The following are
snippets of an online conversation on the subject of taking photos and/or
photo-editing, taken from The Mellow Bead, an eBay discussion group founded by
Laura Bracken:
What I do, is take my pictures in my window, but
not in the direct sunlight. I always have my Macro on, and always use a flash.
I usually don't point the camera directly onto the subject so I don't usually
have a glare on beads, or silver. I have a Fuji FinePix
A310. It's 3.0 megapixels. I
then use Adobe Elements to remove the background. (I shoot on a couple pieces
of white computer paper). Sharpen once, and Voila 
Jen
Hmmm, I usually take mine in a photobox I made with two round lights. If it's sunny
outside, I go out there sometimes. I shoot on a hard, scrapbookers white background paper. I have a Sony Cybershot and use my macro too. Oh and yes on the flash
part, even outside. It takes a much better pic, in my
opinion. I use Jasc software and the only thing I
usually have to do is resize and I'm good to go. HTH
Krissa
I am still learning..... but
do use the scrap book paper as backgrounds - I find the black background comes
out the clearest (IMHO) but have been told that black is not good. Everything I
do on white or light colors comes out whitewashed looking.... 
I have a Sony Mavica 2.1 megapixils and I use to macro setting and flash as well. I
edit in Adobe Photoshop elements... I crop, border, sharpen, etc with that
(thanks to laura ). I look forward to keeping up with this thread as I am always
interested in learning new tricks.
I did once have a photo box of types... made it myself
with 4 spot lights (inside those clip lights) and a white sheet etc. well I
never could get that to work and it was more headache than it was worth so I
gave up with that....
Hugs, Melanie
Hi,
For small items that give you light proublems,glare
ect,istead of a $400. light difusion
outfit,try a off white almost clear milk
jug(free),cut out bottom of jug,place over item,take lid off(duhh)and place camera
over hole,use delay timer(mines built in),that keeps
camera from moving when pic. is
taken.One of 101 uses for old milk jugs.Have not come up with other 100 uses yet but give me
time.
shawneejack/3bears
Here's a photo of my super hi-tek professional photo studio:
Yes, that's a pet cone and an ott-lite.
Lori
I use a work light and the box I made out foam
board. the white reflect the light. I use a Kodac DX4900 (4.0 mp). I use the macro setting, but I don't
use a flash. I change my exposure settings to allow more light and I change the
light setting to tungsten. I rarely do more than crop and resize. I think it
just takes some experimenting to see what works best for your camera.
Chris
Lori, That is an awesome idea.... and I have
an Ott light already (These can be bought in large
discount craft stores ladies... they are pretty pricy bit it is a 
Lori, my questions is where does your camera go??? I mean
do you shoot down into the hole on top?
Melanie
Krissa -
yep, shoot right down the hole on top. I usually move the lamp toward the back
of the cone, I stand in front of the cone and shoot
the picture down through the hole.
The pet cone was $12 at my vet's office so I am sure they
would be less money at a big chain store. The ott-lite
was $30 and I bought it at a geeky electronics mega-store in their computer
furniture department. So, the whole set up cost $42. Not bad for less than 50
bucks!
Lori
Here's my photo setup. I have a light tent, two
desk lamps with flexible necks, and fluorescent bulbs that give off the
equivalent of
Suzannah
The only equipment I use is a tripod and my
camera which is a Minolta Dimage S414. I shoot
outside on my patio on a sunny day but in the shade with the macro feature on
and the flash off.
Natlee
Here is a tip I just read on the internet.
Sometimes you take a series of pictures of the same
subject and wonder what the conditions were that made one picture turn out
better than the others.
Ever wish you had taken notes on what the camera settings
were for that particular image? Well, your camera takes notes for you! That's
right! And.....it is very easy to access that information. Here's how....
While viewing an image on your computer, hold the cursor
over the image and click the RIGHT mouse button. A popup menu will open and the
bottom item in the menu list should be Properties. Click on Properties
and the Properties window will open. Select the Summary tab and then
select Advanced. You should now see a long list of information about
that image. Image size and other general information will be near the top.
Lower down in the list will be the exact settings of the camera at the time the
image was taken.
