Thursday, November 29, 2012

Taking good pictures...

I've been struggling with my photographic mojo lately, and thought I'd share some dismal failures in the photography department to show you what I mean.

I made a gorgeous headband/fingerless glove set for a client who didn't want the items worn by a model but did want pictures of the items. Given that I was in the throes of an intercontinental move and had no real work space, I pulled out my trusty camera, a suitably colorful last minute surface, and came up with...


This. What, pray tell, are those lumpish purple things? And the background? My bedsheets and other assorted messes. How dreadful.

My first thought was that maybe the shot would be improved by being a little closer on the items. So I tried again and got...

Well...it's certainly closer. At this point it was about 1 am, and I was rapidly giving up on consciousness, so I gave up and sent the client the second image and promised better quality ones when I had a chance to take some daylight photos. 

Surprise, surprise...she bought the items based on these images. 

I guess I'm making this post to reassure myself and fellow perfectionist crafters that sometimes, it's more important to get the content OUT there than it is to make sure it's perfect. In this case, the client had a pretty good idea of what she was getting and really just wanted a photo to confirm the order was done. There's no way I would use this image for an etsy listing or any other promotional effort if they weren't already spoken for...BUT I guess I'm learning that not everything has to be magazine ready to sell.

I still WANT everything to be magazine ready, of course. But it doesn't always have to be. 

Meanwhile, I am reading blogs and watching videos on how to become a better photographer. And sharing my mini-failure up here to solicit commiseration from other crafters, bloggers, and sellers...have you ever had something that you just *couldn't* get right?

Peace, beautiful people!

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading this post. I'm such a sucker for having "perfect" images and the thing is, I still haven't created the "look" I want exactly, but I keep trying. And you're right. Sometimes people aren't really focused on how picture-perfect the image is, they just want to see it. I'll have to keep that in mind.

    BTW, Welcome back to the U.S. of A and I wish you much success.

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  2. Thanks Libby for your comment! I am slowly learning to use perfection for good, and not for nit-picky, productivity-destroying evil.

    Still can't stand the way this pic turned out though. :-)

    Thanks for your kind words as well. America is a lot larger and more expensive than I remembered it, but it's nice to see family and friends here.

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