Taking Pictures

[TripleB]

I've noticed some of you take really beautiful pictures of your work. I'm pretty good with a camera and photo editing software, but it seems to take me forever to get a picture that I like for show casing my work. Any tips, tricks or techniques about how you set up to take them would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Bob

PS. Actually that bottle has been floating around here for quite awhile, empty, it was just something to take test pics with.

[mrsn]

I'm not an expert but have a couple of tips.

The one thing I did that most improved my photos was getting a light tent.
Info on the one I got can be found in a review I did on Lumberjocks.
http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/1599
The light tent diffuses the light which helps, and reduces glare on shiny surfaces. I got a 12" one, and really should have gotten the larger size, my jewelry fits great but the rest of the stuff I do not so much. Light tents can be made cheaply also, Google "light tent" "light box" or "photo tent". I needed one that could be put away easily so I bought mine.

I find that an adjustable desk lamp is a great light source for the photography I do. Cheap and easy to move.

A tri-pod will help stabilize the camera and keep the images clear. This is really important when shooting without a flash as the camera needs more light to get the image. I almost always shoot projects with out the flash.

The background is really important. No matter how good your camera skills are, if you have a dirty shop in the background it will be noticeable. Some of this can be cropped out with software, but I try to compose a good photo from the start. Sheets or table cloths work well, drape the fabric so you don't have  a clear line from horizontal to vertical (fewer shadows). If my photo background is black, the picture was taken in my desk chair.

I might think of more tips, I'll post them later.
MrsN

[wedo]

I'll add a couple to MrsN. First, you have to know how close your camera will focus. If you have a camera with the close up setting (flower image) use that, it will allow you to focus a little closer. If that is still not adequate then take the best picture you can keeping in focus then crop on the computer to get the right size picture.

I also advise to use a tripod, you can't handhold and keep the camera steady enough on an inside shot without flash. It will almost always turn out blurred. That's enough for now.
Bill

[TripleB]

Katie, Thank you for your input, the review on Lumberjocks was great. I didn't want to wait to buy a tent so I found some instructions and made one for myself. I've been playing with it and am including some of my 1st shots., They're not perfect, but you gave me the foundation I needed to improve my photography abilities. I still need to work on getting the lighting right and playing with the multitude of settings my camera has to figure out what works the best. But as of right now I know that I will be able to work those things out. I included some unedited (other then resizing to post here) pics for you to see. Again thanks for your help and time it's greatly appreciated.

And thanks also to Wedo for your input.

Bob

Oh... Katie, what wattage bulb is in your light?

[Gabby]

Triple B
I've just gotten through with adding puppy photos to our website, and one of the problems I've encountered is not setting the camera to a high enough resolution, which hurts the quality of the finished photo whether it is posted full size or cropped / resized for a website like this.
My canon has a sport mode that uses a fast shutter which helps reduce camera shake since I can't use a tripod with moving subjects, would be nice if I could.
Junk in junk out applies.
Hope this helps,
Gabby

[mrsn]

I use a 13 watt florsent bulb, which is a 60 watt equivelancy. I use a daylight type bulb, it gives a nice clean light. If you don't have this type of bulb in the rest of your house you will notice the difference.

Wedo made a good point about zooming. Some cameras can tell if they are out of focus and will either not take the picture or will give some type of warning.

Another piece of advice I got is take lots of shots. In the world of digital photos, there is no reason not to take the shot. In the  "old days" you might be wasting film, but now all you waste is space in the memory and you can get that back if you don't like it. Also, get the photo on the computer before deleting it because it isn't good. The camera screen isn't the best, some pictures look much better on the screen.

[Crabbyboater]

One other thing to remember about focusing is that if you are not parallel to the subject it can cause part of the picture to be in focus, and part to be a bit out of focus.  This is particularly true with close-ups because the depth of field becomes much shallower.  Your picture of the vodka bottle could be an example of this.  It was taken with the camera above the bottle, and if you focused sharply on the lettering toward the bottom, then the cap would be out of focus.
Auto-focus cameras generally focus on one point at the center of the field, and other areas further from the center may not be as sharp.  

If you have the ability to review the picture in the camera's view finder and can magnify it, this will also let you see how sharp it is before transferring it to the computer.

BTW, the "bottle" picture shows good exposure and contrast.  And the grey background goes well with the bottle itself, which has very little color of it's own.  A dark blue background may have gone well also, emphasizing the bottle more, but the black and blue lettering may "disappear" into the background. It's just a bit out of focus.  Keep experimenting.  I like your light box, and in general you're doing well.



 

[marmoh]

I'm having a hard time determining if the bottle is empty or full ... if empty, great job on getting rid of the evidence ... if full I will email my address and you can send it to me 

[TripleB]

LOL Marion, Unfortunately for you, but not me, all evidence is gone! That may also explain why that photo is a bit out of focus, looked good to me at the time though!

[wedo]

BBB, a comment on your pictures. The woodpuzzle is the sharpest and most in focus you have displayed. It appears that the focal point was the front edge of the vertical piece. As you move away from that point it slowly loses focus and the back edge is less in focus than the front. That is what Crabbyboater was describing as a narrow depth of field. You can avoid that by either changing the aperture to a higher number or focusing on a part farther away like the middle of the puzzle. I don't know what kind of camera you have so it is difficult know what capabilities you have. If you give us your camera model and the shooting conditions we could expand this.

The other pictures are blurry from either trying to focus too closely or the camera moving while pressing the shutter. I don't believe it is from using too low a resolution as you only have small images here.
Bill

[shotgunpapa]

we need all the pictures we can get I like pictures.yep yep sure do.

[tenfingers]

I'm no expert but here's what helps me.
The tripod mount on my camera is threaded for a 1/4-20 bolt, so i cut off the head of a bolt and glued it into a hole drilled in a dowel, 1x2 whatever is handy. Makes a quick, cheap "monopod". I've made a bunch different lengths for different situations. From 6" for closeups to about 5 feet for standing shots. Light and easy to carry when hiking where most of my picture taking happens.
The other thing that helps me is to relax, take a little deeper than normal breath, let some out, hold and shoot. I learned that in the Army for a different kind of shooting but it helps with the camera also.