After spending hours creating a needle felted masterpiece that you are extremely proud of it is fun to be able to share pictures of it on Social media. Or perhaps you are looking to try and sell your needle felted sculptures. I have some tried and true tips to help you get the best photography results and showcase your hard work in the best way possible. All of these tips can be implemented and are extremely helpful if you are using your smartphone or a fancy DSLR.
- If you want your sculpture to stand out and not get lost in the clutter use a plain background, something that is not too busy and won’t take away from your sculpture. I take pictures of most of my sculptures with a plain wood background and occasionally like to take pictures of them outside in the grass or on the road making sure the background is clutter free. This helps to highlight just your sculpture and not draw your attention away to what is going on in the background.
- Natural light is the best for taking pictures of your sculptures. Take your pictures by a window or outside if possible. Try to have the light to the side or behind you, so that your sculpture is well lit. If you are taking your picture outside it is best to do this on a cloudy day or in the shade as sunshine will leave too many shadows. Turn off your flash and use just natural light. Turn off lamps and overhead lights as well as this gives the picture an unnatural yellow glow.
- Get down on the same level as your sculpture taking the picture straight from the side. This gives them a more realistic feel in the picture. Taking the picture on a flat surface at their level will help show off their perfectly felted and anatomically correct features. Try not to take a picture looking down at your sculpture as this can distort their dimensions.
- Show off their best features and accentuate their personality by having them look at the camera. You can tilt their head and move their bodies to accentuate their best features. The only time I like to take pictures looking down at an animal is if I have them looking up at me and this only works on cute cuddly type sculptures. Wildlife always looks best taken from the side making them look life size.
- In this digital age it is possible to take as many pictures as you like. I encourage you to take a lot of pictures. Move your sculpture to different areas and take the pictures from several different angles. Sometimes you don’t realize what their best feature is until you see it in a picture. Sure you will have a lot of pictures to sort through, but you will know right away which ones make them look the best and you can delete the rest.
I thoroughly enjoy taking pictures of my sculptures, it is almost as if they can be unruly toddlers sometimes and other times they are extremely cooperative and photogenic. I also love to share these pictures on social media and here on my website looking forward to the comments that are sure to come. Take a look at a picture gallery with all the photos taken by me using the advice given above.
Hopefully you have found these tips helpful and will be sharing beautiful pictures of your work all over the interwebs. If you are looking for ways to improve your needle felting so that you can implement your new found photography skills you will want to join the Bear Creek Needle Felting Academy where you can learn from me personally. You will have access to my entire video course library as well as the forum where you can ask me questions and fellowship with other needle felting enthusiasts. You will also find helpful articles just like this to help you on your journey and the best part is new content is continually added giving you a never ending supply of motivation, new techniques and inspiration to help you take your needle felting to the next level.