Craft Photography Book Review

Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles

Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles by Steve Meltzer is a fantastic resource on craft photography.

I have researched plenty of sources, trying to find good information on craft photography for my own business, and this book, by far, is the most thorough, honest and helpful resource I've come across on the subject.

When I say that the book is honest, when I mean is that it clearly lays out exactly what you will need to own in terms of photography equipment and what you will need to learn in order to take great photos of your crafts. Some resources I have read on this subject seem to imply that you can get great photos without really investing in the necessary equipment or taking the time to learn how to use that equipment to its full effect.

It can be tempting to over-simplify things when explaining certain concepts (like how to photograph crafts) in order to avoid overwhelming people with new information. However, this is not a subject that can be explained effectively in a couple of short articles.

When I finished reading Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles my first thought was, now I know what I don't know. Meaning, now I understand what information (and equipment) I was lacking in order to get really great photographs of my products, and now I see where other sources I'd read on the topic really over-simplified things.

This book will truly show you how to get the kind of photographs that are absolutely necessary in order to effectively sell your crafts online.

What You'll Find in this Book:

• An overview of digital photography (the book's focus is digital photography)
• How to choose the right camera for your needs
• Understanding lighting, including the impact of the direction, quality and quantity of light you work with
• Choosing backgrounds to best highlight your work and how to get special background effects such as the graduated backgrounds commonly used to photograph art and crafts
• Tips on photographing two dimensional objects such as paintings, fabrics and photographs
• Tips on photographing three dimensional objects such as various types of glass, sculpture, wood, jewelry, dolls and toys
• Tips on using models for wearable items
• How to enhance your digital images

Assuming you're not a photography expert, when you finish reading Photographing Arts, Crafts & Collectibles you will realize exactly what it takes to take the kinds of photos that are required to sell your crafts online or submit competitive applications to juried art and craft shows. With that information, you'll probably come to one of two conclusions:

You'll either realize that you don't currently have the skill and/or equipment required for great craft photography, and you're not interested in investing the time required to learn this new skill. You'll recognize all of the knowledge that professional photographers bring to a photo shoot and realize the value in having your products photographed professionally. If coming to that realization means that you'll invest in great professional photos which help you get into the best juried art shows and better promote your products online, then reading the book will have been time well spent.

On the other hand, after reading this book, you may become very excited about photography and be quite happy to learn what you need to know to photograph your crafts. If you've struggled in the past to take great photos of your crafts, when you read this book, you'll realize the mistakes you have made, and you'll see that with the right equipment and skill, you can really improve the quality of your own craft photography. In that case, you'll find this book an absolutely fantastic resource for learning great craft photography techniques.