what's all the fuss anyway?

[DavidRunyan]

Artisans are always encouraged to buy a DSLR, a light box, a tripod, a macro lens, photography classes, etc.  The message here is that you must spend $3,000.00 in order to sell your $25.00 items.  So, in addition to being an artisan, a bookkeeper, a purchasing agent, and a shipping/receiving clerk, you must also become a professional photographer.

Well, as best as I can tell, that's all a waste of time and money; unless of course you have a desire to become a professional photographer.  But you can do just as well with your little compact pocket camera if you care to.

A neighbor lady of mine is a jewelry artisan and asked me to do some closeup photos for her.  My equipment consisted of an old Canon A1000 compact point & shoot camera, a $20 macro lens attachment and nothing else.  No tripod, I simply set the camera to ISO 400 and snapped hand held shots.  No light box.  I simply used a table near a window facing away from the sun, and here's how the shots came out.  The entire photo shoot took me about 10 minutes, and i shot about 25 pieces from different angles.  all told, perhaps 100 photos in 10 minutes.

you be the judge.  good enough for online selling?  not too shabby for a $100 pocket camera?

[Mouse and Bear]

These are great photos!  I'm struggling to learn how to use my point-and-click better as it will be a long time before I can afford professional equipment.  Still, my photos are pretty bad (although much better than they used to be.)  Do you have any tips?

[Ahkriti]

Try using a white background and see how it looks.  Maybe a large white paper. And if you still don't have one, you can try using a white cloth and iron it before you place your product on it and then take a picture. Since you are using a point and shoot, maybe try using the mode for close up. the flower I mean. And if you can make a light box, probably your pictures will look better. Here is a link...
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent


Hope this will help!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I have a point and shoot too and one thing that helps me is to set the type of light I am photographing in.  I can tell the camera that I am using daylight, cloudy daylight, flourescent light, tungsten bulb, halogen light, etc.