Beginner having issues taking photos for my eBay store :(

tirediron · Jul 27, 2013

Buckster said:
I knew you'd go there. I knew you'd actually think that this shot will take a 45 minute shutter speed if I used that as an example, because you don't seem to know even the basics involved with shooting a static product like this. Amazing.

:shock: What? You mean that wasn't a real-world example?

Buckster said:
Again, it's just amazing to me the things you actually say, and the lame justifications you make for those ridiculous notions that come flying out of your head when called into question.

Feel free to disagree with me any time you want, and on any subject; I post what I do based on my knowledge and experience. I do not claim to be an expert, 'though I do think that in 30+ years I have learned a few things. If I'm wrong, I have no problem admitting it, and I know that I'm never too old to learn.

Grizmix · Jul 27, 2013

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I can actually get the background white with no problems while taking photos, It's only sometimes i get that annoying RED/Magenta tint on the edges on my photos and I don't know why it's doing that, maybe I'm not supposed to be that close to the object with my lighting?

Here is the latest photo's I've taken with my camera

and now understand I should get a light to illuminate the background wall, but could you give me any idea or link to what I should buy?

I'm honestly confused about WHITE BALANCE, Am i supposed to set it for every different article of clothing? And I don't even know if i'm setting it properly, I chose the option "CUSTOM" And it says on top "DISP. Evaluate White Bal." so i just then aim my camera at something white and press the display button and i'm done? Because every time i do this, the white's have a bluish tint in them and i just use "Auto levels" in photoshop and sometimes it actually helps and sometimes the image looks like this after selecting auto levels and i have no idea why it does that,

but it should actually look like this

Well thanks again for all your help and suggestions! I honestly appreciate it!

wyogirl · Jul 28, 2013

You white balance for your light, here is an article to help you understand. Understanding White Balance And you shouldn't have to custom white balance with a grey card either, your camera should have certain lighting already programmed for white balance, like daylight, florescent, tungsten etc....
I don't know what camera you shoot with, but a lot of them will also auto white balance. If you can shoot in RAW then fixing the white balance for true colors is a real snap in photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw as well.

Also, buy a more powerful bulb at home depot that is daylight balanced and that will help a lot too.

Buckster · Jul 28, 2013

Grizmix said:
I can actually get the background white with no problems while taking photos, It's only sometimes i get that annoying RED/Magenta tint on the edges on my photos and I don't know why it's doing that, maybe I'm not supposed to be that close to the object with my lighting?

It might be from color reflecting off the clothing and onto the wall. Start by getting it further from the wall. If the room is small, you can sometimes set up to shoot from another room through a doorway, or shoot corner to corner, rather than wall to wall, which provides a bit more distance.

ETA: It occurs to me that you may also be having a vignetting issue with that camera that may be contributing to the problem.

Grizmix said:
understand I should get a light to illuminate the background wall, but could you give me any idea or link to what I should buy?

It's not a good idea to mix lights when true color achievement is the goal. That said, you would either get another light with the same color temperature as those you have already, or start over with 3 other lights.

Grizmix said:
I'm honestly confused about WHITE BALANCE, Am i supposed to set it for every different article of clothing? And I don't even know if i'm setting it properly, I chose the option "CUSTOM" And it says on top "DISP. Evaluate White Bal." so i just then aim my camera at something white and press the display button and i'm done? Because every time i do this.............................snip

Do this:

1. Get a true white balance target, also known as a gray card. There are many on the market to choose from that fit every budget. There are cards that fit in a wallet, collapsible targets in various sizes, the Color Checker Passport which is quite popular, and many, many others. Helen, a true expert here, has done extensive testing and found that a white Styrofoam cup works perfectly, and it's cheap.

2. Position the cup (or other white balance tool) so that it's in the shot with the product, but placed where you can easily crop it out later (off to the side).

3. Shoot the shot in RAW, and don't worry about white balance at this point. Set white balance on the camera to "Auto".

4. Open the shot in Photoshop's Camera RAW via the Bridge, then use the white balance eyedropper by clicking it on the Styrofoam cup. Now you have proper white balance.

