advice from the pros (or semi-pros)

okay, i'm gonna try again tomorrow, when there's more light, and with a better background, and see how they turn out. thanks so much for the friendly, non-patronizing advice - i feel like less of a loser now ^_^

thanks for your advice too, milo - i gotta figure out where the hell north is around here.

I would also recommend using something like iPhoto or google's Picasa to organize and edit your photos with. just using the 'auto contrast' or 'auto color' functions in either can improve the look of a photo drastically.

anyway post the new ones after you've taken them! I don't actually have any experience with studio photography, I'm sure some of the other regs on here do though...

Second one looks pretty good IMO. I don't see grainy and blur - if you're looking at them zoomed 100%/full size on your monitor, they won't look as good as when you resize them for the web.

If you want something head-on like the first, try propping up a white board to your left (angled back to the window facing the book) to reflect some of light back onto the cover.

okay, today i made a little more effort - more sun and used some white paper i had lying round (but i need a bigger sheet) - and i'm really really happy with how they turned out. honestly, they're about 100x better than any other photos we've taken:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGc9I2vEqEI/AAAAAAAAAQs/CUkHygoWuSo/s512/P1020659.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGc-5uFQKzI/AAAAAAAAARA/JpXT3XCU2MU/s720/P1020668.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGc_U9JdARI/AAAAAAAAARI/5_BCwymW6vI/s800/P1020672.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGdAoT-f0VI/AAAAAAAAARg/7wzS25pJIok/s512/P1020685.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGdBY1GQXTI/AAAAAAAAARw/u3SVO_rLB9o/s576/P1020692.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_LV99RVocutg/TGdCsBzAlpI/AAAAAAAAASY/WnAsEVHuYmc/s512/P1020710.JPG

one thing i only noticed after i'd taken all the photos: the window wasn't totally clean so there were some smudgy shadows on the paper/books.