Taking stock photos: A very crafty 1, 3 or 5

We’ve been encouraging you to take photographs of crafts as an in-demand topic wanted by images users. And some wonderful photographs have been added to the Excio Image Library in response.  It looks like some members had fun visiting craft markets, yet we know others thought ‘that’s not for me, and it’s not my genre’.  That might have been a missed opportunity for you to have a fun, local day out with family, while capturing images for the library.

Let’s see if we can extend your talents towards a new direction for New Zealand stock photography. To help we’ve broken the problem down into three very crafty elements: 1, 3 and 5

Element 1: A single photograph

You discover a special craftwork that deserves its own photograph. You’re drawn to the craft because of the workmanship, context or occasion. As a photographer and therefore a creator yourself, you identify with the fellow artisan’s skills and you want to help capture and celebrate it. You can visualise this photo as a hero image on a newsletter or website.

Your photographic talents will enhance the craft, elevating it to another level with the image becoming an artwork itself in 2-D format. Maybe you’ve transferred your knowledge about composition and lighting, or your photo editing skills to create something new out or the craft.  In all cases you’ve visually connected with a call to help showcase anything hand crafted by the artisans of New Zealand.

Tip: include the craft artist, location, and website or socials in the photo description. Image users value this information as it means the craft is identifiable and respected, and the photo can be credited appropriately. This extra information can support a message that the image users are trying to convey.  After all, we’re all about #FairShare.

Element 2: Three photographs

After the hero shot comes a group of three photographs. These form a tryptic which hangs together as a series. There may be crafts that you might not photograph because of your preferred genre. But if you take a step back and look differently, you can see how photos of New Zealand craft really help to represent our people, places and interests.

Tip: Think about your preferred genre, select a photo for uploading to the Excio Image Library and trawl through your archives, or go out and capture, two more crafty photos that link together. Tag them as ‘craft’ on uploading to the library so they will appear in user searches.

Element 3: Five photographs in a row

What’s better than three: A ribbon of five. While even numbers create symmetry, odd numbers create interest. An odd number of objects effectively captures your gaze and holds your attention. And that arrested gaze is at the heart of visual interest.

Five linking photos on one subject is useful for image users because they round out web pages and blog articles – engaging the audience. For this reason a uniting theme of colour, subject or scale makes a grouping of five photographs more powerful on the Excio Image Library, than five individual, random images.

For craft photographs this may take the form of close-ups, details or textures. These photos are useful to image users as they imbue an Aotearoa feeling to projects.

Tip: When visiting crafty spots take photos that sequence together in fives.

Do get out and enjoy your local craft market or fair, while capturing crafty images for the  Excio Image Library. You’ll earn PhotoTokens for a fun day out. Uploading five photos earns you one PhotoToken through the library.