5. Adjust exposure to the brightness level that looks right to you.

6. Now open the image in Photoshop.

7. Crop it to get rid of the cup and to frame the clothing the way you want.

8. Resize it down to the size you will display it on the web. I generally use 850 pixels tall, because that fits well in my browser window without scrolling.

9. Use the magnifying glass to display the image at full size.

10. Go to Filter, Sharpen, Smart Sharpen, and sharpen to taste. I usually start with Amount 100%, Radius 0.3 px, Remove Lens Blur

See how that works for you.

Grizmix · Jul 28, 2013

Thank you for the reply!

My camera is a Canon SD1300 IS and it unfortunately does not have any RAW option on it. I've been to Home depot and this was before I even purchased this kit and they said they had no lights at 5500k and I think all they had were the 5000k or 5100k bulbs? Not sure which light bulb home depot has that is daylight balanced as wyogirl mentioned, could you possibly link me to one?

Soooo hold on, I'm supposed to hold a white card in front of my item that I'm shooting and measure it that way?

Thank you!

EDIT: Ohhh and I'm using Adobe Photoshop 5.5

I simply cannot afford to buy any of the new versions until my business picks up.

Buckster · Jul 28, 2013

Grizmix said:
My camera is a Canon SD1300 IS and it unfortunately does not have any RAW option on it.

You're stuck with JPG, so just use that instead. Same steps though.

Grizmix said:
I've been to Home depot and this was before I even purchased this kit and they said they had no lights at 5500k and I think all they had were the 5000k or 5100k bulbs? Not sure which light bulb home depot has that is daylight balanced as wyogirl mentioned, could you possibly link me to one?

Just make sure that all three bulbs are the same temperature. Don't mix them.

Grizmix said:
Soooo hold on, I'm supposed to hold a white card in front of my item that I'm shooting and measure it that way?

No. Not in front of it. Place it in the shot with the item, off to the side of the item so that you can crop it out of the photo later in photoshop.

Grizmix said:
EDIT: Ohhh and I'm using Adobe Photoshop 5.5
I simply cannot afford to buy any of the new versions until my business picks up.

All versions of Photoshop include the Bridge and Camera RAW, to my knowledge, including yours.

Grizmix · Jul 28, 2013

I don't think photoshop 5.5 has the "white balance eyedropper", I looked but could not find anything with that name.

What exactly am I trying to get for the lights? Any specific 5000k or anything?

Thank you!

Buckster · Jul 28, 2013

Grizmix said:
I don't think photoshop 5.5 has the "white balance eyedropper", I looked but could not find anything with that name.

I had to look it up, but you're right - it turns out that your 14 year old copy of Photoshop doesn't have Camera Raw included. I could show you how to do it in Photoshop without that, though my CS6 version is a long way off from your 5.5 version, so you'd have to convert some of the steps to find the tools, and I'm not sure you're ready to do that just yet, given your responses so far.

So, instead, I suggest you download the latest version of the FREE photo editor, GIMP. Then go to any of the free tutorials on the web on how to use it to set white balance with it, like this one: How to Correct White Balance with GIMP A Google search for "gimp white balance" (without the quote marks) will give you tons more, including video tutorials on YouTube. https://www.google.com/search?q=gim...:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb

Grizmix said:
What exactly am I trying to get for the lights? Any specific 5000k or anything?

It really doesn't matter, as long as they're all the same color temperature. Everything in your shot needs to be lit by the same color temperature in order for the white balance to work properly.

Imagine if one light is blue and another is red, and the white balance target (the Styrofoam cup) is lit by the red light. When you click on it in the editor to correct it to be pure white, it'll look great afterwards, but the stuff lit by the blue light will shift color in the wrong direction to make it right. The reason is that when you click on the target lit by the red light, the software will adjust the whole picture by adding it's opposite color, cyan, and reducing some of the red. Those shifts will produce pure white, according to what it sampled.

But the stuff lit by the blue light needs a color shift by adding it's opposite color, yellow, and removing some of the blue. Instead, it gets more cyan and less red, which doesn't get it to the proper color at all.

That's what's going on in the software when you white balance, and the color of the lights is more red or blue or yellow or whatever, as defined by the different temperatures - that's exactly what those different temperatures represent.

Hope that helps you understand it a bit better.