Now, let's actually talk about taking the photo. This section might seem a little unnecessary and I'm sure you're more than capable of pressing the button on your camera or on your phone. I definitely don't doubt you about that. I do just want to quickly touch on the very simple method of making your photos extra, extra, sharp and crispy. The one piece of advice that I have for you in this section is really important and it's quite simple. It's about the stability of your phone or your camera, whatever you are using. Make sure it is steady. Now, it doesn't matter if you want to use a tripod, something like this.
You can get these little gorilla pods, I'm sure you've seen these before. They're really awesome. You can just plonk them down, put your camera on top, really nice. You can put it wherever you want. Maybe you would just like to rest your phone on the counter, stacked up on some books. Whatever you want to do, it works. Just make sure that the phone or the camera, whatever you're using, is very, very steady. By placing your camera on something sturdy, it's going to eliminate any shake that you might have in your image.
Maybe you've had a little bit too much coffee in the morning and your hands are getting a little shaky and you can't hold your camera still. Maybe it's just an uneven surface or you're not comfortable. It's not going to look good and it can really impact your image. By having the tiniest little bit of movement, it can make your lines not crispy and sharp, it can look a little blurry and I'm sure you've seen this before. A good example of this is if you're trying to take a photo at nighttime and you've noticed that your friend almost looks a little bit like a ghost, they're kind of waving around a bit.
And that's because your camera doesn't have enough light or it's not sitting steady. So just placing it down on something, resting on a book, is going to make a big difference. Simple rule: stabilize your tool. Easy. Now that we've spoken about the three tips, lighting, product appearance, and angles and details, I want you to try and practice implementing and combining what you've just learned so far.
Let's start taking a photo with the same object that you used for your window lighting lesson. For me, I'm going to use this torch like I used before. Obviously, I have no idea what you have. So let's just pretend for this example that we're using the same item. While my item might be completely different from what you're using, it doesn't really matter. The methods and the practices that we're gonna use are still exactly the same. Let's start by using a nice bright window light.
And if you don't have access to a window right now or it's nighttime, no stress. Either pause it or instead, you can take what you learned from the lesson on direct and film lights and apply that to this process. If you're finding the light is too harsh or casting some harsh shadows, why don't you add a little layer of diffusion to it? Maybe that will soften up how much shadow you're having. Maybe that's a bedsheet for you. Maybe it's baking paper. Maybe it's moving the light source farther away.
Just try and see what works best for you. So now the product is well-lit and you've got that sorted, let's take a look at the cleanliness of it. Take off any dust that you might have, any dirt that's on there, any fingerprints that you have as well. Keep an eye on all of those little things. Now, the last thing to do, as I said, is to check this. Check your lens, check your camera, make sure you give that a nice wipe down too. Make sure it's really, really clean because those things can be covered in dust as well.
While this is just a test, it's good to practice. You don't wanna be caught out when it comes to actually taking your photos. All right, so now you've got your product set up, you've got it well-lit, it's nice and clean, you've made sure your phone or your camera is looking good, there's no dust on that one too, the last thing you got to do is stabilize your shot. For this example, I'm going to actually turn my torch sideways and I'm going to take a photo of the front face of the torch. For this, that means I can have my phone pretty low and close.
So I'm just going to be able to rest it directly on the tabletop like this. Your example might be a little bit different. You might have a different setup and that's fine too. Once you have your device ready in the right spot, make sure that horizon or that flat line of your table is nice and flat too. Nothing worse than taking your photo and realizing you should have just turned it back a little bit. Try this a few times. Try moving your product around, playing with the angles, and see what's going to work best, and then move your product, take a different photo, different angle.
Try and show off some of those features that I just spoke about earlier.
