I've ranted a bit on how sucky my pictures were since i only had an automatic camera.. and since using flash clearly don't work on taking good pictures, i tried to follow what i read about using the day light. by using this, surprisingly, my pictures become a whole lot better! no flash reflections on my jewelries and no harsh shadows under my pieces.
TOOLS I used: an automatic digicam, a computer chair, background cloths & objects.
after a few tries, i found: [note: i live in the equator, so you might not have the same sun as i do. i get 12 hours of sun and 12 hours of dark. so just experiment, ok.]
1. the best time to take a shot is at 9-11 am. when the light is distributed evenly. i shot my pictures on my porch, so no direct sunlight on my pieces and the result is good. at noon the light source (sun) is just too strong most of the times the camera indicated as overexposure. (when you half pressed the camera button it usually trying to focus on an object) overexposure is bad cos you'd only see too bright image that you missed the details on it.
2. alternative shot is in the afternoon around 3-4 pm. but in this hour, you might get reddish reflection on your jewelleries. also long shadows if you take it under direct sunlight. you can however, reduce the reddish tone in photo editing software.
3. using the Flower setting. in my automatic digicam, there is "best shot" mode where you can select different pre-set settings. after a few experiments, i found that the Flower setting is the best cos it is in macro setting, which can get you close enough to the object, and has small focus range. so in the result, you get some part clear and some part blurry, could be very artistic looking. tho some pro photographers might just laugh at it. but who cares, this is about maximizing the use of automatic digicam for us ordinary people with no expensive pro cameras :)
How to use this Flower setting:
- first select the part you want it to be focused on.
- bring the selected focus to the center of your LCD screen and half press the button until it beeps or showing a green sign (usually it indicates that the distance is ok, not too close to the object). red indicates that you're too close (the whole piece could get blurry as the result if you insisted on taking pics).
- once you found the focus, slide the camera slowly to the right/left/top/bottom until you get a good composition. don't move it forward or backward tho cos it would change your focus.
- capture it :D
so i thought i shared my experiments so far. i'm not a pro photographer and i'm not teaching you how to do photography, just simple sharing ^_^
example of results:
--> using flash, just automatic setting.
<-- you lost some of the details + harsh, ugly shadow.
--> afternoon pic, flower setting
<-- under direct sunlight. long shadows.
--> using daylight, flower setting (the sharp-blur effect only appears at something that has a far enough background). good for picturing necklaces.
<-- you can see it focused on only a small part of it. ^ my newest piece, btw.
NOTENOTENOTE: not good for picturing diamonds and the like if you want them to shine briliantly. please go to the professional jewellery photographer for that!
that's it. if you have any other tips, please share :D