Opinions on Photos? - General Discussion Board

RE: Opinions on Photos?

John Guerrero — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 03:22:11 +0000

Thank you very much Giovanni, Birgit, and Steve! I don't think I've been able to digest everything fully right now, but I will try to and adjust my photos accordingly. You've all been incredibly helpful with identifying the specific issues I've had with my photos, and it's been overwhelming trying to find a method I am happy with, so I'm so glad I asked.

And you're right, Steve! The bookscanner is a base and arm with a camera. I've been using my iPhone and the bookscanner for those photos in the first post, but I'm not familiar with setting the white balance with either tool. I'll look into this for my next photos. Thanks again 😀

RE: Opinions on Photos?

clayandbrush — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 09:23:36 +0000

@shinigami Dear Birgit, I understood wrongly. As said, I do not work in RAW mode, so I do not know how it works.

Kind regards

Giovanni

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Shinigami — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 08:00:36 +0000

This sounds fascinating, dear Giovanni. You’re really dedicated to your photos and I’m sure in photography technology can never replace taste and experience. For my porcelain pictures I have a technical approach but have to contradict you in one point. The white balance isn’t done by me but automatically by the RAW editor because the grey from the spyder cube (or grey card) is standardized and my click just sets the grey in the picture to the same standard value again. I use a monitor that I calibrate regularly, so any wrong colors are on the monitor of the other person. Also it doesn’t take long as I take a series of a few pictures each time I buy something new which isn’t too often.

RE: Opinions on Photos?

clayandbrush — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 07:45:32 +0000

Dear Birgit,

I also do not work the RAW images☹. I know, I am wrong, because digital images are another World than old film images, but I am old and it is part of my mentality that the image is made in the camera, while taking it.

BTW, if I am not wrong, in the way that you have described who is setting the white balance is yourself, and if that is true, then it is subjective, hence a probable origin of wrong settings. After all, you are setting them on a screen, which too has its own rendition of colors, etc.

I do not rework each image. What I do is, prepare the lighting set up, set the white balance of the camera, set the camera in manual mode, find the correct exposure, and take all the pictures with the same parameters.

After that, I have a lot of pictures of let say 4MB – 3,000 pixels, that I store in a folder.

Then I open JPEG Resizer, an old, freeware, micro software (of ridiculous 750 kB only!) which is no more available at the site of the designer but that can be downloaded here:

https://jpeg-resizer.en.softonic.com/

With that very small software, I set the number of pixels and the compression rate, and with a single click, bzzzzz, voila', all the images of the folder are resized and saved in a new folder.

Extremely simple and quick.

Imagine that the site of my collection, that I have posted recently, is containing more than 4,100 images. If I had to work them individually, how long it would take?

Regards,

Giovanni

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Shinigami — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 06:18:31 +0000

@clayandbrush Dear Giovanni, it would work with any other software, even freeware that’s able to handle RAW files. I put the spyder in front of the item on the first picture I take. Then I correct the white balance, brightness, black and white in the RAW file editor. It takes only a minute. The settings are saved automatically and can be applied to the rest of the pictures with just one click. As I always rework my pictures (cropping, sharpening) I use the software anyway so it’s just one small additional step. But as I said, everyone develops his own workflow, so that’s just one of several ways to take pictures of porcelain.

I found most interesting what you say about patterns looking crisper on a black background. I had also noticed that but had no explanation. I have also noticed that some items look beautiful on pictures while others don’t, though they are impressive in reality.

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Steve — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:45:15 +0000

@clayandbrush

Hi Giovanni,

I don't like Photoshop either; instead I used Photoscape - easy to use and not so complicated. Even Apple preview works for a lot of basic edits: cropping, light, tint, etc.

RE: Opinions on Photos?

clayandbrush — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:27:36 +0000

Dear Birgit,

I do not have Photoshop (I hate these big, enormous softwares), so it is not clear to me what you mean by "Then I use the settings for the rest of the pictures". If I understood correctly, you do all this after uploading the pictures in the computer. Does it mean that you will have to make the correction on each individual image?

Kind regards

Giovanni

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Steve — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 20:45:29 +0000

@shinigami Hi Birgit, Good to know.

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Shinigami — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 20:00:47 +0000

Hi Steve, I use a similar camera (Canon EOS 1100) and have a different approach. I use the automatic white balance and set the picture format to RAW. In the first shot of the series I enclose the spyder cube (a grey card would also do). I open the picture in Photoshop elements RAW editor, click on the gray side of the spyder and get the correct white balance within a second. Then I use the settings for the rest of the pictures. No need to do any settings in the camera itself, it’s all done afterwards.

RE: Opinions on Photos?

Steve — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:42:45 +0000

@clayandbrush

Dear Giovanni,

Yes. It's an important thing to remember, especially when photographing for sale. (Some of my best deals were from sellers who uploaded crappy photos that discouraged other buyers... I took a chance and it paid off.)

For me, it's a hobby right now but eventually I'll start selling. I gave my aunt a calendar of porcelains I photographed and her neighbor almost stole it so I ordered a copy for her as well. I can't tell you how tickeled she is with it; I hear about it almost every time we chat. The photos look good but I did have to adjust the color because the photography lights warmed them up too much and washed out the bluish-white tone of the body of the pieces (all blue & white pieces). Next time I'll make sure to white balance.

Warm regards,

Steve