First, thank you to everyone for sharing yourselves in so many ways with this project! I feel so blessed that I am part of this group! :o)
Colorful photos are so important for a blog (which I’m still in the process of starting with encouragement from many of you) Could you tell me which and what camera I would need to get the lovely colorful bead details I’m seeing in all your blogs? I’d appreciate any help you could give me :o)
Thanks again,
Lillian
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I have a Canon Powershot SD630.
It is easy to use and downloading photos to your computer is easy too.
All of my photos have been taken with it. Plus it has digital macro, it can make beads look like the size of donuts!
To see photos go to http://lunacblog.blogspot.com
Thanks Brenda. I have visited your blog and enjoyed what I've seen. Lillian
I have a Canon SD450 which is a pocket one. It also has digital macro and a great regular macro. It does pretty good for me and I have been very happy with it, although I keep thinking about a digital SLR now. Or rather since this project started. All but one picture on my blog have been taken with it. The one that was another camera is also a Canon, a Power Shot G2, one of the older ones, but still very good.
Here is my blog: http://nancybead-misc.blogspot.com/
I think that any camera with 5+ megapixels, and macro and super macro functions, you can't really go wrong. I have the cheapest digital that I could find, and it is great. If you look at earlier photos on my blog , and compare them to the latest pics, there is a huge difference ( especially with detail shots). The camera was 2 megapixels. I thought it was great at the time. LOL
Buy the best you can afford, but you don't need to sell you first born son to get half decent results.
For Christmas my husband got me an HP photsmart M517. It's not fancy but the pictures on my blog were taken with it. It came with a photo printer and can be bought at Walmart. My daughter got one also and she uses the printer a lot. I love it for downloading it to the computer. If I got to pick one I would probably go a little fancier but then I wouldn't have the printer which can be taken anywhere; it doesn't need the computer to work.
Thank you Nancy K-I have seen your wonderful photos :o)
I appreciate the explanations Jo :o)
And as always Timaree you're so helpful-great photos :o)
Thanks all,
Lillian
I use a casio 4 megapixel with a macro feature and a panasonic Lumix dmc-fz7 with macro and zoom macro, but as freebird said, almost any of the newer digitals will do well...just make sure it has a macro feature (both of mine can shoot from less than an inch or two away from the beads...which is closer than I usually get, but it's a fun feature to have).
I use a Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixels. It also has the macro. It takes great bead pics and works well for people and landscapes.
Arline
Just to be different, I scan my jewellery. I have a flatbed scanner
A4 size, so just lay them out and have some silk/satin squares I lay over the top for a nice background.
(Not needed for project pages) I scan at 300 dpi and use 50% reduction then reduce that image down. Software is Irfan View which is a FREE download and FREE to use. Easy to set up also!
http://www.irfanview.net
I'm into Canon, too, using a (older) Powershot G3. Since recentely I also have the possibility to play with the Canon powershot a570, a very new camera.
Besides the mentioned features it depends if you are willing to look more inside the how-to of picture taking. Than you should get one that gives you manual control, e.g. time and aperture, like the two I mentioned.
If not look for good reports on "automatic use".
I am a Nikon girl all the way, I have had Nikons since 1986 and love them. That said I agree with the others unless you are planning to enter contests and need slightly more professional photos most of the point and shoot digitals they have mentioned will work great.
If you want your colors to be truer I would recomend that you consider taking photos outside when possible, use a middle value background and preferably diffused light (light shadow). My colors always come out much better when I shoot outside.
Good luck Angie
This is such an important question/subject... thanks for bringing it up, Lillian!
I use an older Sony Cybershot 707, which I like because of the feature enabling me to turn the CRT viewing screen to 90 degrees either side of the lens. However, I agree with everyone who says it doesn't much matter what digital camera you use, as long as it has macro capabilities.
Much more important than the brand of camera is the lighting, and knowing how to adjust and size the images.
I agree totally with Angie, that taking photos outside under lightly overcast skies gives the best results. You don't want shadows or, even worse, the obnoxious white-out areas caused by light hitting the reflective shine of glass beads. Often I wait days to get the right light... (my excuse for not posting more often???) and sometimes I shoot under full cloud cover (images need to be adjusted in this case).
After lighting, the next most important thing is being able to crop the image and to adjust the brightness, contrast, color shift, sharpness, etc. I use Photoshop CS for this, but I think Photoshop Elements (which is cheaper and easier to learn) would work well too.
Finally, it's important to be able to adjust the size of your image for the web. If your camera is over 4 megapixels, the full-sized image will be too large for most web applications. Downsized images need to be sharpened to look their best.
Thank you so much("beadbabe", "beadlady", "nospoj", Tally, Angela and Robin) for all the great detailed information about cameras, lighting, etc. Now I can go do some homework :o) Lillian
One thing that helps for lighting - a do-it-yourself filter - is to photograph things in a deep white, semi-translucent storage bin (Rubbermaid or somesuch). But cloudy afternoon light is really fabulous.
I usually run around trying different locations and angles - and if you keep it up, you finally get something with a minimum of light refraction and color distortion. Note though - I have it from a pro that purple is just a pain to capture, even if you're an expert!
Thanks LJ :o) Lillian
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