Need Advice

[tizzy]

I am fairly new to photography.
I have a Canon PowerShot S2IS and I need help.
I am a polymer clay artist and need to take pictures of my work for a mini-catalog.
I am attaching 2 pictures that I have taken previously.
Any help or advice you could give me to make them and future pictures better would be greatly apprectiated. All my ornaments are no bigger than 4 inches and average about 2 inches.

This one is really bad.

This one is better, but still not great.


More examples can be seen on my picasa website in my sig.
Thanks!

PS - Remember I'm a beginner - so be specific.

[Pikachu]

To start with, forget about the on-camera flash. The shadows and the specular highlights are too harsh with a material that reflective. There are other threads on here about building and using a light tent to diffuse and soften the light. Some might disagree with me, but I would shoot at an angle which would give some feel of the thickness of the ornaments also.

Not a part of the technical comment, but those sure are cute!

[tommas4]

Ditto on above.
How big are those?

[engstrom]

One other thing I would suggest - shoot the ornaments on a solid color fabric for a more pleasing background. I would probably get some black material to use as the background.

[tizzy]

Originally Posted by Pikachu

To start with, forget about the on-camera flash. The shadows and the specular highlights are too harsh with a material that reflective. There are other threads on here about building and using a light tent to diffuse and soften the light. Some might disagree with me, but I would shoot at an angle which would give some feel of the thickness of the ornaments also.

Not a part of the technical comment, but those sure are cute!

Thanks! and thanks for the advice.
I knew the shadows and highlights were bad.

[tizzy]

Originally Posted by engstrom

One other thing I would suggest - shoot the ornaments on a solid color fabric for a more pleasing background. I would probably get some black material to use as the background.

What color background would you suggest? I was thinking black since I do alot of snowmen.

As for the other post - they are ornaments that are about 2-3 inches tall.

[CSebesta]

Also, if you are not already using it, some sort of post processing software would actuate the colors and details.

All of this, may tend to get kind of complicated, but your product is very nice, and worth some effort with photography/marketing.

The have been other posts on this forum about light tents, which can be made or purchased.

Good luck with the catalog.

Charles

[PictureCow]

Those are way cute!

Well I'm a fan of getting it right in the camera and not using photoshop to fix mediocre or bad images. If you're looking to photograph these items you should invest in one of these.
Here's a link to just one company there are MANY different brands of light tents.

http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/ezlite.html

You don't have to have strobes to make this happen. You can use lights from home depot if you need to. You just have to color balance for your light source.

Good Luck!

[Kathi]

Here are a few suggestions:

1) shoot at an angle to show a little depth
2) use solid black or white felt as a "background" to avoid glare
3) since you are using a point-n-shoot type camera, try covering your flash with a piece of wax paper to act as a diffuser to spread the flash's light out more evenly

Hope that helps!

[WarrenG]

Tiffani,

The light tent is a great idea, although you can accomplish the same effect with a few foam core boards from Michaels or Hobby Lobby (if your on a shoe-string budget) and as Laura suggested you can get some "hot" lights from Home Depot or Lowes for next to nothing. I would also suggest some construction paper which comes in different colors and finishes so you can change up the background based on the ornament your shooting. One other suggestion would be to make a small block (from plastic, wood, or similiar) that would get the ornament up and away from the background to give it some nice separation. Maybe you could mitre a small peice of wood so it angled the ornament toward you at 45 degrees or so...

Hopefully that makes sense and helps out a bit.

Good Luck,

W

[tizzy]

Wow! Those are great ideas!
I can't wait to try them out.
I'll post a new image after I get a chance to try out some of those tips.
Thanks for making it simple!
You guys are great!

[EMG]

Check this out, it will change everything. You can you use any kind of lights you have...
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07...to-studio.html

[tizzy]

That looks great!
And on by budget too!

[saber]

Originally Posted by EMG

Check this out, it will change everything. You can you use any kind of lights you have...
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07...to-studio.html

I can agree! I've made this little studio and it gave me professional results. A professional camera is not really needed for that.

[venchka]

A seamless background is a must. This can be almost anything-poster board, felt, fabric, etc. Then try to devise a way to hold the subject as far away from the background as possible. That will throw the background out of focus. I assume the baseball is white? On my monitor it looks grey. That's a function of exposure. Built in meters try to make everything look like an 18% grey card. White things need extra exposure. If your camera offers + and - exposure compensation, experiment until your whites are white and the colors don't get washed out. A polarizer might help with reflections also.

Here's an example of a good background by my friend Gary Hatcher: