programs format).You may decide to go back and change it.
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