Digital camera advice, pics of jewelry & woodwork

Depending on your camera it might be difficult to take good pictures of really small items. Each camera has a "minimum distance" in which it can still focus so look at yours. Some cameras have a "macro mode" which allows you to get closer.

Try these links:

http://www.shortcourses.com/using/tabletop/chapter7.htm

http://pages.prodigy.net/ecmorris/tips/closeup.htm

http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=article_021604

Also, you "will" need a good tripod. I'm guessing you knew that.. :thm:

you should have a macro mode or even a super macro mode .. and also i discovered a manual focus on my camera .. im a newbie and kinda scared to mess around with camera settings on my own unless ive been showed it .. but i noticed in manual focus that you can get alot closer to the subject then in auto focus .. and for stuff like jewelery .. build a light box something small and cover the back and sides and top and use a colored background then use 2 to 3 desk lamps shinning on it thru the coverings .. and also a good trick so you dont get to much glare on the subject is take a hard white plastic like cut a piece out from the plastic milk jugs and hold it over the flash .. it will help difusse the flash some .. ive tried that and it helps .. sometimes you can see the lens when the flash goes off right at the bottom of the pic.. so the plastic diffuseing the flash helps that ...

good luck with it all

Marn

Mako said:

Looking for some advice on taking digital pics of small items like jewelry (necklaces, bracelets) and wood carvings (bowls, candle holders, etc...).

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For a somewhat 'professional look', you can use different colors of velvet for the background on the subjects you mentioned. Don't just lay the cloth straight out, but make the cloth have some waves and curves to it. You don't want it to look too "busy" with too many wrinkles, but rather a backdrop with some texture... Only the cloth should be in the background.

I got some cash from E-bay selling some really ugly type of dishes - I took a few photos of the dishware and I think the cloth backdrop helped sell the things!