So, my lovely BM photography people; budding amateurs, pros and semi-pros alike, I am once again begging for your assistance
I'm fiddle-faddling around for all I'm worth, playing with settings, lighting and general pot luck... but can I get pinks and purples representative of their "true" colours?
My all singing, all dancing, fancy new camera takes a lovely pic and I specifically chose the model as it can do super-macro, up to as close as 10mm from the object, which I figured would help me no end in getting some good professional-looking shots of my jewellery... but can I get the colouring right? Can I heckaslike!
Halp! Please?
Some of it's high shine stuff i.e. silvered, enamelled copper... some of it's a matt finish i.e. anodised aluminium... if that info's any use?
I've not even attempted to upload them from the camera yet Em... I suppose I could manipulate the colours on the computer after... I've just knackered out the batteries so they're on charge but will have a play at that end later.
The less fiddling around in editing photos the better I think... if you can get the camera to do the work right in the first place
I know this might sound obvious, but I've got to start somewhere, have a look in the handbook )if there is one) [or look online at makers website] for the "colour settings" it may be that its set to "vivid" in which case you can select another profile.
If its not that then it may just be the cameras LCD thats not "true" .
Also some cameras are well known for not giving "true colour"
I've kind of "filed" the cd rom that came with the camera during my mad attempts at spring cleaning Ooops!
It seems to pick up other colours just fine - it just seems to be the pink-purple range it struggles with. Like there's way too much blue in the mix I think?
It has 3 pre-sets on it, 1 to mimic chrome film, 1 standard and 1 b&w. It's a Fujifilm Finepix S8100-fd... and I know there are quite a few BM peeps with Finepix models, so I'm hoping for an easy answer, before I search madly through box, bags and shelving for wherever I've managed to carefully file the cd rom!
ok,are you using flash? if you are turn it off try diffused[eg with a net cutain] window light[or even diffuse the flash with a thin tissue] with a white card reflector to throw light onto the darker side you may need a tripod as light levels may be low!! also try different asa speed[as opposed to shitter speeds] settings ie 100asa or 400 asa which may change the colour balance different times of day give different colour balance as evening sunlight gives a warmer look to piccys,failing all this try a photoshop programme to change colours or download a free one like irfanview ! my sanyo gives false clours on red's makin em look purple! but as its not for pro use i aint bothered ,for pro use i change settings in photoshop!but then i use a pro slr nikon
lol TM - u said shitter speeds! :-)
WB, not sure what settings u can use but try this...
Get a small tripod, for sure! Cos u dont wanna be using flash.
Get a powerful lamp, like those halogen desktop lamps and use that instead, try different angles with it
As the objects are inanimate and you WILL be using a tripod, u can use log shutter speeds... use approx 1/15 second
If you wanna get everything in focus and not just part, then set a deep aperture setting. U may find it in "F-stop" numbers, use F8 or more with a tripod!
Set all your colour settings to natural or standard.
Don't go too close with the macro lens, you'll just confuse the camera's light sensors etc. Move back slightly and just trim on ur PC.
Definitely don't use flash, u can create better light with a bit of effort giving a better 'feel'
If you can set a shutter speed preference mode, do so and set the 1/15 shutter i mentioned before. Check what "F" number aperture this gives u.
If your camera can set a customised white balance, then buy a 'grey card' and use that to create a custom balance
READ THE MANUAL THOUGH! Download it if you must, from the manufacturers website. So important that u know how ur camera works before trying to use it professionally - don't be guessing
Of course... my house is resembling a bomb site once more, but that's just business as usual, Chez Wannabe.
I'm avoiding flash - too much glare from sparkly stuff and false colour results. I'm using 2 lamps - 1 desktop halogen type and another with 6 halogen bulbs in it, so it's pretty bright... plus white background to maximise available light... & a mini table-top type tripod...
So it sounds like I'm headed in the right direction... Just need a bit more understanding of asa/shutter times etc... As my fellow IBS sufferers will agree, I'm sure, we don't even want to go down the route of certain other speeds as mentioned by TM!
Right... time to get this cd rom in and have a bit more of a play. Thanks TM, Matt & Em - fab advice... it helps to know what I should be looking to aim towards...
I've not come across a customised white balance feature - that's not to say it isn't there though! lol But everything else can be manually adjusted... It's just a question of learning what to do... and your instructions are WAY simpler than any photography forums I've sauntered through, so ta muchly!
if it's all totally white, it's like taking photos of snow... drives your camera crazy. You need to get a grey card and figure out how to set a custom white balance on ur camera.
Basically... if you imagine every well-balanced colour photo, then smudge all the colours together. Then the image would always come out the same grey if they were all balanced. Well, you can get a card that is this precise grey colour. U take a photo of it in the light that your gonna take more photos in, then set it as the white balance.
Really hard to explain. See here...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_cardgoshen.edu/~marvinpb/graycd.html
Cheers Matt - it didn't like the C&P but I just looked up gray card on Wikipedia anyway... I'm beginning to grasp the concept!
You really do learn a new thing every day.
Cool... I have a lot of white in the background... I've draped white velvet, but I'm trying displaying the jewellery on all sorts of stuff... custom jewellery stands, vases, glasses etc, with something else in the background breaking up the white... I'm loving the look of the object in sharp focus and a blurred background, for which I have you to thank again!
I'm itching for these stupid batteries to charge up now! *tuts* Mind you, I've just noticed that the cat has now decided that my carefully crafted display area is designed for his use, so all my photos are now going to have flipping black hairs in them!
Ah shaddup XK! Where else can I get lively conversation, virtual nods, chats/meets with folk up and down the country AND photography lessons for 4 quid a month? Hmm?! Is it 4 quid a month? I forget now... Bargain anyway!
brilliant thing isyou can experiment without buyin film!if you can set everything to manual an fiddle you'l get there eventually!incidently its impossible to get a pure white background unless you actually put a light onto the background it wil always be a shade of grey!l this is where photoshop can help by lightening the background after wards,tungsten lighting will give a yellow/reddish colour cast but maybe your camera will have a indoor lighting setting which may help, again photoshop could help this problem!pro slr's have a custom white balance feuture but cheaper compacts tend not to!so fiddle girl fiddle!!!
Too true... I'd never have had the bottle to experiment with film - ain't technology brilliant?!
I'm a-fiddling, I'm a-fiddling! Or at least I will be once these blessed batteries hurry up and get charged! I dunno... What's a woman to do with nowt but flat batteries in the house?!
actually your background will be quite white as the subject is right on the backdrop unlike someone standing about 5' away from it! so fiddle on fiddle on!
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