Hi Everyone - I wonder if there's anyone out there that can help me set my digital camera to take better cleaner - 'whiter' shots of my products - what i have up there now Really REALLY BITES - I'm no photographer that's for sure...

My logo labels aren't in yet, so the pics will have to be done over anyway--
BUT I'm using a Canon Powershot A60 and (2) 150 watt floodlights - on white foamcore - one light from above, one from below/side

I stumbled upon the tungsten light setting a minute ago which seems to give me a cleaner look...I've tried that and have uploaded into the 3n1 body oil - spot 3n1_body_oil_new_pic and tell me what you think, compared to the pics next to it?

Does anyone have any tips to basically blow out the background to white?

ANY tips will help - thanks in advance....

Terri

Hi,

1. Never use a yellow light. I still have some photos to fix on my site, but the yellow lights do no justice to your product line.

How many pixels does your camera have?


2. If you to the shots in custom scenting, those are good, you just need to get an photo editor. I reccommend getting photoshop elements for beginners. it is a great program that can help you optimize and fix your shots well.

3. The flood lights, you really do not need that much lighting. If you look at your photos, you overkilled the lighting, so it seems like your products are reflecting back and you can also see a shadow.

4. also make sure your pictures have a symetrical balance.

Let me know what pixels you are using and I will post a few more pointers

You may also want to consider a backdrop that will compliment your products, or a background that goes with your products.

Like a bathroom, women's make up area.

hmm.

I THINK - I can set the pixels -- it was set at 'L' 1524 x something

so I just set it at 'M' which is 640 x 480

the tungsten setting seems to pull out the yellow - the new shot i did is here:

http://www.active-beauty.com/index.asp?Pag...ATS&Category=19

it's the 3n1 body oil...

I can't even come CLOSE to remembering how I got that sheabutter shot to look decent. LOLOL

I dont know about putting the product in an 'environment' - that always annoys me when I'm shopping-- but if I can get the hang of it it might be fun..as it stands right now, just thinking about it is making me queasy!

Something, fresh, clean and visually easy on the eye would be a GREAT thing right now

PS - how do I know if my bulbs are 'white' or 'yellow'?

Hi Terri,

When I say pixels, I mean your camera. As in 3.2 pixels, 4.0 pixels, it should say it on your camera.

I am not talking about putting your products next to things that take away from the products, I am talking about setting a background to bring out your products. Sometimes in ecommerce, we do not put things up because we do not have a personal preference for it, well remember you are not selling your youself.


You can tell if your bulb is white or yellow it should say on the package you bought the bulb from. Unless your products look good with yellow tinting, you need a white bulb.

Get rid of the flood lights, that is too much light...lol

Also all your shots look the same product, need to vary the shots. There is not too much detail on mosturizer bottles, but go to other sites and see some of the shots they take, this could also help you.

pixels on the camera are 3.2

unfortunately - i'm starting out with stock packaging, so they look similar because - welllll, they are similar, but I get the idea--

clear bowls of water may be interesting...or fruit, veggies - washcloths,

hmmmmm -


thanks for the input - now what does the 3.2 pixel stuff mean?

With 3.2 pixels you should be getting more then average shots.

Right now I think you have to much lighting for such small products, and you also need a white light.

I think a desk lamp could serve great for your products if you get a good back drop and white light bulb.

I would also recommend you use drop backgrounds, something without the hard edges I see on some of your pictures.

My sister uses sheets to take most of her product pictures. Hang the sheet and let it flow over the area you are placing the product on. Set the products on the sheet and then try to take the picture that way.

If you can elevate the item on a platform (preferably white or something covered with white). This will help you line up the camera easier.

BIG ONE here - make sure your camera is on a Tripod! If you have a timer on the camera use it. That way your hand is off the camera when it takes the picture.

Get rid of the flood lights and don't use fluorescent lights (The make your pictures green/yellowish in color). Use the bulbs mentioned above. This is what photographers use.

On some of the products, If your camera has a fill flash feature, experiment with it.

