About the studio
Your book deserves a better photograph.
Bookstagram Apothecary teaches authors and bookstagrammers to light, style and photograph their books well, one window at a time.
Why we exist
It starts with the photograph authors apologise for.
Most authors know their book deserves a better picture than the one on their feed. A cover shot under a ceiling light, a stack balanced on a duvet, a phone held at arm's length at nine at night. The book is good. The photograph doesn't say so.
Most advice made it worse. It sold you a ring light, eleven props and a preset, and left out the part that matters: where the light comes from, and what to leave out of the frame.
So we write it down properly. Shot recipes you can follow at the table, prop lists that fit in a shoebox, captions that sound like you, and mockup templates for the days you need a clean image fast. Practical, specific, and worked through with a real book in front of the camera.
The studio table
Three rules we come back to.
Everything we teach starts here. They are simple on purpose: you can remember them while you're holding the book.
One window
One soft light source, from the side, does more for a cover than any lamp you can buy. Turn the other lights off, put the window at nine o'clock or three o'clock, and let the shadow fall away from the camera. A white card on the far side lifts it just enough.
Fewer props
Every object in the frame should explain the book or carry the light. A sprig of rosemary, a brass key, a mug with the steam caught: choose one or two that belong to the story and stop there. The empty space is part of the picture.
Honest light
Shoot what the room gives you and keep it. No heavy filters, no colour that the cover never had, no glow that hides the type. Readers trust a book that looks like itself, and so does your publisher's cover designer.
The guides
Read the method, in order.
Each guide takes one part of the craft and works through it with real setups. Start with light; the rest follows.
All guidesWrite to us
Questions, collaborations, a photograph you're stuck on.
We read everything that comes in and answer within three business days. If it's about a picture, attach it: it is much easier to help with the photograph in front of us.