Subject:
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Re: can someone tell me how to make my photos come out better?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.publish.photography
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Date:
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Mon, 24 Nov 2003 13:13:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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2893 times
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In lugnet.publish.photography, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
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My camera is:
Concord EyeQ Duo LCD
1.3 megapixels
2x digital zoom
9.9mm f/3.2
flash
the manual says its “focus free from 4 feet to infinity”
No matter what I do, I cant get it to take good photos of my lego creations.
Examples of how the photos have turned out:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=55249
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=55251
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=55250
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=33262
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=55251
I know that the size on some of those is a little on the large side but hey :)
Can anyone tell me how to get this camera to produce better photos of my
creations?
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Well I am not familiar with that particular camera, but I’ve been struggling to
improve my digital photography skills literally since the day BrickShelf was
announced on LUGNET. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up so far:
- Use more light! Borrow every lamp you can get your hands on and douse those models in light. The more light you have on the subject, the quicker the camera can take the picture, which causes less blur. This also helps eliminate shadows, which can be distracting. Some people take all their photos in direct sunlight.
- Don’t get too close to your subject. If your camera claims to be “focus free from 4 feet to infinity” then I assume that it has fixed optics. Stay a minimum of four feet away from your models, and probably farther to ensure that they will be in focus. You can always crop out the extra stuff on the computer if the field of view is too wide from further back.
- Enable your camera’s Macro mode (if it has one, but it sounds like yours probably does not) which is usually depicted by an icon of a flower on most cameras. This mode usually lets you get much closer to your subject, sometimes within a couple of inches, to capture every tiny detail.
- Hold the camera as still as possible and don’t punch the shutter. Use a tripod if you have one, and get a tripod if you don’t. A small portable tripod can be purchased for as little as $15. If your camera has a timer, try using it so that you aren’t touching (and jiggling) the camera when it takes the picture.
- Experiment with using the flash. This can cause the colors to appear funky, and can cause glare if you’re not careful, but will ensure that you have plenty of light for a quick, sharp exposure. Sometimes it helps to tape a small piece of paper over the flash to diffuse the light.
- Disable the digital zoom. You can usually do the same thing later on using photo editing software, and many cameras sacrifice image quality to perform digital zooming. (There is some debate about this point, however. Your mileage may vary.)
- Experiment with the Color Balance or White Balance if your camera supports this feature. I’ve found that I get more realistic LEGO colors if I White Balance my camera before I take photos under adverse lighting conditions.
The above is all general advice that I’ve picked up over the years. Looking at
your photos, I would guess that your biggest problem is getting too close to the
models. I have a tiny Casio camera with fixed optics that is worthless when I
am closer than about 5 or 6 feet from my subject, so I can’t use it for
close-ups. Your second biggest problem is not having enough light when you take
your pictures.
Most of all, experiment with different techniques and see how the images change.
Try taking many versions of the same shot from different distances, with and
without a flash, using different types of lamps, with and without digital zoom,
etc. Pay attention to what you are doing and then see which techniques yield
the best results. Then try to repeat those techniques that work best for you
until they become second nature.
Best of luck!
- Chris.
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