We had a discussion on this topic previously, but it seems to be gone now. Perhaps the discussion was "owned" by someone who left the network, and deleted their content. Now we need to start at square one.

Getting good images of your work can be vital, if you need to sell your work, or even if you just want to have a good digital record of your glaze testing. To get access to galleries or art and craft festivals, your photos can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection. In online selling photos can trip the balance between a sale and no sale.

Choice of cameras, backgrounds, lighting, composition, and image processing are important considerations for achieving results that meet your needs. Please bring your questions and observations to this forum topic. There are some excellent photographers among us, who can help you improve your shots. 

If anyone happens to find the original discussion for this topic please let me know its address so I can reset its location.

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Adobe, the makers of Photo Shop have a Creative Cloud Photographers program where you pay $10 per month to always have the latest version of Photo Shop and Lightroom installed on your computer or mobile device. If you do a fair amount of photography, these two programs can make a world of difference in your finished images.

$10 a month for Photoshop is certainly a lot more reasonable than purchasing the program now with it's extremely fragile and annoying copy-protection system.

Because of the problems involved with the later CS versions I still use PhotoShop 7.0 - the last version without restrictions.

While Photoshop is and has been the standard for raster image processing and manipulation for print and artwork. Lightroom was developed solely for photographers as a digital darkroom and photo cataloging system. I like it much more than photoshop for working on camera images.

I think that anything shot in natural sunlight - not necessarily outdoors, but near a sunny window will look better with even a decent new generation camera phone, than the same shot with artificial lighting with any fancy camera. Though I prefer the look of pots in natural surroundings, e.g on a table with intended items around/ in it. I guess if you want that endless white background you need a light box etc. 

My preferred photo editing software is Gimp, much like photoshop but free open source on Mac - not sure if it's on PC. But all I would probably do is 'auto balance' the levels or something. 

I take most photos in our outdoor ceramic studio in the garden.

Besides, believe it or not, Amazon.com now holds an exclusive patent on taking photos against a seamless white background.

http://qz.com/207512/taking-a-photo-against-a-white-background-amaz...

Photography is my other addiction!  I use the Adobe CC program and I am happy to pay the $10/mo because it fits my budget.  I love Photoshop and am constantly learning more to continue to improve my photos.  I was president of my local camera club and we are fortunate to have some super users who have taught the rest of us.  I don't much like Lightroom,  I like the use of Bridge for the cataloging functions.
 
George Lewter said:

Adobe, the makers of Photo Shop have a Creative Cloud Photographers program where you pay $10 per month to always have the latest version of Photo Shop and Lightroom installed on your computer or mobile device. If you do a fair amount of photography, these two programs can make a world of difference in your finished images.

Here is an article with an inexpensive technique that I'm going to give a try.

 http://www.handmadeology.com/studio-quality-product-photography-wit...

Product photography with a $12 set up. There are also some other links in the article.

Interesting article Darthe. I think I will have a go at it also. The photos presented in the article seemed too bright and kind of washed out to me. I think I would maybe use a darker background or maybe use a grey paper under the object, rather than foil.

There is a concise article on John Hesselberth's frog pond pottery site with the essentials of the light box technique, and thoughts about proper image resizing for different uses.

http://www.frogpondpottery.com/articles/digital-images-of-your-work...

Gradient background really works well in light tent.

This is the one I got from amazon.com -- http://www.amazon.com/Varitone-Graduated-Background-09-31x43/dp/B00... It was $48.95 with free Prime member shipping. It is heavy vinyl. I hold it in place with self sticky backed velcro strips.

Hsin-Chuen Lin is one of the very best online pottery educators, and has published an extensive series of pottery technique videos that he shares over his Youtube channel. You can subscribe, and get notifications when he releases a new video.

He just put out a very good video on photographing pottery for online presentation and how to post those photos to an etsy shop. This is a very good primer on both subjects.

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Low cost flat lapping disc can be used on you potters wheel if you, drill bat pin holes in it, and provide a trickle of water to cool it. At amazon.com, 120 grit for aggressive material removal. Click the image to purchase 

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Purchase Glazes Cone 6 by Michael Bailey, The Potters Book of Glaze Recipes by Emmanuel Cooper, or Making Marks by Robin Hopper, all available at amazon.comMastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth & Ron Roy is now out of print.

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The critter siphon gun is a spray alternative that is well liked by some of our members, and is available at amazon.

Amazon is also a competitive source for photo light tents for shooting professional quality pictures of your work. They also have the EZ Cube brand favored by several of our members. You might also want to purchase the book Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles . . .

If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera

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ebay is a great alternative for many tools and the equipment used in the ceramics studio - kilns, wheels, extruders, slab rollers are often listed there both new and used.

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