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Maven's Mission

Hello, and welcome to my site.  The purpose of this blog is to create a connection between beaders around the world.   Here and now I extend the invitation to all of you, beadwork artists and appreciators of their work, to join me in my journal, post comments and link to me from their sites.  We already have a common thread.  Let's extend this network so we can share knowledge, inspiration, and The Beader's Muse.

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Photo Tips for USE THE MUSE II Submissions

If you have already taken photos of your submission, you don't have to worry about changing them.  Go ahead and submit what you've got through your submission form.  These are just some tips that I have learned through taking my own photos and judging submissions. There are tons of online resources available where you can read up on taking jewelry photos.  Through experience, I know that you will create the best results, through practice, perseverance, and knowing your camera.  Make friends with your manual, review these tips and guidelines, then jump in!

Prepping your submission.  

One of the points we are judging on is the quality of craftsmanship and we only have your photos to determine this.  When we choose the winners, if it comes down neck and neck between submissions, we start looking at little details.  If there is a thread sticking out of the beads or piece of wire exposed it might catch our attention. When I am photographing my work, I sometimes take a few test shots and then blow them up on my computer screen to see if there are any threads sticking out or beads in the wrong direction that I didn't see when I was handling the actual piece.  Use a soft cloth to clean fingerprints and smudges of your beads, crystals, and Muse. You worked so hard on your design, you want it to look it's absolute best.

Setting up your photo.  

You want your submission to be the focal point of your photo.  Do not use distracting backgrounds or props.  If the props you are using are the first thing that you see than they are drawing the eye away from what it is supposed to be seeing.  With props less is always more. Avoid patterns and very textural backdrops.  Avoid photographing your submission on a subject or wearing it yourself.  If you want to illustrate how the piece "drapes" the best way to do this is place it on a jewelry bust form.  These usually come in leather and velvet. You could cover one with a plain fabric of your choice if you don't like how your piece stands out on the original background.  When you use the flash on your camera any little pieces of lint or fuzz on the surface of your fabric will be highlighted when you photograph them, so be sure to pick off all those little pieces and use a lint roller or piece of tape to grab any that you might not see with the naked eye.  One of my favorite creative props from the last contest was when someone covered a rolling pin with fabric to display a bracelet.  Even if you don't own any professional busts, there are little items all over your house that you can cover with fabric or paper to create a great display.  Sometimes the best thing you can use is just a flat white sheet of card stock and really bright lighting.  I also like the look of a piece against a very light colored plain flagstone.

Photo size should not exceed 2MB.  

If you have a digital camera that shoots with a high number of mega pixels (usually 6MP and higher) such as a Digital SLR, your camera might create very large size files.  You may make the files smaller by changing the settings on your camera before you take the shot, or by editing the shots to a smaller size with your photo editing program after the fact (which is what I usually do myself).  You may also compress the file or zip the file. If you don't already have a photo editing program that you like, my favorite simple one to use is Picasa and it is a free tool available to download from Google.

Experiment with different light sources.

I think that some the best and easiest photos come from natural sunlight. The sun casts pretty rainbows when it dances off the surfaces of Swarovski crystals and other beads.  The secret is to not get too much sun directly in the lens because then your image will look washed out and the vivid colors will loose there saturation. Experiment shooting at different times of the day and different levels of cloud cover.  If you are shooting indoors, you almost always want to use the flash on your camera.  There are professional set-ups that you can create using a light box and special lights.  Here is a really inexpensive version that you can make yourself easily: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html.  If you cannot get the lighting just how you like it, this is something that you can tweak after the fact with a photo editing program.  

Use the Macro Feature on your Camera.

There is usually a small icon of a flower or a tulip that indicates the close-up feature on your camera.  Changing the settings for a macro shot will result in a better close-up image.

Use a Tripod.

With all the little details in beadwork, it's really important that your image is in focus.  One of the best things you can do to combat blurriness is to to use a tripod.  I usually find it a little difficult to maneuver a tripod into all the positions and angles I want to photograph my jewelry from, so I just set it down on stacks of books or shoeboxes at different levels when I am taking shots.  I also like to use a Gorillapod, because it can hold on to anything and therefore take shots from angles. The key is to keep your camera as steady as possible. When you get your submission set up how you want and find the angle you like, be sure to take a lot of shots from that angle, incase the first few end up a little blurry.  You want to have options! 

Editing your photos with a photo editing program

If you are not very familiar with using photo editing software please do not make a lot of changes on your submission photo.  It is really important that the colors stay as true to they are in real life.  The more you edit your original submission the harder it will be for me to edit it properly before I upload it into the gallery.  If you want to show a detail of your piece, try to get as close up to it as you can with your camera, and do not crop too much of the photo yourself.  I will try to crop the photo down to the detail which seems most important compositionally, and if you have already cropped a lot of the photo yourself, I cannot crop it much further without compromising the quality of the image.

Naming Your Submission 

If you know how to change the name of your photo file, please name the first image of your submission (the one with the whole piece in the picture) your name (example: Scarlett Lanson.jpg) and the detailed image, your name plus detail (example: Scarlett Lanson Detail.jpg). If you do not know how to rename your file, don't sweat it, I will rename it for you.  It just helps sort out the submissions faster when they are already titled.