Designing and building something creative and beautiful is something I value very much. It can be a painting, sculpture, book or — the focus of this write-up — a well designed electronic project.

I share my process of ‘making’ for various reasons. Firstly, I like to inspire others to design and build something creative as well. I hope that by showing the process behind the final product people will realise that there is no magic involved — everyone is able create something similar. Secondly, I like to share knowledge and my mistakes, which will hopefully help others create projects they wouldn’t otherwise.

Sharing creations today involves at least a set of photos of the process and of the final project, of course. The photo is a little bit like a candy wrap; if this wrap is well made, people will notice the candy. So if the photos of your project are well made, it is more likely people will have a closer look at what you’ve created or written.

Motivation

Apart from the photos on this website, I also made product photography for a few other people. You may know the project photos from the Boldport club.

Taking these pictures is very time consuming, as you can imagine. When I had to stop creating them for Boldport, I started teaching Saar, the founder of Boldport club, how he can continue producing the quality photos on his own. He suggested to publish a document with all the techniques and knowledge I use, but I thought it would take too much time to write everything down. When he started an internal document by collecting all the information I had already given him, I realised two things. Firstly, this will end up being a small book and, secondly, it would be actually nice to share this knowledge even if it takes me a year to complete this documentation.

There are countless photography tutorials out there and it will make no sense to add another one. Therefore, here I will focus on the challenges of photography of electronics. In contrast to some other resources, I will provide precise recommendations of the equipment needed for the task. I will also explain what equipment is essential for the task, and where it’s possible to use cheaper alternatives.

This documentation is meant for hobbyists, not professionals. My recommendations aim for an affordable compromise, which will produce professional looking results.

Table of Contents

Each ‘chapter’ will focus on individual tasks. If there is no link for the chapter title, then it is not ready yet.

• Required Equipment and Software
• Object Cleaning
• Taking Basic Photos
• Taking Flat Photos
• Taking Photos with Coloured Background
• Processing Basic Photos
• Processing Photos with Coloured Background