Shooting outdoors, with a digital camera is a lot different from shooting indoors, yet even indoor shooting may vary depending of the purpose and object being shot. Staging jewelry, mobiles or any artistic small object is easy, but capturing the essence of the art embodies significant difficulties. In this article I give some pointers for those of you that have the ambition to take on such a difficult task.

Shoot At Day Time

Professional shoots are done in closed studios, usually. These studios have no windows and depend only on artificial light. Their lights are strong and they control their environment 100 percent. If you are an armature I recommend using artificial light, yet shooting in the day time with the aid of natural light. It is better to block the light not needed than not to have it at all.

Windows

Although you will be shooting in day time you must first block all direct light from the windows. Black or dark color fabrics are the best way to achieve your goal.

Background

To make the object stand out, one must choose the right fabric for background. My preference has always been in shades of gray, but you might find that some other color works better with the art you are capturing. The light on the background must be minimal for it's sole purpose is to make the object stand out. Once the object is lit, eliminate all hot spots, wrinkles and shadows from the background fabric.

Lighting

After blocking the windows from any natural light, position at least 3 spot and soft lights. These lights must enhance the beauty of various parts of the object. They must also capture the background in different respects of very little light. The background must almost disappear, creating mystery in the captured image thus allowing maximum object affect. The light may change position with different angles but the concept remains the same.

Love the object

A photographer must love the object that is being shot. Loving enables the capture of beauty. Take functional shots of the piece, yet do not shy of capturing artistic footage. The artistic footage may be displayed as cover shot on web sites, magazines or in any form of publicity.

Good Camera

Shooting digital makes things easier, yet there are still some minimal requirements of the camera being used. For capturing small objects, the more megapixels the better. I shoot with a camera that has 12 megapixels, ensuring that when magnifying the image the loss of quality would be minimal. The macro function is necessary for the purpose of keeping small details in focus as does the lens.

One must look at many factors before going on an indoor staging shoot. I would recommend practicing with your digital camera before you try this kind of shoot. Although difficult. Nevertheless skilled photographers will have lots of fun and challenge.