doublexgeeks

There’s only so much chainmaille you can wear yourself, and it’s a bit of an expensive hobby as well. The best cure for both these problems is to start selling it! So, I’ve opened a store at Esty called Chained to the Strange! I think it’s a great title, especially considered the oddities I like to create (I have a plan for a chainmaille mouse cover in the future).

However, I quickly ran into a problem with putting my stuff up… the pictures looked horrible! Especially compared to some of the great ones others had up, and at the high resolution the recommended. I knew my main problem was lighting, so off to Google I went to help find a solution.

I eventually started reading about jewellery photography specifically, and everyone said the same thing - I needed a light box. This seemed like an expensive solution, until I came across instructions on how to build one.

Basically, you take a good sized cardboard box, cut out three sides (top and sides), cover the wholes with white tissue paper, and insert a piece of white Bristol board. Alas I did not take pictures of this process, but the wiki I linked above does a great job explaining it.

Here is an image of the 1d20 pendant I took with a normal flash:

It definitely could be worse, but it’s not up to snuff.

Here is the completed light box. I’m using two desk lamps for light (plus the sun!), but I really need something brighter. For those who don’t know Canada has almost completely switched over to those florescent bulbs, so these are 13w, which is about the same as a 60w. I think I need a set of emergency light things!

The string is great for showing off how things hang.

And here’s a new picture:

It isn’t the best example honestly; I’m having stability issues now which are making my pictures a little blurry. I think it uses the flash to help stabilize the image.

Here are some of my favourites so far!: