Photographing Arts, Crafts & Collectibles: Take Great Digital Photos for Portfolios, Documentation, or Selling on the Web (A Lark Photography Book)

This was very useful to me for learning to take photos for my jewelry business. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no real way to pull it off. And I had read many tutorials from Etsy and Artfire on taking pics,but none seemed to get past the basics.I bought this with a light tent, and the combination has made a dramatic difference. But the big deal is knowing how to use my camera better, which this explains in full. And it's not just for jewelry, lots of items are shown with the best ways to make them look dramatic and clear. Different effects are explained (such as a reverse image beneath), etc...I learned in some cases to angle the base of the product up to get more of a long necklace into a regular shot, allowing detail while still showing the entire piece.Consider it an investment, it really is worth it. I wish I could show before and after pics...maybe I will edit this and add them. I only wish there was more info just on jewelry.

I am an amateur photographer and purchased this book to learn how to take pictures of my wife's collection of porcelain figurines and create a home catalogue. The book is OK but I expected much more from it. There is a lot of space used in the book for actual large pictures. This space could be used to add more text to the book. There are only two almost identical schemas of setting up a photo studio. All techniques are explained in a form of text description without any schemas or diagrams that would help to visualize them, like direction of light or its position against objects. The book also covers too much of basics in digital photography including differences in digital memory cards (with their large images!). I would imagine much of this information is already known to photographers who want to learn the art of miniature.The pictures in the book are very well done, but it leaves an impression that the author is more concerned with promoting his artistic work rather than educating readers. Most of the examples seem to be based on the author's personal preferences, like graduated background from black to white, instead of giving large variety of different styles. I would expect more information around selecting colors, especially about visual harmony of their various combinations.The bottom line - the book is not very helpful. It is just good enough to get started, but leaves everything else to the reader's imagination, vision, trial and error. Of course, each photographer should find his or her own style by experimenting, but I guess most of us can do it without reading this book.

This is a good book for anyone thinking on getting into craft photography. There is one thing missing that would have made it a 5 star book for me. There are some great samples in the book like the ones on the cover but I would really like to have seen the shot info next to each photo in the book like: Camera, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Flash power etc. This would give you a starting point for trying to produce a shot like the cover photos. He explains how to experiment to get the effects but having the Meta Data right there along with a graphic of the set up would have been very helpful and time savings. Overall very pleased with the book.

I needed help with photographing my enameled jewelry and chains...A friend brought this book over to my studio. After a short review I realised this book was what I needed to improve my images and immediately ordered the book through Amazon.I found this book easy to understand, even though I had very little experience in photography...I put my camera in my lap, my cameral manual, and then started reading this book from front to back...I used a pensil to write in the book the facts about my camera from my manual.And played with my camera step by step...I figured out how to correct the lighting and how my camera detected the light, microfocus, how to use the timer on my camera...how to set up the jewelry for best image, best background...on and on...I'm making a referal card to keep by my tripod for quick set ups...The book is fun to look at and will stay on my shelves as a resource book for my next camera...Thank you ,Steve Meltzer, for writing this book!

There are very few books out there that give information specific to jewelry. Jewelry photography, especially studio shots, is really hard. You've got lots of reflective surfaces, different colors, small size and special problems with each type of stone. This book covers all that, and each of the explanations is illustrated with before and after examples so you really get it.I'm an amateur photographer, and I'm not one of those people that have a natural knack for it. But I've been able to improve my photos a lot with this book. He makes it easy with the before and after, but the book is also arranged nicely so you can go back to reference something.If you don't have the big bucks to have studio shots done by a professional, this book will save you a lot of grief on learning the finer aspects of shooting jewelry, not to mention saving your sanity.

I've been away from photography for many years, so when I decided to pick up my camera again, it was a whole new world! Steve Meltzer has written a book full of essential details and techniques. I found the writing style a little dry, but the information is extremely well organized and all of it useful. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in object photography.

This is a good book for the beginner looking to start studio photography or the experienced photographer as a reference. It covers many different shooting situations and gives you a basic setup from which to start. The book does not provide a lot of detailed information; however, I don't think that was the author intent. This book covers in sections what other entire books address (such as portraits).

Intéressant mais un peu passée date

As a crafter I wanted to make the most out of my creations by photographing them and although this book looks effective in what you should do to get the best results it was too technical and not one for those who just want snap shots. I thought It would be more to do with positioning and what props to use in the photo to make the products stand out more, but it isn't. Very disappointed!