Lighting is paramount to good pictures. Use natural sunlight whenever possible. Take your items outdoors to an area that’s well lit, but where you can set up with no shadows. Cloudy days are great for photo shoots!

Use a contrasting background underneath the piece. Use props to raise or arrange the pieces so they are not just flat on a surface, like a mannequin hand or just a cup with a scarf draped over it.

Crop your photos so that extraneous backgrounds are removed.

Set the focus on your camera to a macro setting (not all cameras have this, but check your manual out for settings).

Don’t get too close - that’s the biggest mistake I make when trying to take photos of something small, I get too close and that makes the photo blurry. It’s best to be 3-4 feet away, zoom in with your zoom and then use photo editing software to crop the photo to the right size.

I’ve seen some great pictures taken with average digital cameras.

There are some great photography tutorials at webshots.com and at Sony backstage websites.

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