A friend of my likes making Beaded Jewelry and asked me several weeks ago about taking a few photos of her Jewelry. She wants to start selling some of her work online and needed a few good photos to show off her experience and work. She had already purchased a nice table top studio to perform this type of photography but still was not getting the exact results that she wanted from this kit.

The Kit she purchased included a nice fold down light tent and (2) 5000k Table top lights to light up the tent. For the Price she purchased this I felt she got a pretty good deal.

She now has her Table Top Studio setup but as I mentioned the photos lacked some luster. We were able to take a few of the tips from “How to Photography Jewelry” site and put them to use with her setup.

One of their recommendations was to use a nice plexiglass stand (White or Black) Black would have given a nicer reflection. Since we didn’t have time to order one we looked around to see what she had available. We used a white letter sized paper holder she had recently purchased from one of the Office Stores. (Sorry I don’t remember which one) This gave us the perfect surface to take her beaded jewelry photos on. One of the techniques we did use was to get a small bright light and place it under the letter tray to give us a nice bright white surface to highlight the jewelry.

Most importantly - Have fun and you don’t always have to purchase something “Photo Grade” to get the photo you want - Take a look around the house or office and see what you have that might make a good replacement. If it doesn’t work out - You can always delete the photos.

Digital Alan

Tags: Art, Jewelry, Camera, Hack, DIY, Photo, Photographing, Beads, Digital, Camera, Digital Camera

Did you ever just want to take a photo of a nice Fountain or Street Scene but there are way too many people around and no matter how much time you wait and wait you can not get the Magical Moment where there is not one straying into the foreground or background.

Well the FutureLab Group has come up with a solution. It is called the Tourist Remover. You may be asking if this is some sort of fancy Retouching service - Well No Not really - They require a series of photos taken of the same spot.

On their How to page the recommend that you use a tripod and use the manual metering to get a consistent color and area.

What happens with this service when you feed your photos into it. It will help you remove all the annoying distractions that you didn’t want in the photo.

Below is an example I copied from their website:

I can see this being useful at the Theme park or Historical Landmark and you want to get a great photo of the Disney Castle or National Landmark without all the inconsiderate people walking behind or in front of your camera.

Now to the that great image you create it afterwards by just taking a series of photo and piece the best parts together from each image.

I have performed this in the digital darkroom before by using Photoshop.
The Basic steps are as follows:

1) Take a series of photos 3 or more - The more the better of the same exact scene you want to have. Make sure you get all the background at various stages of the people walking or even cars (One photo the people on the left - One where they are on the right Don’t try to get them always at the same place or you will not have the background covered.) See above image.

2) Open all the images you have in Photoshop and put each image on a separate layer.

3) Starting at the top layer using the eraser tool Remove what you don’t want on that layer.

4) Switch to the next lowest layer Remove what you don’t want on that layer. Repeat with the next lower layer until you have all the items (People Cars Birds Etc..) Removed.

5) Flatten Image.

6) You now have a composite image of the scene without all the distractions.

You now should have that perfect image to be proud of. And it was quicker then hanging around half a day to get that perfect moment!

If would would like me to do a more detailed post about the above process - Email me or Post a comment.

Digital Alan

Tags: Art, Art+and+Photography, Digital, Digital+Camera, DIRECTIONS, DIY, Hacks, How+To, PHOTO, PHOTOGRAPHY, Photos, Photoshop, Technique, Tips, tool, travel

Today’s Photo Technique is “Taking better Photos at the Theme Park” - I should make this a series on Vacation Photos as lately it seems to be hints and tips on better Vacation Photos.

First off, I am a lover of theme parks and I could walk around them and take photos all day. In fact I did just that a few weeks ago. I went to the local amusement park - Kennywood Park - The Roller Coaster Capitol of the World. Take a look at their site and if you want to have a great time - Feel Free to visit - You will not regret going.

Today I gathered a few tips and techniques from some site and posted them here with some of my photos I took while at the Parks I love to visit and photograph.

