Picture/presentation tips.

Discussion of photography, editing and publishing techniques
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Blego7
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Picture/presentation tips.

Post by Blego7 »

Alright here is the deal. I am frustrated to the point of insanity with this. I can not take pictures with a white background. Some of you see my photo editing but I would prefer not to do that. So please post tips and suggestions on how to get a white background and quality pictures.
Thanks,
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Formendacil
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by Formendacil »

Taking pictures is not so much about Lego as the presentation of Lego, and thus belongs in the Publishing Forum

Ergo, I have moved it there.

~Michael A. Joosten - Moderator
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wobnam
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by wobnam »

Place your LEGO creation next to something flat and white. Then align your camera so that your creation is between the camera and the flat, white surface. Click.

?
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Quickblade22
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by Quickblade22 »

:wave: Here's a neat article about using Light Boxes. This article is a continuation of the first link that might be of help.
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Bruce N H
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by Bruce N H »

Here's a tutorial on editing photos that showed up on Flickr yesterday.

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Blego7
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by Blego7 »

Thank you all for the pointers. The problem isn't much with the Clarity of the pic but with the color and no matter how much light I use the white will still be an unhealthy orangeish hue. I understand using a tripod (even though it may not like that at times). Also I have Paint.NET instead of Photoshop. But so many people produce these masterpieces with PS so I sort of want to try it.
Anyway thank you all for the helpful comments.
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wobnam
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by wobnam »

Sounds like a problem with your white balance. Most compact digital cameras have several white balance settings. The best thing is if you can set it yourself by pointing your camera at a white surface in the light you plan to take photos in.
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Re: Picture/presentation tips.

Post by darkdragon »

Hi,

The secret is to set the white balance correctly for the type of light you are using. If you are using a point-and-click camera, shooting indoors you want to set it to the little lightbulb icon (or something similar). This will get rid of the orange hue that is caused by your incandecent bulbs.

Another option is to take your photo outdoors in daylight but you might get a slight bluish cast (nothing near as bad as you get indoors though).

Another options is to buy the GE 6500k "daylight" balanced florecent bulbs. I saw the small ones on sale at Walmart the other day for $2 for a 2pack which is really good because the larger ones are around $9 each. You can get a bunch of small ones or just use a longer shutter speed if your camera allows (on a tripod of course).

If you use daylight balanced bulbs make sure all other lights are turned off before snapping the pictures. You REALLY don't want to try and deal with mixed lighting temperatures. Also when you take a picture indoors using standard bulbs, make sure your window shades are down or you'll get mixed light and confused the camera.

when i do any macro photos (lego, other miniatures, jewelery, etc) I always use the daylight balanced 100watt equivalent florecents.


hope this helps.
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