Help!

[Digital_beginner]

Hi all,

My knowledge of photography could be written on the back of a postage stamp, so please excuse me.

I have developed a website which now requires various photos of fabric uploaded to it. Could someone please give me some pointers to get the best results and let me know what I may need to purchase.

Many thanks,
Dave

[BearSummer]

Hi Digital_Beginner,

well I guess it depends on who the website is for as to what we suggest. If it is just a "look at my pretty fabric" then a fairly amateur setup would probably do. However if its for a customer and they are expecting a quality product then thats' going to be more money (especially as you should get someone who knows what to do to get the best results to shoot the pictures).

If you are showing the fabric in general and are not required to show close up images then you will need a camera with the ability to use off camera flash. Off camera flash allows you to move the flash away from the camera so that if the material is sparkly you wont get lots of flash reflected back into the lens (would look like the sun reflected on a choppy lake, lots of sparkly highlights)

If you want to show more close up detail then you will need a macro lens so that you can get very close to the fabric. If you are going the macro route then you may also need a ringflash or some good off camera flash.

Hope that helps

BearSummer

[Digital_beginner]

Hi again,

Ok, thanks for that.

Which website and products would you recommend that I take a look at in order to get a rough idea of prices for the items that you suggest?

Yes, the fabrics are for customers to choose their fabric for made to measure curtains.

Its a site that I'm producing for my wife and obviously at this stage we're not sure how successful it will be when we launch it. With that in mind we would like to limit our investment at this stage.

Thanks again,
Dave