Tuesday, June 10, 2008

camera love



So here are my first product shots. I am exceedingly proud of my efforts ... mostly because taking these required a lot of effort. I think I could probably do better, but its a good start me thinks.



It seems that the love I have for my Canon 350D camera has been a very superficial one. Yesterday we did a little bonding with the help of the manual and this guys tutorial/rant/waffle about taking product shots.



Please note ... I found it necessary to copy this tutorial/rant/waffle into Word and delete all the many unnecessary paragraphs of information. Leaving me with the following necessary and very useful points for taking product photos:

Use a small aperture (which on my camera means big numbers (f stops))

Use reflected sunlight preferably on an overcast day

Small apertures require long shutter speeds, so use the timer on you camera and mount you camera in a steady place (I don't have a tripod).

Use the long exposure noise reduction function (My 350D has this function)

Use the white balance correction function (Yes, ol' 350D has this one too)




So I went out into the garden and set up the most hilarious studio with 4 pieces of mount card. Took a whole lot of pictures ... played around in photoshop ... and voila ... I have a set of clear pretty images. But they could be clearer I think ... perhaps I need 'proper lights'?

It took the majority of the day to produce these, but I am delighted with my new found knowledge ... and even more infatuated with my lovely Canon.

2 comments:

Ju said...

Hi Sarah!! Found you! Love your work so much and have just posted about you. Hope you like and keep in touch with new work!.
Ju :)

Uncle Beefy said...

Hey Sarah...I found you through...(drumroll)....Ju! Read her post about you and your work and had to come take a look-see and have been loving all of this!!! Your work is lovely and me thinks you need to get those tea towels up pronto ;)

(ps - Also saw that you went to the Market Cafe in NYC last July...one of my favorite spots!)