Hope this will help a little. I been out of photography for awhile now, trying to remeber all the tricks..

okay..these are all great suggestions...and it's not so overwhelming now...

I also just downloaded a trail version of adobe photo elements - I REALLY want to just blow out the background ...just white like the page behind the products - like on sephora and prescriptives .....anyway....

I kind of want them 'floating' - but at least I have some direction now -

A desk lamp? geez who knew??? lololol


Thanks everyone...we'll see what happens when I do the next round ....

T

Since you have adobe photo elements, a great feature to get the correct color is:


Enhance>>>>auto color correction.

A key on lighting is to not have it directly lighting the item. You need to have the light reflect off of something, like the ceiling. Make sure the reflecting item is white. Dont do this in a room with a yellow tint or you pictures turn out yellowish.

As already suggested above white sheets make a great backdrop. Put it across the table and up the wall. This remove the lines created by the foam core sitting on the counter.

The 3.2 mega pixel is the number of pixels you camera uses when saving the picture. Yours has 3.2 million pixels (dots of color) in the saved images. The higher the number the better. 3.2 is pretty good.

Also, check your camera manual for a manual white balance setting. Your camera being a 3.2 mega pixel camera should have this. With the custom white balance setting the camera will adjust to your shooting area. You set up your white backdrop and turn on your lights. You then aim at the white backdrop and have your camera capture the white balance of just that.
Then when you shoot your product shoot, the whiteness is adjusted for that area.
Dont forget to set to auto when you leave that shooting area or your other pictures will not be set correctly.


-Charles
newbie.

Great idea about the white balance - I'm playing with all this stuff now - and things are already looking better!

T

Are you able to use natural light? You'll find the best photographs come from natural light. You don't have to actually go outside, but we take our pictures during the day time near a window. The results still require some playing but the photos are excellent.

Jom

I also take my own pictures (Canon G3) and just bought a large ezcube. It definitely helps with pictures, reduce glare and allow you to get a whiter background.

One of the keys is not to take your initial picture on too 'bright' of a setting - i.e. where the background comes out in the picture as white - the actual product looks too washed out. But if you can then play with the picture in photoshop or another program you'll be able to lighten the background and bring out the product some more.

You can also find this product on eBay - same person selling it and the large one is $90 vs. I think $150 on the site. I've just started using it - really like it and think it's worth the investment if you're doing it all yourself.

http://www.ezcube.com/

Photography is not my strong point so anything that I can do to make it easier, I'm all for it

DetailsArt

I'd also suggest investing in PhotoShop. There is a learning curve but worth the investment of time.

I use photoshop myself and it is good.

For those who cant afford photoshop, I recently found a little program for working with images that looks decent.

I found it because this guy was hyping it to his newsletter mailing list for $30.

Well, I found the same program under its real name on download.com.
Its shareware.
The program is JPEG Imager 2.1.

From just a little bit of playing with it, it appears to do a lot of photoshop functions.
Cropping, gamma, brightness, levels, image compression.

Check it out.

-Charles

Hi Everyone!

...so here's an update on how the pictures are going/have gone....

I was able to make them look fine to, somewhat better than okay...
thanks to all your help...

but since it took up way too much time - and photography just isnt on my list of talents... I'm going to bite the bullet and hire a pro -- I'm also thinking long term and have found someone whose work will really really mesh with my company and it's 'personality' - since he's here in NYC so I can invest one day and really make the products the 'stars' of the site (as they should be).

I may as well establish some vision now....

Thanks again for all your help...

You know sometimes you got bite the bullet and do that!

I have had to do that a few times. And I was much happier with the end result. It is very important that your pictures portray your products in the best possible way!

Good Luck to you!

If you want a super simple photo editing program, try Irfan on download.com

It's free and a delight to use. Not Photoshop, but excellent for basic functions, color adjustment, resizing, cropping etc. I love it. My 73 y.o. dad even loves it. Easy to learn, very straightforward.

Bill
http://www.alfabill.com