This detailed information, known as EXIF data, will not be
found in all digital images. But you should be able to find it for any image
taken by a recent vintage digital camera so long as the image format has not
been changed from the original. The steps above show how to access this EXIF
information from Windows. You can also get to the same information from most
imaging programs like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
Karen
Your image has to be in the camera's raw
format...in other words, the original picture from the camera BEFORE editing.
Patty...do you see a button on the summary page that says Advanced?
If so, click on that and it should bring up the info, if your camera is
equipped with the technology to record this info.
Karen
Hi....
What does ISO stand for in a camera setting??
Thank you!
Smiles....
Liz
ISO=International Standards Organization
The speed of the film
Laura
Thank you...
So how do I know where to set the darn thing?
Smiles...
Liz
Like if you're shooting in really dark
conditions without flash or you high-speed sporting events or something and you
need a film that will soak up light really quickly, you go for a higher #...
400-1000 or thereabout.
If you're taking close-ups or pictures on a tripod, you go
for a SLOW light-absorbing film (100 or less).
Average is 200.
The higher the film speed, the grainier your picture will
be.
You set it to match the film you put in your
camera. :D
What you're doing is telling your camera what film is in
it at that moment, so it knows how to adjust the light metering.
Laura
This setting is on my digital camera! There
is NO film....Appreciate this help Laura.
Smiles...
Liz
Oh well then set it to 100. J
You'll get clear shots from that.
Laura
When might you want a different ISO setting
on your camera?
If you're shooting somewhere and your camera tells you
there's not enough light there to shot without a flash, but for some reason you
can't (or dont' want to) use your flash. Then you can
change the camera's ISO to a higher number and the camera will let in more
light as it takes the picture (taking away the need for flash).
Or... if the shot you want requires a slow shutter speed
(like a close-up in low light conditions), but you don't have the ability to
hold the camera still by yourself for like 1/60th of a second, you can switch
to a higher ISO there too. Then the shutter will go faster.
The downside? Noise. I'm out of time so can't get into
the details of noise, but just remember, for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction.
If you need to shoot at a higher ISO, you will sacrifice
SOME of your quality. Maybe not much, but some.
Laura
Things to try when
photographing reflective jewelry.
No flash, not even near a window.
You need controlled lights and diffusers.
Try building a "soft box" where the light comes
evenly from all angles (as opposed to reflectors).
What you're looking for is a broad, soft, simplified
light.
Get a bristol board if you
can... it's very white and very smooth. (Graphic arts
store)
And get some velum, like architects use. Try for a sheet
about 16x20 or so. You might only be able to find it in rolls, though.
Attach the velum to a frame (as tautly as possible) and
there you have a diffuser.
DO NOT be exactly perpendicular to your earrings.
Now, you're going to shoot between the propped up white
board and the diffuser.
Also, experiment with letting more light into your camera
with the ISO.
Laura
Patty, can I take one of those last pictures
you showed me and comment on it here in public? Or am I annoying the heck out
of you?
Laura
Actually, I was noticing how people were
commenting that the zoom feature (which is also the macro feature) didn't make
for very clear photos.
Anyway, here's one of the last photos you sent, following
my suggestion to have the earrings in the center of a large shot.
Stupid me, though, I forgot to mention that NOTHING
One other thing is, try not to have something cutting the
earring background into a section. See how you have the shot lined up so where
the two pieces of cardboard meet, there is a line... right smack in the middle
of where the earrings are.
However, this is still the best shot so far,
I would like you to keep trying until you get the perfect
focus, but there's no shame in this picture...
Laura
May I inject here, although I am NO where near
an expert at this, I was having a problem with the focus on my pics so I made a box much like Laura has suggested, sat it
on the floor so I would be photographing if from a front angle rather then
straight down as I was. I stood my tripod as high as it would go and stood back
about3 feet. I then set the timer and voila...the pic
came out a lot crisper.
Hope I have maybe helped just a teeny weeny
bit.
Smiles....
Liz
I don't think it is you Patty. I think it is
your camera. You have been able to take some pretty clear shots, just not close
up ones.
Karen
Stephanie, when I first saw you necklace my
jaw dropped. It's GORGEOUS!!!
The photo did seem a little washed out to me. I took your
photo and altered it just a tad... I'd be curious to know your opinion.
I hope hope hope
hope hope you take NO
offense to this. We all just help one another here, totally unsolicited. HA HA HA!
