Photographing Collection

[schnellermeyer]

Can't seem to get decent quality pics of my collection compared with some of you guys.

Can you give me some tips on how to photograph items.

ie, background colour, distance, flash, natural light etc etc

Regards

Andy

[C7riS]

Hi, I can give you some tips!

About background, choose a simple one, for example a one colored background. and choose a light color, best usualy is white or gray.
You can use a white sheet, let some of it cover the ground to lay your objects on and then raise one end up so it works as a background for your object.

Always get some good lighting, not stright from above, but for example lighting up the decals or parts of the helmet, try useing a light a bit away from the object, to get softer shadows. You can also use something infront of the light like a cloth or white sheet to dim the light. or you can take the shots out in your gardern when the light issnt too harsh!

If you use a flash (i do not recomend it if your not too femiliar with useing it) dont take a straight forward shot, that will most likey cause the flash to bounce back and overexpose. try and shoot from a wider angle.

Use a tripod or just hold the camera really steady to get sharp shots. also make sure if you can adjust the shutter speed, then keep it at 100 or higher. if you go lower than 80 your bound to get some smudgy shots.

If you have ISO control, then you can try and push this up to get it more light sencetive. say your shooting at 100 shutter, and 4.0 apature.. if your shot still seems too dark, then you can push the iso, the only downside is it will create more noise/grain in the image.

Cheers,
Chris

[schnellermeyer]

Thanks Chris, great advice and just what I was looking for

[David North]

Andy

I agree with everything that Chris has said.

A few extra and very subjective points though.

I think that all digital camera are quite different by the overall results and the key, is knowing the traits, qualities and peculiarities. It may sound heavy going, however I really would experiment with numerous permutations of settings.

Here are a couple of additional tips, based on once bitter and disappointing experience.

• use natural, soft and diffused light
• try and use a plain, uncluttered and neutral colour base or background
• do not "push" the camera or encourage "noise" and instead, try and stay with a low "speed" i.e. 100
• take the image in a non compressed form and by the largest format available. This can be easily edited and resized later
• do not try and get ultra close to the object on macro

Again, these are just a couple of "subjective" points that may be worth trying.

Regards,

David

[schnellermeyer]

I have tried a few more shots this morning after your advice and am now getting better results.

Disabling the flash is a must I think.

I still cant seem to get close up detail without the image being blurred.

I am using a Fujifilm A310 digital camera.

Regards and thanks again

Andy

[Marc Garlasco]

Read this:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ighlight=photo

[schnellermeyer]

Thats cool, thanks Marc

[vernon]

Use computer tech to enhance pictures

Hello; When I shot items for Ebay wth my digital I run all my pictures through Adobe Photoshop for excellent pictures regardless of light factors etc. There is no need to show darkened pictures on Ebay regardless where you shot. vs102 Ebay -check it out.