Arts and Craft Shows

When applying to juried arts and craft shows, it is absolutely essential to have great photos of your crafts.

It may be tempting to save money by taking your own photos, and you may get into some of the smaller, less competitive juried arts and craft shows with your own photos, but unless you have some expertise in craft photography and the right equipment, your craft photographs will be, at best, marginally good, and you won't get into the better juried art shows with craft photos that are only marginally good.

It may seem unfair that great products can be excluded from shows due to mediocre photography; however, in the most competitive juried art shows, and in more competitive categories, that can be enough to exclude you from the competition. Remember, your images of your work are the only things the jury has to assess your work, so they must really show your work in the best possible light. Professional photographers know how to set up lighting, backgrounds and composition to create photographs that do that for you.

When you have limited knowledge of photography, taking your own craft photos is perfectly acceptable if you want to catalog your work for your own reference or show an item on a forum to get feedback on your work, but when your photos will be used to promote your work, they must be absolutely top notch.

You many hesitate to pay the money to have your crafts photographed professionally for craft show applications, but in the end, there is no savings, and potentially a lot of income lost, if your fail to get into the best arts and craft shows as a result of poor photographs. Money spent on great photos for your craft show applications is an investment that will help you gain acceptance (along with fantasic products, of course) into the most competitive juried art shows with the greatest earning potential.

When you choose a photographer, ask whether he or she has experience photographing items for craft show applications. Keep in mind that photographing objects requires a different set of skills and considerations than photographing people, so the photographer who did a great job with your wedding pictures may not be the person who is most suited to take photos for your application to juried arts and craft shows. Also, be clear about the ways you will use the photos; your photographer may make different choices depending upon the way your photos will be used.

If you'd like to get a better understanding of the skills and equipment required for great craft photography, I'd reccommend Steve Meltzer's Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles: Take Great Digital Photos for Portfolios, Documentation, or Selling on the Web. You can read my review of Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles here.