Laura
I found that when I took pictures on anything
other than dead flat background, it... changed things.... even a white t-shirt
would be obnoxious in clear focus.
I try not to shoot on textured backgrounds.
Usually white is the least distracting... but everyone has
personal preferences and you should use what YOURS is.
Laura
Okay....I just made this bracelet with some
earrings. It is natural blue chalcedony....very pale blue color. No matter what
I do I cannot get the background right without messing with the color of the
beads. This picture has the right color of beads. I went outside...inside....in
a box...by my van....on the desk...in some dirt....on a log......I can't get
it. Any suggestions anyone?????
I am going to take my kids to Taco Bell because I don't
feel like cooking. When I get back I better have some answers!!!!!
(Kidding....I'm just kidding!)
Lynnie
or...
Laura
Laura, good job on the
photo fix-ups. My two cents is that I like the first
one better. What is that gradient paper you use under your pictures?
Lynnie, I like the bracelet. Sometimes I think taking a good picture
of jewelry is harder than actually making them.
~Carole
Thanks Carole... I also thought the first one
would be more like the true colors, but Lynnie
insists that the colors are spot-on in her pic.
I couldn't find any gradient paper anywhere so I had to
make my own. Just made a gradient background and printed it out on photo paper.
Laura
Okay okay.....the
color DOES seem too dark with the light background. How did you do
it????......again I have to ask. I pressed control L and clicked around and it
just went crazy....like toooooooooooo white and tooo dark and looked really really
grainy. I thought I had it all figured out but nooooooooooooooo.
I'm a dork.
Thanks for your help.....I'm going to go slave over the
picture of the earrings now!!!
Lynnie
You're not a dork, and don't you DARE slave
over a picture.
I did CTRL+L, and I got lucky... the first spot I touched
presented what you see in my first pic. A 5-second
fix and YES, you can do it too.
Open your pic, do CTRL+L, click
on the little eye-dropper icon to the far right (that's for setting the
"white point")... then click right here... (but
on YOUR pic.... not on my pic
with the red circle... I'm just showing you where to click)... and once you've done
that and you see how easy it is, I'll tell you what to look for.
Laura
If you're color correcting for the white
point, here's the following criteria I use:
Do not click in a shadow
Try to find the already whitest spot
If you're picture (like yours did) tends to get darker
toward the outer edges... definitely click closer to the jewelry (but not in a
shadow)
It's not always something that is white in reality that
you want to click on... I can often see the dead-white border of my photo paper
in the shot, but it doesn't always color correct correctly if I click on
that... even though I *KNOW* it's supposed to be white... so you often do have
to just click around until you find the spot
Remember, you're COLOR CORRECTING... so set your mind back
a few feet each time you click and don't say, "Hey, I like that!"... wait until you say, "There, those are the exact colors
of the piece!"
Laura
Hey Laura,
Great tips, but I did want to add that there are times
when I can click on a very pale shadow near the edges to get the best from my
beads too. It really is a trial and error sort of thing. MOST of the time I
click in the whitest spot that is closest to the beads, but sometimes that is
too much....then I click on a faint shadow near the edge of a picture.
I suspect it has more to do with light angles and camera
settings too. ???????
Serena
Perfect advice, Serena... and you're right...
the best thing to do is be able to momentarily separate yourself from the item
and just click around until you see the right picture.
Laura
I agree. I always have the piece at the
computer with me for comparison.
~Carole
Okay, I went to HD last night and bought PVC
pipe, fittings and halogen bulbs, already have my white fabric and
lamps.......now how do I make a photo cube with the fabric? Anyone have a pic?
Christina
I don't have a picture, but basically you just
put PVC together to form a cube and fit your fabric around it. I cheated and
bought a frame type thing already assembled.
~Carole
Carole, I would too. Those small laundry bag
holders work well as PVC frames.
Laura
Can anyone tell me where I can find
instructions for PhotoShop Elements for dummies? I need to find out how to
eliminate the background in my photos of my jewelry and the help section in the
software doesn't help me. So sad when you can't even understand the help!
Natlee
I end up with shadows sometimes too, and would
love to know how to make the background a flat white... Thanks!
Donna
Start with an in-focus close-up shot of your
item, preferably on white background (really white, like typing paper or
something).
