New to this team and need a little help please =)

[Former_Member]

Camera: Canon Power Shot A550 7.1 mega pixel digital camera

Problem: Lighting. Photos are usually too dark or over exposed and washed out making colors hard to see in the photos. The only times I don't have this problem is late morning on a bright but overcast day facing indirect light (south, I believe). Blurriness. I think this might be related to the lighting issue. I use a tripod but still end up deleting most I take because of lighting/blurriness. Lastly and biggest problem right now...Close ups. I can not get my photos zoomed in enough to really capture the items colors, textures, and contours. Getting too close makes the camera become out of focus even with the macro on. Standing back and zooming in with the lens doesn't allow me to get close enough for my needs.

Solutions I've attempted: I researched how to program this camera for photographing jewelry and have it on the best settings possible including macro. I've tried the diy light box already with a bright and natural led lamp above the box but the lighting wasn't bright enough and the photos came out really dark. I use a tripod so hands shaking isn't an issue. Only things I can think are that my camera isn't a good camera (can't afford another one) or that my skill needs improving. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Especially with close up work.

[Former_Member]

Stronger lighting would definitely help. Get two standard reflectors from Home Depot (or wherever) and two 6500°K CFL bulbs. That should provide all the bright daylight you will need.

White balance. Make sure it is set correctly for the light you are using - daylight, fluorescent, whatever - or use the custom mode and calibrate it against a piece of white paper placed in the field of your photo.

Focus. Once you have enough light, be aware that the field of focus extends much farther BEHIND your focus point than it does in front. Also, the depth of this field is much narrower in macro (closeup) mode. In general, if you focus on the point CLOSEST to the camera, everything behind it will be in focus. If you still have trouble, you might back out of macro mode and use your photo imaging software to get a larger image - ensuring that your initial image is set to maximum quality for your camera (300 dpi or better) so that you can enlarge the image without losing quality.

[Miriboheme]

Wow, Frank. Great tips. And easy enough for me to understand!

[Former_Member]

great advice. also, read through some of the threads. you'll gain a lot of insight from posters. here's a thread:
Light Bulbs for Studio Lighting:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7435/diy-product-photography-how-to­-hacks/discuss/6776430/page/1

[Former_Member]

That was definitely good advice. Thank you! I have been planing on getting better light bulbs. Until I can get to the store, I'm going to have to take my photos when it's overcast (seems to compliment my jewelry the best and make the colors really pop).