Crafts by Chris

Musing on polymer clay, beads, jewelry and other stuff.

today I’m working on…

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!
I enjoyed some much needed down time, but now it’s back to work. Today I’m working on editing some photo retakes for my pottery beads tutorial. The tutorial should be finished in the next day or two. Still need to complete the written instructions [...]

free or cheap photo editing software

Do any of you know of a decent free or cheap photo editing software?

Summer is in full swing here, which means that we spend quite a bit of time at my parents pool. I usually swim a while and then sit and visit with whatever family members happen to be there at the time. While [...]

how to create an ad from a product photo

While we are on the subject of photos, I wanted to show how to create an ad from a product photo. This is something that comes up quite a bit. Most people understand the basics of cropping and editing their photos, but not how to resize them.
Let’s say you want to create a 125 [...]

bead photography – part 3

So, now you should have well lit, crisp clear photos that shouldn’t require much editing. I’m assuming everyone knows how to crop their image to get rid of any excess background.
Here’s my basic cropped image with nothing else done to it.

My photo is still a little dark. I really need to upgrade [...]

bead photography – part 2

Three of the most important things for nice clear photos are lighting, which we talked about it part 1, using the macro setting on your camera, and a tripod.
Using the macro setting is a must for close-up photos. Most cameras have a macro setting, just look for the little tulip symbol.

I highly recommend using [...]

bead photography part 1b

I wanted to address a couple of questions that came up regarding the light box. I also should say that this set up will work for jewelry or any small item, not just beads.
Jael asked, “What’s the red thing at the top, Chris?”
The red thing at the top is a heavy duty clip that [...]

bead photography part 1

I often get asked questions about my photo set up…..Do you use a light box? What do you use for a background? How do you get your beads to look like they are floating in mid-air?
I don’t claim to be an expert by any means. Some days I am much happier with my photos [...]