The 2nd icon on right column of your movable PE menu that
looks like a magic wand is…. Your "magic wand".
We'll be using that.
So click on the wand, but don't touch anything else yet.
Once you click on the wand, it changes some of the options
on the top menus.
You will see a box with a word next to it that says
"TOLERANCE".
I have mine set at 30, but for other problems, we'll talk
about changing your tolerance level (later).
Okay, now click somewhere on the background of your
picture but NOT in any shadow from your item.
Think about it this way… the magic wand will SELECT an
area for you. What it's looking for is things that are similar. If you set your
tolerance to 100 then click the wand, it will basically choose EVERYTHING. If
you chose a
I find that 30 is a good starting point for the wand to
select everything that ISN'T my jewelry.
So I click on the background and it selects an area AROUND
the bracelet and earrings.
Now if we do "the thing we're going to do" right
now at THIS point, we'll end up with some way too sharp edges between our white
background and our item and its shadows. So what we're going to do is soften
those edges by "feathering" them.
So you should still see your "marching ants"
(selected areas with blinking dots around them). Now you can either go CTRL+
This will bring up a little pop up "Feather
Selection" menu where you will pick "3" as the number of pixels
for your feathering radius (feel free to experiment with that at a later time
too).
Then click okay.
Now you still have your marching ants, and you've told the
feathering to go to 3 pixels, now hit your DELETE key and what was selected
should turn stark white.
See that little patch of gray in the lower right hand
corner? You can take care of that by repeating what we just did. But only on that area. (No need to feather this time.)
You will notice that things which are very close to white
end up rather lost (the leverbacks).
If I set my "tolerance" to 20, it leaves more of
the earwire…. But it also leaves more of the gray
background.
Which can then be cleaned up on its own
if you wish (as the lone gray spot before).
These instructions will give you the basic idea of how to
make a white background. Do lots of experimenting on your own in PE to find
exactly how YOU want to do it.
Laura
Where can I find borders in my Photoshop? Sorry
for being so dumb about this program.
Tonya
There are different ways to do borders.
Are you using Photoshop Elements?
Laura
I'd love to hear more tuts
on borders. I think the simple ones are good too, but fancier ones would be
nice to have on hand as well.
For the fancier
borders in PE... It's EFFECTS (from the tab menu at the top
right)... the FRAMES.
Laura
We were talking about my photos in another
thread last weekend. And Laura asked me some questions for which I now have
answers.
It was me, not my camera screwing up. I did not have it on
the highest resolution setting. I do now. I didn't know how to use the timer
and I do now. I also bought a light tent.
Judy
I think your pictures are fabulous. Your
jewelry is so awesome, I think it's super important
for you to have the best pictures possibe. :D
You might want a little fill-flash... not sure...
Laura
Oh yes, that does look better! You're right
too - I needed to learn more about better pictures - still have more to learn
also. Uh, how does one do "fill-flash"?
Judy
There's a feature on PE... ENHANCE, FILL
FLASH
Laura
Laura -- where's the tut on making the background paper for dark fading
to light?!
Gigi
To do it in WORD…
Set "VIEW" to Print Layout
Set percentage of document viewed to WHOLE
Go to
Make sure you can see your "DRAWING TOOLBAR"
(View, Toolbars, Drawing... should have a checkmark)
Then, if you place your mouse OVER each icon on the
Drawing Toolbar, it will say what it does... stop at the one that says
"Rectangle"
Then with your mouse, draw a rectangle on the page... then
grab the corner handles and drag it around until it pretty much takes up the
whole page.
Then right click on the rectangle and select FORMAT
AutoShape
Then select the tab that says COLORS
For
Then go up to FILL, and and
scroll down to FILL EFFECTS
Go to the GRADIENT tab
Select Two Colors (not really necessary when working with
white, but I do it from habit)
Pick your two colors (I used black and white)
Then go down to SHADING styleS
and VARIANTS and pick which way you want it to look (I did black on top, white
on bottom, horizontal)
Or you can use the gradient tool from Adobe
Photoshop...
Laura
Does it say somewhere in this thread how to
get more than one colored border around photos on Photoshop Elements? Thanks!
Natlee
Do CTRL+A to select the whole picture
Go Edit
Stroke
Then select a color and a width (experiment with 10 first)
and click ok
Then do the same thing again, but the second time, make
your width smaller.
