How spending just $5 can make Photos of your Handmade Arts and Crafts items look Professional

Quite a while ago, I built a home made light box to use with the help of my dad and husband.  Thus far, it has served me well and allowed for some great amateur photos of my handmade products.  Recently, I wanted to create more professional looking, polished photos of my hand felted fashion accessories for submission to an upcoming publication.  After doing a little research online, I came across a super cheap way to achieve that lovely black to white gradient background that is often seen in the photographs of art pieces and fine crafts.  If you buy a professionally produced graduated photography background it can cost upwards of $50 or more depending on the size, but I've found a way to achieve the same effect for just $5.

As a small arts and crafts home business owner, my budget is tight (actually slim to none most days!) so I always seek out inexpensive alternatives when possible.  While researching this topic online, I came across a forum discussion that suggested creating a printable file in a program like Photoshop with a simple black to white gradient and having it printed at a local print shop.  In the discussion, this link is provided to an already prepared file, size 24 x 36 inches.  I saved that file to my flash drive (right click and "save image as"), took it to my local Kinkos, and had it printed in black and white on their large format printer for less than five bucks!  And, it works!  I've been using it in my home made light and as a background for my dress form with wonderful results.  Granted, it probably will not last a long time because the paper is a standard printer weight, but it is easy to cheaply replace when it rips or creases.

I just thought that I'd pass along the information to those who might want to give it a try.  You do need a decent light box setup or good light source to work with.  In the images on this post, you can see a couple of examples of my new "professional" photography style.  If you'd like to see more of the photos that I've taken with my new (cheap) background, check out my flickr photo stream for a variety of my handmade felted wares.

If you love Flickr, check out these handy dandy sites and tools to do more with your photos!

Well, I just love Flickr! I have been using their photo storage service for over a year now to back up my felting photos as well as some of my personal family photos. I have found it to be a great place to network with a large community of people who have all kinds of interests. There is a group there for just about everything, and if you don't find what you want in a group, then you can make your own. Below are a list of a few direct sites and article posts that offer services and tools to go along with your Flickr account. I have found these to be very helpful in using my Flickr photos to the fullest. I hope that you find them to be useful too.

Big Huge Labs has lots of cool tools! I used their mosaic tool to create the image above.
Slide allows you to make neat slide shows and more with your Flickr photos and other apps too.
Quick Online Tips has an article with a huge list of sites related to Flickr toys, tools, and more.
PedagoNet also has a big list of sites for Flickr tools.
FlickrTools is another list of sites for more toys and tools.