My awful first pictures! Learning to use a Galaxy S5's camera

Once I made a few items to sell,  it was time to take the all important photos for my shop.  So,  out comes my trusty Samsung Galaxy S5.

I started out well. I had a  litte studio defuse soft light box  (that  box made from white cloth that looks like something a cat would love to sit in) and several LED lights.  You need some from the top pointing down and some that you can move about.

When you first get your light box,  buy 2 tailor's tape measure and some double sided sticky tape.  You then stick one horizontal and one vertical on the back panel.  Then get either a coin or a battery  (I use a 50p) that lives in the light box.  It is important to me that my customers have a size guide, as it is something that I want as a customer.

Then I went wrong.  I  used the automatic settings on the camara.  The resulting pictures look like I took them in a dark cupboard.

I have learnt that I need to change the white balance to incandescent and whack the exposure up as far as it goes.

Then there is the editing.  After cropping it, I go into effects and select the sharpen option.  I  then go into tone and turn the contrast and saturation both up to 16,  then the brightness up between 3 - 9.

The difference is astonishing!