If you don't own a digital camera and can't afford one, don't worry. You can still take photos with standard or even disposable cameras. It's just a bit more inconvenient. Well, okay, it's a lot more inconvenient since you have to wait for the film to be developed before you can see what you've got and you need to scan the photos. But it is possible.

You can get a decent digital camera at an affordable price, but that's still usually around $100. There's a big difference between the one I got for that price five years ago and the one I bought this past year. I once took over 70 shots of one item with the first camera and never did get one that I could use. A neighbor recently gave me his Olympus when he bought a new one, and I'm blown away by the photos it takes compared to the $100 Sanyo that I recently purchased. If you can't get your hands on a high quality camera, perhaps you could borrow one. Friends and relatives that won't let you borrow their cars might let you borrow their cameras or offer to take the photos for you.

Automatic flash and focus are helpful features, but the most valuable is a macro setting. This enables the camera to shoot close-ups and pick up clear detail.

I don't own one, but many artists recommend a tripod or something to set the camera on to avoid blurs and blunders made by hands that shake, no matter how slightly. Mine shake quite a bit, so I just delete more pictures. If you're lucky, your camera came with one.

Many fairy and fantasy doll artists photograph their dolls with elaborate backgrounds. This is usually a painting or print of a forest or fantasy scene. My "fairy garden" is a piece of styrofoam with a lot of silk flowers stuck in it. Unless the scenery is part of a base, it is not included with the doll. These photos are lovely and while they enhance the fantasy aspect of the piece, they also take the focus off its detail. Some artists make up for this by including close-ups of tiny hands and fingernails, etc.

Most of the literature suggest a solid background or backdrop. It seemed to be the general consensus that jewelry should be photographed against a dark background, the good old black velvet. I read an article by a jewelry artist who tried an experiment at a trade show using both light and dark backgrounds. He was very surprised when his sales were 30% higher when he used a lighter background. He suggested light and medium grays. When I tried this, I found that the jewelry did photograph much better against gray shades.

If you're having trouble finding something suitable around the house, may I suggest the remnant baskets in the fabric department at Wal-mart and fabric stores. I often find generous pieces of beautiful, high quality fabric for around a dollar. They're also perfect for making drawstring bags for my jewelry and fabric costumes for my artist dolls.

Lighting is the most critical part of the process and for most people, the most challenging. My house is situated in such a way that it's difficult even to maintain healthy houseplants and putting makeup on can be tricky. The lighting is very poor in every single room.

I can't even trust the auto flash on my camera to help me. The flash still tends to go off when it shouldn't about fifty percent of the time, bouncing light off the shiny parts of the jewelry or completely washing out my dolls.

I brought this up as a forum discussion on The Fairy Society. The artists suggested using a light tent. By separating the subject from the lighting in the rest of the room, a light tent can help to diffuse harsh light and eliminate reflections and shadows. I did some research and found that they were available from under $50 to several hundred bucks, or you could make one yourself. I found several websites and blogs with varying degrees of cost and difficulty. I had two dolls that needed to be given as gifts and very little time, but I wanted photos before they left. I literally threw together a light tent from an empty copy paper box with the sides cut out, a few sheets of copy paper and some masking tape. It took about ten minutes and probably didn't cost ten cents.

One of the artists had casually mentioned that she used a corner of her desk. It had not occurred to me to use little obscure areas like that. My desk is in front of a curtained north window and it seemed that this could work. I cleared off a spot and had about fifteen minutes to work. I was in awe to find that these were the best pictures I had ever taken with the least amount of struggle. Those photos are the ones of the wizard and blonde fairy featured on this lens. Okay, so maybe they're not the greatest to you gifted photographers - but they're really good for me! Believe me.....

I'll work on tidying up my light tent and I also plan to try an empty milk or water jug! I've placed a link below to a news story about a man who found that this worked very well for photographing old coins and jewelry.

The majority of less than perfect photos can be helped by programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Picasa. I did not find Photoshop to be user-friendly although it claims to be. It is also a very large program that took up way too much memory on my old dinosaur of a computer. Picasa is very popular and although it took me a while to learn how the features work, I'm satisfied with it.

Picasa has an "I'm Feeling Lucky" tweak that will automatically adjust the fill light and contrast. It doesn't always work. I've found it best to make manual adjustments and then click the Lucky button. I only recently figured out what the "Straighten" command is and I wish I had discovered it sooner. This command can bring the item closer to the foreground and this simple adjustment can make a big difference in the clarity of the photo.

Effects are fun to play with and can help to disguise a really bad photo. Photoshop's "sharpen" command is superior to Picasa's. Sepia is one of my favorites and the soft focus effect shown in this section can create a dreamy quality.

I ran across SmartFlix.com How-To DVDs while searching for some do it yourself instructions on repairing my clothes dryer. Just for the thrill of it, I entered "photography" into the site search and found an abundance of videos. Learn Digital Photography with Brian Ratty, The Basics Of Close-Up Photography and How To Take Great Pictures For Success On Ebay are just a few of their available DVD's.

Whether you want to study up on personal finance, train your dog or learn to fly a plane, SmartFlix has a DVD for you!

The site also runs holiday specials. For Father's Day, they offered 10% off rentals. Join today and open up a whole new world!

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Be sure to check out my Freebies page for fun stuff and useful resources for business and personal development:

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