posted on April 10, 2001 09:18:12 AM new
Hi...any photo experts have some tips to share on making better images - presuming one has a digital camera...
lighting, backgrounds, etc...
posted on April 10, 2001 11:05:15 AM new
I'm not a photo expert, but here's what I've learned from experience:
Natural lighting works best. Indirect sunlight seems to make items look most accurate in photos. Use a solid background color -- no patterns or anything else that would distract from whatever you're photographing. I used to use a black background for light objects and a white background for dark objects, but I've found that if I put something white on a black background, the contrast can be a little too much and the picture comes out with the object looking too bright. The same is true in reverse for a black item on a white background (it looks too dark), so a neutral background might be best for either black or white items.
This experience has been with a traditional camera but would probably translate well to digital, too. I just got a digital camera last week and I love it!
posted on April 10, 2001 11:16:36 AM new
I keep hearing about Three Point Lighting. What is it and are there any good sites with pictures available we can look at? I want to take great pictures for auctions!
posted on April 10, 2001 12:39:16 PM new
Here's a helpful hint:
A lot of times when taking pictures of glossy items, you will notice that your camera's flash creates a "flare" on your picture. (also known as hot-spots). These can be very distracting to a viewer, and can lose a lot of detail. A way to avoid this is to create a diffuser for your flash. (you can actually buy them for some flashes...but if not they're easy to make!) To make your own diffuser, you just need some wax paper and some clear or cloudy scotch tape. Cut a piece of wax paper so that it is just large enough to cover your flash. Then use the scotch tape to keep it in place. This will disperse your flashes light out more evenly, and you will avoid getting the hot-spots! (you may want to experiment with multiple layers of wax-paper, or with just strips of cloudy scotch tape so that you can get your own desired effect.) Hope this hint helps!
posted on April 10, 2001 03:07:34 PM newtoke thanks for the page mention. I'm not entirely sure why the interactive demo doesn't work with Netscape. I think Netscape uses different action commands thanks IE. One of these days when I get a spare moment, I'll try to get it compatible with Netscape
thepriest there are tons of different things that you can do to enhance your pictures. The suggestion about using diffusion material on a light is good, although, I try to avoid having to use a flash at all unless I'm a good distance away from the object. I find the best pictures of smaller items are lit with some kind of incandescent (tungsten) light. If you have a lamp handy with a metal hood, that would work. I would suggest going to a local photo shop and seeing if they have diffusion material (or frost) and using clothespins to clip it onto your lamp. You can also use white foamcore on the other side of the object to "fill" the shadows cast by the key light. (if you have IE there's a demo of this at the link Toke posted)
Depending on what kind of digital camera you have, you may be able to play around with Shutter speeds and ISO settings to make your pictures look better. I was evaluating a Kodak DC 4800 and the pictures were TERRIBLE in auto mode, but as soon as I adjusted the ISO settings, the images looked great! The trick is to experiment and find out what works for you. Also, the best thing you can do for yourself, if you haven't already, is buy an inexpensive tripod. Try to avoid hand-held camerawork if you can.
Also, there may be some white balance settings on your camera. These make a big difference if they're not set properly.
posted on April 10, 2001 03:31:11 PM new
My favorite flash difuser is adhesive label stock. The flash was washing out my close-ups. I tried using multiple layers of various materials without much success and one day tried an old label, it worked great. Only problem is forgeting to remove the label when doing other than close-ups.
posted on April 10, 2001 07:31:13 PM new
The biggest problem I see with eBay photos is that people don't understand exposure. The seller will say that the item actually looks much lighter or darker than it appears in the photo.
If you are shooting a really dark object then it needs less exposure because the camera's meter is trying to make the object gray. The opposite is true for really light objects. This can be done with the camera's exposure compensation setting.
