photographing mugs

[sarahjayne]

I've a friend that does craft markets who is going to take orders for mugs for me and rather than load her down with hundreds of samples I thought I'd get a pop up banner printed with 6/7 large mug close ups. Any ideas of how to set them up and get good photos? I also need photos for a web page and I just can't get the essence of the mugs they look flat and non descript - struggling to "show them off".
Any hints or ideas?
Thanks in advance

[Justin]

On of our Suppliers can provide stock photographs, marketing assistance etc. This is something I'm talking to them about at the moment as I have no idea where photography is concerned. Paul has taken some excellent product shots so will probably be along soon to offer useful advice

[JSR]

I would recommend one important aspect - and that is to ensure you use your own photos rather than stock ones. Stock ones, by their nature, look the same - and, as consequence, one seller of printed mugs will look the same as every other seller of printed mugs if everyone uses the same photos.

You want to stand out from the crowd, attract attention, and encourage people to look at your product. If your product looks just like everyone else's, then the potential customer has no reason to look any closer at you - they've seen it all before.

Be bold, and stand out. Don't be part of the crowd.

[harlequeen]

I have taken some of my mug photos outside in good all round sun and then photoshoped the background out. It's a good start I think

[Renniwano]

I used to use my bath to take photos of my craft stuff.. crisp clear and white background.. (only issue is that you look like a tool sitting in an empty bath)

[JSR]

I have taken some of my mug photos outside in good all round sun and then photoshoped the background out. It's a good start I think

Excellent advice. Using natural daylight is much better than taking the photograph on a Winter's evening with the camera flash going off all over the place.

[Paul]

It all depend what camera settings you got set and what flash do you use. Als white balance is one of the most important things to look at.

[Paul]

www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/showthrea ... hotography

[Listawood]

We could probably help you with this kind of thing if you wanted. The best person for you to get in touch with would be Becky White who's our marketing manager.

The pics were professionally taken and are available high res for the kind of thing you're describing, or lower resolution for use in web pages.

Alex.

[ptholt]

lighting is importnant when getting proper depth and feel, you could easily make a single coloured lined (cloth, paint or vinyl) display box for photographing mugs, lit from the say 4 position on a clock (assuming mug is straight ahead at 12, and photographer at 6) this should give a nice shadow and depth which can be played with in photoshop and easily removed during post processing.