taking pictures

[Corey]

Is there a book or something that can tell me how to take pictures of my beads and jewelery. I'd like to put some on etsy but whenever i do take pictures their terrible. I have a kodak digital camera 4.0 mega pixels. I have no money to buy a new camera and am a computer idiot
I would love any help I can get. Thanks

[Ellen Altamore]

Did your camera come with a booklet? I read mine cover to cover about a million times so far. I also found a website specifically designed for my camera.
Does your camera have a macro setting? That makes a big difference. Lighting is also crucial. Just keep reading here and anywhere else you can find info and PPP - just like making beads.
Hopefully, someone else who knows a lot more than me will chime in.

[Corey]

Thanks, I guess I never thought about reading the book. I still don't think my camera will be good enough.

[Beckah]

Which Kodak do you have?

[lenora]

Do you have a sample picture? There are lots of great photographers here who could look at your picture and give lots of great advice. There are also some great threads with loads of information about bead photography. I had a Kodak Easyshare for a while, but it didn't take great pictures. I would also suggest a tripod and a good photoediting software program.

[Beckah]

Originally Posted by Corey

Thanks, I guess I never thought about reading the book. I still don't think my camera will be good enough.

Four megapixels is plenty to work with and the Kodak cameras do take good photos. The Easyshare software (which comes with all the Kodak cameras) is not a great piece of software but you can transfer your photos to Photoshop Elements or software of that type for working with your photos -- Scott's Levels tutorial is a great place to start to learn about editing your photos. However, if you have the money to purchase a new camera -- I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you pick a Kodak -- maybe you'd be happier just purchasing a different brand.

[Cabaribeads]

I use Irfanview.com and it is so simple and SO good for editing.

[Corey]

Thanks everybody! I'll be working on my picture taking.

[Kevan]

Lighting, tripod, photo manipulation.

You aren't going to get good photos without those three things. Some people take them outside in the shade, and that will work, but no one who has good photos is using photos right off their camera. You have to lighten them, crop them maybe sharpen them.

[Emily]

Look at your manual. Your camera probably has a way for you to set the white balance, which will cut down on the amount of tweaking that you later have to do in your photo processing program. Typically they'll let you set it for different kinds of lighting -- it might say "indoor," "outdoor," "daylight," "bright sunlight," or something like that, or it might say "fluorescent," "incandescent," "halogen," "tungsten." From my totally non-expert viewpoint, I prefer to do the custom white balance, which means that when you're getting ready to take your picture, you hold up something white so that it fills the lens and press whatever buttons the manual tells you to press so that the camera "learns" that under those lighting conditions, the color it's looking at is white. Just keep a white card or a white piece of fabric by your bead set up. You might have to do it for each photo-taking session, but not for each photo. It shouldn't be too much trouble once you get used to doing it, and it really helps.

Tripod is important. You want to get close in to take good pictures of small things like beads, and you're going to need slow shutter speeds, so your camera has to be perfectly steady, steadier than you can hold it. Your camera probably has a timer feature, where you can set it so that the shutter doesn't click until two to ten seconds after you press the button. Use it. Even the little bit of shake that is caused by you pressing the button can make your photos look out of focus. You can also eliminate this shaking by getting a cord with a bulb on the end of it that plugs into your camera so that you can stand away from the camera and trigger the shutter by squeezing the bulb, but that's an extra cost. You probably have the timer feature already.

Set your camera on macro (look for the little tulip symbol) and get as close as you can. Your camera may have an autofocus light that tells you when the autofocus is working. Mine turns green when it's focused. If it stays red and blinky, it can't get a focus for some reason. Sometimes that means that I'm close in and have forgotten to turn on macro. Sometimes the subject is really shiny or otherwise distracting, and the autofocus just can't handle it. I try taking the picture anyway and see what happens. (There's a focus lock trick, where you can focus the camera on something the same distance away as your tricky subject, hold the shutter halfway down, then turn the camera back to your tricky subject and finish pressing the shutter.)