Pictures of readings

Laura Borealis

I feel like getting the lighting right is key. Flash can wash out the images, and produce glare off shiny laminated surfaces. Though I'm sure better photographers can compensate for that, I'm not one of them.

That's why I like to use strong indirect sunlight. No flash necessary. But you can also use indoor lighting. I made a light tent for Etsy photos which worked great for nice bright photos, and it was super cheap to make. Here's a set of instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-Simple-Light-Tent/

Though if you search for "diy light tent" you can find more. For taking photos of spreads, I'm envisioning setting up the box a different way, with the top open and the sides covered in the white fabric (or white tissue paper). Then you can put your light sources at the sides, and shoot straight down.

Maybe I am over-thinking this though :)
 

Oink

Flash can wash out the images, and produce glare off shiny laminated surfaces. Though I'm sure better photographers can compensate for that, I'm not one of them.
Generally they'd compensate for it with more/better flash equipment. The main problem is that point and shoot cameras and cell phones don't let you point the flash anywhere but right at what you're shooting.
That's why I like to use strong indirect sunlight. No flash necessary. But you can also use indoor lighting.
I agree. HDR mode (found in all the high-end phones these days) works really well too, if you can keep your phone steady enough during the multiple exposures.

Also, if you have distracting objects in the frame (the floor, a pattern on your spreadcloth, etc.) that the phone camera wants to focus on instead of your cards, most photo apps will let you touch a point in the frame to focus on and adjust the focus there.
 

Sulis

I lay the cards on a plain, dark reading cloth and make sure the light is good.. I then crop the image so that just a small amount of the cloth shows. I've taken photos with my digital camera, which is pretty basic and a few years old and with my Iphone - they usually look fine.
 

Laura Borealis

You can get free photo editing software, too. I use Gimp, which is comparable to Photoshop in most respects. At first glance it looks really complicated, but you don't have to use all the functionality. You can do very simple things to make photos look better, cropping like Sulis suggests, and lightening up dark pictures. I nearly always lighten, it makes a big difference.