MikeGelhaus.com

I swapped out my old camera for Teri’s newer Casio. Looking at the camera display the images looks amazing. But after uploading to my computer the where a little under exposed (not bright). So I may need to retake the photos. Also I took the shots from two different camera zoom positions (without Digital zoom on). The problem with Teri’s camera is that adjusting the focus is a pain and not very exact. I know I can get better results with an easily adjustable zoom/focus. I am looking to get a Nikon D60. The better the picture is from the point of taking it, the less work that needs to be done in photoshop and elsewhere. With the D60 I hope to not have to do any photoshop touch work.

But as for now the results are better. Here are the best results I could get with Teri’s Casio 10.2 megapixel camera. I did all the parts provided to me (these following examples have been cropped, resized, and touched in photoshop to make up for the lack of exposure from two shot of a shutter speed):

Floater

Pool Sweep Hose

Pool Sweep Cog

Lighting

The Purchase

I am attempting to take photos of pool parts for General Pool and Spa Supply to be use for the Website as well as Parts Catalogs. I am an amateur photographer at best, and as such am very limited on taking studio quality photos. I know from school at UCSD that the minimalist setup is to arrange lighting in three points around the point of interest to reduce shadows on and around the object/subject.

I first looked around for a cheap lighting system available on ‘the web’. There were none of course. Each light I stumbled upon ran about $300 dollars or more for the cheapest product. For my budget and needs I felt this was over-kill. So I ventured out to my local Home Depot to see about getting some flood lamps. To my surprise I found reasonable prices. I ended up leaving Home Depot with a $40 receipt for three 250watt Halogen flood lamps for use in outdoor construction as my lights.

The lighting I am using for the parts photos consist of 3 Construction Flood Lamps with 250watt bulbs.

The Setup

My Setup is pretty basic. Right now I have the lights setup on some books. I may purchase some cheap multipurpose tripods that I can mount the flood lamps to in the future, but for now this should suffice as most the parts are rather small.

The Verdict

But because I am going cheap (Read more…)