HOW TO TAKE GREAT NAIL ART PHOTOS

The worst part of creating fabulously intricate nail art is trying to capture a photo of it. You want to be able to show the world the skills you wield with the flick of an art brush, but your camera just won’t capture your genius. In real life, the art is stunning – detailed, proportional, and your client loves it. So why is it so stinking tough to photograph?

Most of us use our smartphone camera to capture our work before our client dashes out the door, but even the most powerful smartphone camera has its limits. When asking your phone to take a crisp photo in a macro environment – meaning taking a photo of a small object where the image will be larger than life size, or when you point your camera lens closer than 3-4 inches from your subject, can lead to a blurry photo. HOW TO TAKE GREAT NAIL ART PHOTOS

Smartphone camera 3-4 inches away from subject vs. with macro lens (L-R)

In order to make your phone take a crisp, clear, extreme close up of your nail art work you can download an app, or what we prefer, is to use an external lens. In our September/October subscription box included a 2 in 1 smartphone lens clip that allows you to take extreme close up photos that show lots of detail. The macro lens unscrews from the included wide angle lens, and both are labelled. Just remove the protective cap and you’ll see the lens unit. Unscrew the lenses and you’ll see you have the wide angle, and the macro lenses. Simply apply the plastic clip over your smartphone camera, and spend some time trying it out. The detail you can capture is amazing. HOW TO TAKE GREAT NAIL ART PHOTOS

The 2 in 1 lens kit from the September/October box

The wide angle lens allows you to capture a slightly larger field of vision from the normal camera, and can help fit larger items into a single shot, without having to move the camera further away from the subject, meaning no loss of detail.

Smartphone camera vs. wide angle lens

If you weren’t able to grab one of our subscription boxes, you can still purchase a lens kit online. We like this one and this one.

As always, make sure you tag @thenailscape in any photos you share using the lens kit. We love seeing what you create!

HOW TO TAKE GREAT NAIL ART PHOTOS