The Barefoot Woodworker: The Real Last Step in Woodworking

So you've toiled away on this project for weeks. You've gone through design, buying the materials, building and finishing it. But you aren't really done yet.

If a project is built and no one has seen it, does it really exist?

You want to share your work of course. So you snap a quick picture of it like these.

And it's just doesn't look like you see it.

Here's the truth of it. The camera can do a lot. . but it's just not as good as the human eye. It needs some work for that lens to pick up exactly what you see. So help it out. Give it some more light to start with. Both of the pictures above were taken with a flash and you'll notice all it did was give a spotlight effect centered on the piece. With more light on the whole thing, the flash won't be needed and lighting will be even.Each of this pictures also had a second problem. The one on the left was too close. You can't really make out the whole piece because the edges are lost. Try to include the whole piece. Now sometimes, like in the case of that piece, there isn't anywhere to back up enough to get it, but do you best.

The picture on the right should be cropped on the sides - something that will have to happen afterward as the whole piece is so tall. But I'd also recommend that it be taken on an angle. Because it was taken head on like this, it's hard to tell the real size and shape of the piece. We only see a flat front. While an angle is much more appealing and will show the sides/ depth of the piece.

Here's the improvement for this one:

It didn't take much of an angle to show the piece better. And better lighting helped - though we still have a slight hot-spot from the flash. You'll also note that showing the piece in use helps the look of it a lot. We get a better sense of the size and shape of it with the trophies inside.

These beginning tips will help, but I recommend that you take the time to learn a little bit about photography to make your photos even better.