Taking professional looking pictures?

thers one thing i know and its that sunlight is the best form of light to take the picture
all other types cause slight yellowing also a one color background i think would help but not sure

 

Lightboxes, generally when you take pictures at home or under "normal" artificial light sources you get very harsh shadows and therefore only limited amount of surface coverage due to the fact that most of these lights are directional. Pics always look better outside due to that lovely sun's light bouncing off everything onto everything else which creates ambience.

A lightbox (or softbox) would have your bulb(s) in which a translucent layer (usually frosted plastic or perhaps fabric) which disperses the light in wider spread and hence more evenly. Mobile photographers can have what looks like a white umbrella with a bulb inside as this will again diffuse the light away from it's natural direction.

The other way I know is using a reflective piece of material on the other side of the subject to reflect light in a kinda stereo way - can work but I don't like where the two sources meet... prefer the lightbox solution.

As I say, it's consistency in the light accross the subject, you can worry about contrast etc later... hope that helps.

 

Hi everyone! first of all Im new to the forums, but a casual reader. I will like to learn how to take good photos to post my little collection too, but i need some advices. As far as i know with 3 good light sources and a background with some neutral colors, like a grey-to-white palette, and also a good camera with a high megapixel capacity may do the trick. Im not a pro in the photograph field, but maybe that will help.

ps. excellent site ASSEMbler, i hope to be able to contribute to the forum in the future. Seeya!

 

My girlfriend is a Ba Photography student and a camera collector (over 100 cameras!!) I'll grill her about this, see if she can come up with some suggestions.

 

Don't want to appear too obvious but:

a) A good quality camera is imperative. Irrespective of the pixel count (on digital cameras) you should be ensuring that you have a good lens. Back in the days on 35mm being the household standard the best were made by the likes of Carl Zeiss, Canon, etc. You'll find on better quality digital cameras that these names are still involved. If you have paid over $200 and know the manufacturers name then chances are it'll take a decent picture - if you want publishing quality, get a 35mm camera over digital.

b) Read the bloody manual. How many people think that a point and click camera is sufficiently straight forward that they never take the time to realise that most digital cameras actually have various settings to assist such as "close range", "red eye" and even different flash settings to avoid the appearance of over exposure. A lot of people simply switch their flash off and never realise they could have softened it.

c) Get a tri-pod. I don't care who you are, or how wonderful your expensive camera is, without a tri-pod the sharpness slumps drastically. If you are taking shots of things like PCBs etc you'll never look back! You'll adore your tri-pod like a member of your family.

d) Depending on the size of area you are working with, you might want to get some white lights with reflective cones (like umbrellas in silver, turned upside down to difuse the light).

My father was a professional & published photographer and for the images I take that often appear on AG I use his cheapest camera, a 4 Mega Pixel Canon and break ALL the rules listed above on a regular basis. The images, inspite of my sloppy attitude come out okay. If he were alive today I'd probably be getting lectured on where to place items for the composition..... bloody grew up with this, hence my lax photography lol ;-)

Incidentally I use a Canon PowerShot G3: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/

 

I'd suggest getting large sheets of white / black paper/fabric. They provide a great plain background for white/black/consoles of colour in regular photos, and they aid in photoshopping too.

 

I took it with a Cannon EOS 400D and it's standard lens, using autofocus. Not only using a good camera is involved, but having a good lighting spot, the right position, etc... That also matters.

 

Height.

One day i was at the crapper and i placed my cellphone on top of a finished paper-roll.

The paper-roll didn't show but due to the height-difference the cellphone looked so much more 3D against the grey floor below. Essentially it displaces the shadow.

 

You took the picture of the paper BEFORE you used it, right...?

 

A digital SLR is a great, albeit expensive, piece of equipment to have for taking good pictures. Don't worry about the megapixels too much. www.dpreview.com has great product reviews for cameras, flashes, etc. 5 megapixel should be fine for anything you want to reproduce at 8"x10" or smaller. For the web, something like 8mp would be overkill. Megapixels does NOT mean quality.

On-board flash usually isn't so good as opposed to an external flash that connects with a hotshoe. Natural light is usually optimal. If you get an external flash, learn how to bounce it off of surfaces so that it doesn't wash out your subjects, create bad shadows, and other things like that.

Lightboxes are GREAT things to have for product shots, and are relatively easy to make your own. A quick search on google should yield some instructions.

If you camera supports it, learn how to use shutter speed and aperture settings as well.

 

ofcourse noth::110:

 

A good way of doing it is using a light tent. Can be made easily with a flourescent light and some bed sheets. Flood the sheets with light and then place whatever you want inside. Then decrease the apeture and ISO of the Camera (best to use a digital SLR) and then shoot till you get it right.

 

lol, that's HUGE. I thought about quoting it but decided not to...

anyways, a friend of mine has a Nikon D200 and it takes absolutely amazing photos.

 

That is likely taken with a lightbox. The reflection is most likely done in photoshop.

 

The reflextion is well done in Photoshop. Just look at the top of the camera in the reflextion. It's got a black outline :nod:

Yakumo

 

http://cgi.ebay.de/MINI-FOTOSTUDIO-...ryZ26850QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This one seems pretty cool, comes in at a quite high price too though.