Laura
Okay, here is the
Jael
Choose your photo.
Choose text from the tools menu "T"
Type in your name/business.
Here is what the tool bar looks like with Text
option selected:
Bevel the text layer:
I used "Simple Inner"
Go to Layer styles menu, and
select Visibility
Choose "hide"
and there you have it!!
Flatten the picture and save!
If you choose "ghosted" it is more
visible, but that may be what you want.
Hope this helps
Jael
Okay, I'm going to go (as best as I can) step
by step from the point of having a raw photo.
I'm posting the URL to this first photo, too, so you can
copy it into PE (Photoshop Elements) or any similar photo-editing program and
follow right along with the instructions.
So… the first thing is my massive ('cause I always shoot
in high-def mode) basic bare bones raw photo…
BTW, what you see HERE is about 1/4th the size that you'll
get if you go to the URL… if you only copy THIS one, I'm not sure what size it
will show up as on your computer, so if it doesn't show up as HUGE, then go get
it off the URL… http:/
The first thing to do is take this massive photo, crop and
resize it.
To crop, find the "crop" icon and drag the mouse
over the area you want to keep, making a square or a rectangle.
BTW, I don’t have the time to write an entire manual, so
I'll be leaving certain things out, like directing you precisely TO your
"crop" icon. Some things you'll just have to figure out on your own
or by all means ask.
Okay, so you've got your (we'll just call it a) square
marking the portion of your picture you want to keep. Please notice that I
leave room AROUND my item. Try not to crop too close to the edges of the item,
and don't crop with so much margin that your item is a
small thing in the center either.
The next step is resizing. If your item looks okay on the
screen, but you see that you're viewing it at 25%, you know you're going to
have to resize it to about 25% of its original size.
For this one, I chose 40%.
So now we've cropped to our working area and we're
resized. Now we do a color thing.
The reason I shoot on a white background is for this step
alone. I am going to tell the photo-editing software that my background was
white, and then it can fix all the other colors in the photo like they're
supposed to be. You see, once it knows what
So… do a CTRL+D to remove the dotted crop lines if they're
still there. Then do CTRL+L and a pop-up comes up.
There are 3 eyedroppers above the word "preview" (which should be
checked, btw). Click the one on the far right; it will light up.
Now click somewhere on the photo where it's supposed to be
white (meaning somewhere on the background but NOT in a shadow. You can
continue to click in different places, too, until you feel you found a good
spot.
When you found what you want, click OK in the pop up box.
Then it will disappear and we're now working with something that should look
like this:
This will be your basic photo. From here you can do a few
things but be judicious… too much of a good thing isn't always the wisest
choice. I happen to know one eBay seller who over-sharpens her photos to the
point of being ridiculous.
Of course, all of this is a moot point if your picture
isn't in focus or your item is teeny tiny on the screen or you shot a blue
bracelet on a blue background or any of the other millions of things we all
learn about the hard way.
Now, here are some of the things you can use SPARINGLY,
Fill-Flash
Sharpen
Contrast
Borders
Frames
To add text (a copyright notice, for example), click on
the capital T icon. Place your cursor where you want the text to be and then
type. Your font choices, sizes, colors and attributes are all on a menu bar
that should have popped up when you hit the T-text icon.
After you type your desired text, hover over the words
until you see the cross-hairs with which you may then
Now, your text is a layer in the picture that you see on
your monitor. That means PE thinks of your picture as two things. The photo is
one thing and the text you drew in is another. You can't save this as a jpg
until you compress (or smash) those layers together.
Go to LAYER on the top menu bar, and click on the last
choice, "Flatten Image".
Now you may save your file (I use Image Quality 6).
Okay, those are some basics. From here was can go
backwards and forwards with questions, ideas, tips, suggestions, etc.
Laura
Wow!!!! What an amazing difference! You can
now see the colors in the beads! Super cool Ms. Laura!
Patty
Well, that's why I try to tell people to
shoot on a white background and NOT worry about what their picture looks like
until they've done the color correcting.
But the less you do to a picture, the better...
Laura
Hey Laura, you once fixed a pic for me and faded it out on the sides, or softened the
edges. In fact I sent you the same pic, the necklace
with the rubies. Can you tell me how to do that? That was too cool!