The First tip from Kodak’s Guide is to look for Colorful Details - Look for things that will tell a story of your trip to the park. Look at the prizes you were trying to win. Take a look at the games you played. Take some photos to help you remember the things you did and played and won (or even lost)

Another Tips is to make sure to take some of the wonderful sights you will see at night. Taking photos of the Night Lights can be some dramatic photos.

Resources:
Kodak - Photographing at a theme park
Adobe Digital Kids Club tips: Theme Parks

Tags: Art+and+Photography, Digital, Digital+Camera, PHOTO, PHOTOGRAPHY, Photos, Theme, Park, Technique, Kennywood, Disney, Rollercoaster

I was over my brothers and ended up photographing my his cat - I was using my new lens a Canon 50mm f1.8 - I was putting it thru it is paces and when I got home - even though I had it on Auto White Balance the photos just didn't look right - they were too yellowish.

I wanted to get the natural color of the CK (CrazyKitty) so, I knew I had to play with the White Balance in Photoshop. I have done this before and decided to share this info with you readers.

I then did some searching and found the articles listed in the additional resources about White Balancing (Color Correcting) your Photos.

The articles are pretty interesting and very useful article on how to take a photo and make sure you get the correct colors you are seeing and not how the camera "Sees It".

In the Second article listed it shows the a list of some of the normal light sources and gives you their color temperature in K (Kelvin)
Basically the Lower(cooler temp) the number, such as a Candle Flame (1200K) or a 75-Watt Bulb (2,820K) the Warmer the color will become (More Yellowish)

You see this effect on my Photo on the left below (I shot this without flash under a 100 Watt Light Bulb).

The Higher the number (Higher Temp) Such as an Electronic Flash (5,400K) or a Clear Blue Sky (10,000K) the more Blueish (Cooler Colors) the photo becomes.

You can use many different program to current the white balance (Correct the Color Temperature) of the photo.

Several will allow you to to use the eye dropper tool to point to what should be White/Grey/Black in the photo and automatically adjust the rest of the photo accordingly for you.

Photoshop has a great tool for auto adjusting white balance. This is detailed in the bottom two articles.

My photos I took are here:

Original / Corrected

Please leave comments - and Don't forget to post some of your samples so we all can learn and share our techniques.

Additional Resources:
Understanding White Balance
What is White Balance
Photoshop - Color Balance Using Levels
Photoshop - Correcting White Balance

Have a Great Weekend.
DigitalAlan

Tags: Digital, Camera, Color, Photoshop, DIY, Hack, Technique, Tutorial, Art, Photography, Photo

Today - I found a older article (2002) from the BBC. This article explains that being a wedding photographer is not as easy as it sometimes looks. But there will possibly be a time that you are asked. And for some unknown reason you agree to take some wedding photos.

I have and it is a hard business. First, It is a one time event and you have to make sure you have all the right equipment and know how to take the right photos at the right moment. And make sure you have backup equipment if your main equipment fails. You don't want to say to the bride that sorry, I could not take any more photos my camera died.

As the Article states - It is supposed to be the most memorable day of your life - BUT, for many of us, the disappointment start when the wedding photos come back from the processor.

This article is based on a breakfast meeting with Lord Lichfield. He was speaking to the National Wedding Show.

The article list His Top Wedding Photo tips - Like:

* - Shoot some photos in black and white - It helps capture the atmosphere of the Big Day.
* - Make sure you know who the important family members are - Otherwise you will find strangers creeping into your valuable photographs.
* - A good photographer will know the most flattering angles but generally it is not standing square on the lens. Most People look best three quarters facing the camera, with their shoulder towards it and the head turned.

Click here For Complete Tips and Article

Additional Resources:
Starting out with Wedding Technique
Wedding Photography - With list of Normal Shots

Tags: Camera, Wedding, Tips, How+To, DIY, Photography, Photo, Techniques