Best Way to Take Pictures?

[KrWz]

Hey guys and gals. Just wondering how you''re all taking such great looking pictures of you diamonds and rings. I''ve tried to take a couple of pictures with my digital camera close up but they almost always come out blurry or there''s some glare. I''m using a 3.2 mega pixel camera and i''ve tried it with and without zoom but no real luck. Any tips? Thanks!

 

[belle]

you need to find your camera''s macro mode and use it to focus if you want a close-up shot. the key to any good photo is to make sure the camera and the subject are both v e r y still. if you don''t have a tripod, you can set the camera on a flat (and stable) surface for balance. hope that helps!

practice practice practice!

 

[dietvanillacoke]

i use the timer because i find that pushing the button down makes my hand move.

another tip: take them in the bathroom! the lighting in there is the best.

i don''t know what kidn of camera you have, and i''m not very technically savvy with mine, but i find that the "flower and S" setting on mine (it''s a pentax) works perfectly as long as i''m a little far away for it to focus.

 

[belle]

oh yes! the timer...what a great idea!!

handy

 

[KrWz]

hmm ok sounds like the ''flower'' setting might be for outdoor mode. Ok i''ll check my camera for the settiings mentioned. My bathroom lights are a low wattage fluorescent white light which my camera doesnt like so i''ll try some natural sunlight. I took a couple but they were either out of focus or just too dark. Maybe its just the ring! doh! hehe Ah well...thanks for your help all!

 

[mrssalvo]

the little flower is usually macro mode - for focusing on small things- it has nothing to do with indoor/outdoor
the mountain - is used for big things like outside landscapes and such...

i find pics turn out nice when taken outside/no flash with the sun behind me. it gives enough light to show the ring without a glare. good luck..

 

[FireGoddess]

actually, as mrssalvo said, the flower icon usually denotes the "macro" mode, which i always use when photographing jewelry - it allows the camera to focus better when taking closeup shots. i also turn off the flash, and then take photos in all different lighting conditions.

 

[KrWz]

Great! Thanks for the info! I hope my ring has a feature for taking pictures of smaller items. I posted up a picture of the e-ring I purchased on another thread titled "E-Ring Princess Cut w/ Sides - It finally arrived!"

I''ll take some more pictures later today and hopefully they come out better. Thanks again for your help!

 

[websailor]

All the above advice was great!

I''ll add three other things:

1) don''t be afraid to experiment. Especially if you have a digital camera. For example see some of the pictures where the ring(s) are on a flower

2) watch your background...it might be too white or too dark for showing good details.

3) if the picture is blurry, just delete it

...it won''t show up on PS well if it doesn''t look at least okay on your PC....you can always take more pictures.


Some folks have taken some great shots through a loupe (I haven''t myself so I can''t give you much advice here). I know it''s been written about as to how to do that. Most of the time, the macro pictures will be fine.


I didn''t see anyone mention this, but when you upload the pics to PS they cannot be any larger than 100kb. Ususally your default camera settings will produce pictures much bigger than that. Use some photo editing software and save your pictures at no more than 600 pixels wide or high, and lower the quality/resolution when you save them as a jpg file. Make sure the file name is unique (i.e., PS probably already has a file called myring.jpg....maybe not myring_01234.jpg though). File names are visiable, so don''t give away any info (like your name) that you don''t want to....

Cropping the picture to include just what you want helps too.

And ask any other questions if you run into problems!!!!

 

[KrWz]

I just picked up a new 5.1 megapixel digital camera that has video recording functions which should all come in handy. The new camera has that flower (macro mode) and the difference in the clarity of the pics so close up compared to my other camera is great! No more blurry pics and I was even able to capture some light back! Thanks again! Enjoy!

 

[AChiOAlumna]

WOW!!! That new camera really picks up the fire of this diamond!! That''s gorgeous!!

 

[Jennifer5973]

Cool shot! Gorgeous!

 

[belle]

wow!

blindingly beautiful!