Patty
Okay, here's the picture we have to start
with…
Huge, original photo: http:/
The
first thing I'm going to do is resize and crop.
I'm going for 50% of the original this time. It will be a
little too large for some people, taking up most of their monitor, but for some
pieces you just need it big for the right effect.
Here it is after I've resized and cropped…
Now I'm going to try to color correct, assuming that's a
white bust the necklace is on.
Now I'm going to get rid of that thing in the lower right
corner. I will mark a small rectangle just above that number and copy (CTRL+C),
then I CTRL+D to get rid of THAT square and make a new square over the thing I
want to get rid of. Then I paste (CTRL+V) what I had copied onto the thing I
want to cover up.
Then I flatten the layers.
I don't have the piece in front of me, but I use my best
guess to say that picture's a little washed out. So I SLIGHTLY increase the
contrast, then do a bit of a fill-flash to remove some
of the shadows and lighten up some of the contrast effect.
Next, I do one step of sharpening.
Okay, then you say you want to
see what it looks like with some fancy edging.
I think when I first met you, I
was going through my "light effects" phase, so maybe it looked
something like this…
Laura
THAT'S IT!!!!! Okay, now how did you do that?
Patty
Um...
I removed the hardcore black frame, shrank the picture to about 60%, selected a
large portion of the picture then went to effects and put a "Vintage"
frame effect on it.
Don't forget to squash your layers.
Laura
Another thing you can do, for perfect focus,
is set you timer. Then you don't have to be anywhere NEAR
the camera when it takes the picture.
Laura
Laura...I was wondering if you would do your
magic with a pic of mine and let me know what you did
to it, please. Then I promise I will not ask again. I THINK I am getting
the hang of it. If so, should I post the link to it here or email you the link?
I have done nothing to it.
With A Smile...
Liz
Gorgeous bracelet, Liz!!!
Here's the picture you gave us to start with…
The first thing is to crop so that I have a workable
photo-size area…
I don't need to resize your photo, 'cause when I view it
at 100%, it's just the size I want.
Next is trying to get some color correction.
I did CTRL+L and brought up the color correction pop-up
box, then I clicked on the 3rd eyedropper (closest to the right) just above the
word PREVIEW (which, remember, IS checked).
I clicked in three different places on your picture (upper
left, lower right, upper right) until I found the exact tones I wanted.
Click OK in the color corrections pop-up box and we move
on.
After this, you don't want to do too much. I did a 5%
fill-flash.
Then I did a one-notch sharpening.
That's pretty much it.
You can then, if you want, add borders, copyright notices,
etc.
Laura
Remember not to over-sharpen. I never go more
than
As to the fill-flash, it's ENHANCE (from the top menu bar)
then Fill Flash... there's a scale you can slide... I only did 5 for Liz's pic.
Also remember, always shoot your
pictures in as high a resolution as possible. You can NEVER (in photo-editing)
resize to a larger size... pictures will look ugh...
Laura
Laura....
I cannot for the life of me find where you add the
borders? I have looked all over the program.
Smiles....
Liz
No problem, Liz.
For starters, there are two places (both taught to me by
Jen... who's being awfully quiet lately... she must be freezing her butt off in
the basement working with her new boro glass... ha!).
Okay, oh, I lied... there are three ways I know of, but
we'll ignore one for now.
One thing you can do it called STROKE.
You must first have all your layers compressed then do
CTRL+A, this highlights the whole picture. Then you go to EDIT (from the top menu
bar), and select STROKE.
You will then pick the width of your border, the color,
and from certain attributes.
I go with 10 px,
generally and almost always black (but that's just me... please experiment to
find what YOU like best).
I have location set to inside, and my blending mode is
normal... opacity 100%.
Feel free to experiment with those later if you like. :D
Select OK, and this puts a border on your picture.
To get a 2nd color there, do it again and pick a different
color, but make the px (border size) smaller than
what you just did... like pick red at 5 px.
Okay, the only other way I know to make a border (other
than the more difficult and not worth mentioning here way is...
There's a top menu bar of TABS over on the right half of
your monitor. Click on the EFFECTS tab.
Then on the pull-down, pick FRAMES.
Then experiment with different fun frames.
Laura
okay,
STUPID QUESTION: where do I find the copyright symbol? I'm sure you've answered
this before, but...
Donna