Photo Tips!

[Eyeshoot Photography]

I'll post tips here on a range of subjects, feel free to join in the conversation and add your advice too.

Sarah

[Eyeshoot Photography]

My first photo tip for anyone photographing items for their shop is to use a tripod!  

Whether you have a happy snappy point and shoot or a serious bit of heavy DSLR kit there will be a tripod out there for you, the price (and quality) range is vast.

Your pictures will look so much better with a tripod, you'll get the pin sharp images you want and using a longer exposure may mean that you can put of buying that set of expensive lights you keep looking at in the camera shop.

Once you've got your tripod sorted out, get yourself a remote trigger which means that you can trigger the shutter without touching the camera thus totally eliminating the risk of camera shake.  If your camera won't take a release I'm sure you'll have a timer for taking bad photos of yourself, just set that up and it's as good as a remoter trigger.

I hope this helps!

Sarah

[GalleriaLinda]

I'm sure you'll have a timer for taking bad photos of yourself, just set that up and it's as good as a remoter trigger.

LOL!
I have a timer on my camera.
I have a tripod.
I have never used either! Now is the time for me to take it to the next level. I am going to try these.

Thanks![/quote]

[FireLilyJewelryGems]

(Copying my posting here, in case somebody finds it useful.)

RE: using an 18% grey card instead of white balance

I found white balance a serious pain in the ass. Part of the problem was that white itself can have a colour cast. I gave up on it, and instead purchased an 18% grey card from a camera shop.

I use photoshop to resize and stuff anyway. And photoshop knows what colour that 18% grey card is. So I make sure a tiny corner of that grey card is in the picture. Then in photoshop ...

- Open the photo in photoshop and blur a little square of that grey card. You want it to be really well blurred, cause otherwise the grey card's pixelation will cause problems with the colour correction later.

- then ctrl-L to open the levels toolbox. Look on the bottom right and you'll see three little pencil tips in a row. Click the right one on a point in the picture and you're telling photoshop that that particular point is WHITE. The left one is BLACK. And the middle one is 18% GREY!

So what you want to do is click on the middle pencil tip, then click on that blurred square you created in the grey card. Now you'll see the rest of the image shift colour ... that's because photoshop now knows that square you clicked on is 18% grey, and is colour correcting the rest of the photo based on that information.

This only works if the colours of the lights across the object are all the same. If one corner of the object is getting natural light from the window, and another corner of the object is getting flourescent light from your ceiling lights, then it won't work. Of course, then your white balance on the camera won't work either! I generally take pictures inside my light box where the lights is all uniform, so it's not a problem for me.

The directions sound a bit long and complicated ... well they did to me when I first found them on the net. But once you've done it a couple times, it's fast to do.

[Eyeshoot Photography]

Good tip - white balance cards are great, a really simple solution to an irritating problem.  It doesn't take long to get into the habit of using one.

I do it slightly differently - I've got a cleaning cloth called 'spudz' which is a neutral grey and it attaches to my camera with a clip thingy, so I've always got the right grey on me wherever I am.  And I never loose my cloth which is a bonus!

[PillowThrowDecor]

I bought one with all the best intentions so  will find it and use it.  You make it sound so easy.  Will dig up tripod too... somewhere in this house

Christine

[DavidRunyan]

My first photo tip for anyone photographing items for their shop is to use a tripod!  

Whether you have a happy snappy point and shoot or a serious bit of heavy DSLR kit there will be a tripod out there for you, the price (and quality) range is vast.

Your pictures will look so much better with a tripod, you'll get the pin sharp images you want and using a longer exposure may mean that you can put of buying that set of expensive lights you keep looking at in the camera shop.

Once you've got your tripod sorted out, get yourself a remote trigger which means that you can trigger the shutter without touching the camera thus totally eliminating the risk of camera shake.  If your camera won't take a release I'm sure you'll have a timer for taking bad photos of yourself, just set that up and it's as good as a remoter trigger.

I hope this helps!

Sarah

to each their own, but i never use a tripod.  too restrictive.  i just use a little canon p&s camera with a $20 macro lens attachment, set camera to ISO 400, hand held and . . . VIOLA!