Workshop Photography and Progress Diary

David Boccabella

Hi Folks.
I know some of us document our work in progress however I was wondering how people handle things when the project is on the actual workbench.

I find with my working habits the bench become more and more cluttered until there is a semicrisis moment and it's gets a good clean up.

However when it comes to taking a snapshot of the item I want to draw the viewer's eye to the actual item - and that can be an issue if the item is made out of plastic stick and a ton of plastic sticks in the background.

Do folks use something like a blind or a small tarp to give a blank background.. or a piece of neutral card that stand up behind the project.

Just curious
Dave

Mikey March

I usually hold my items up to a blank wall or a door. My latest photo on my page feed illustrates a door background. If you scroll down a bit, my 3D printed ornament was pictured in front of a wall.

Trade secret, btw.. shhhhhh

David Boccabella

Hi Mikey.
I have a set of shelves being my workbench.  What I ended up doing was getting a large section of grey fabric and running a slit up it to about half was to make 2 tails.

I can bundle it up under the shelf out of the way and when I want to do photography I can drop it down to give a back drop, and then have the 2 tails over the work bench covering the 'mess'.

Many thanks for giving me the inspiration and 'nudge' to find a solution

Chris Ellerby

I try really hard to document the progress of my projects, which I find to be pretty challenging.  The hard part for me is remembering to take the photos!

When I do take photos, I use that as an excuse to clean up my work space. (or at least push the clutter out of frame)

Most of the photos I take are against the black cutting mat on my workbench.

I've also added a couple LED light arrays to my shop recently to add some extra light when I live stream my build/project nights on twitch.  Those lights also help a lot when taking photos.   They also work great as work lights.

/Chris