# Photo quality



## Fisherman (Mar 26, 2005)

I just uploaded my first photo.  The detail is not clear and hard to see.  I am using a Canon Powershot A300 with 3.2 mege pixels.  I need help to be able to show my work as it is.


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## Doghouse (Mar 26, 2005)

First, check your manual and see if you have a macro mode.  This will allow you to shoot pictures much closer.  
Second shoot at the highest resolution you camera can support.  This will allow you to crop down and not loose detail.
Third a good quality software program to edit your photo's will go a long way.  I personaly like Paint Shop Pro by Jasc.


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## Old Griz (Mar 26, 2005)

This is just my 2 cents... 
1- Use a tripod..  hand holding will never give you a sharp picture under these circumstances
2- you are not focusing on the pens... it appears that the camera is focusing on the background...
3- As john said set your camera to the max resolution it will shoot and set the size to about 1280.  This will usually give you an image saved as a .tiff which has less compression than a jpg.
4- Lighting.. if you intend to do a lot of pen photography you need to set up a lighting system.  I use 2 clamp on work lights with daylight balanced flourescent bulbs, the brightest you can find.. mine are 30 watt. For starters set them up slightly in front of the pens at 45 degree angles and adjust them until you are happy with the shadow detail and hot spots...
5- Background.. try to stay away from glittery backgrounds, they just bounce light.. you actually want a background that will kind of absorb the light... light neutral gray is just about perfect.. it will also not throw off the exposure meter of your camera.. 
I learned all of these the hard way and now my pics have gotten a lot better... have fun and I hope this helps..


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## Bob A (Mar 26, 2005)

Tom, my camera takes pictures in .tiff, but the file is very large (up to 15 megs).  My question is, is it possible to get this file down to the size for posting on this site?  I guess I could just try it.  I always assumed it would not be possible.  I am using Photo Shop 7.


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## Old Griz (Mar 26, 2005)

I do all my photos in tiff format.  they are sized at 1280 and come out around 3.6MB... I don't understand why yours are so big.... after cropping and resizing to 600 pixels wide they are a lot smaller than that... then if you save them to jpg format they will be smaller yet... the concept of doing the pictures initially in tiff format is to get the finest image you can... after that it is just a matter of opening them in the photo software to make them a size and format better suited to posting on the web..


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## Bob A (Mar 26, 2005)

Thanks Tom, maybe I've got the picture size too big.  There are so many options on this new camera that I haven't taken a decent pic yet... I am so confused.  I'll mess with it this week and try using the .tiff format.  

Thanks again.


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## wicook (Mar 26, 2005)

Another option, Tom, is that if you don't have macro capability (I have an older Canon that doesn't have macro), you can buy a set of close-up lenses that attach like a lens filter. The sets come in +1, +2, +3, and +4 diopter strengths, so you could (I don't think you'd want to, though) get up to +10 diopter...which would get you right on top of the pen...or maybe a scratch on the finish! [][]


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## WoodChucker (Mar 26, 2005)

Tom, my daughter has that same camera and I'm sure it has macro mode so that's the mode you want to use. I think it looks like a little flower. Also, like the others have stated a tripod is a must for close ups. A cable release is another thing that is really nice to have, if you don't have one then you can use your self timer mode. This will help a lot because you won't have any camera shake using the timer. Some cameras work good with the built in flash for close ups, mine doesn't, but test yours to see how well it works. If you can get good results with it then use it and you won't need any more lights. If not, then you will have to get another light source. Without good light your close ups will never look good. Also I suggest you set your ISO (film speed) to either 100 or 200 as long as you have a good light source, you will have less grain in your pictures with a lower ISO. But that may not be to important unless you plan to blow the pic up to a larger size. If you have any questions just ask, there's lots of people here that can help you. Good luck!


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## Daniel (Mar 26, 2005)

the macro mode symbol shoudl be a flower. it is actually a tulip and is somtimes hard to recognize as a flower. anyway that symbol will appear on your screen. a tripod is really a necessity. even yoru hert beat can cause enoug motin to effect the picture. a shutter release or using the timed shutter release also helps so you are not actually touching the camera when it takes the picture. 3 megs is way overkill for pictures ont he net. if you are going to print them then it is important. but for the net most monitors only have a 72 pixels per inch resolution anyway. so in your photo editor you can not only resize the image. you can also change the resolution. it is all done in the same place on paint shop. 
a 20k image at 300 Pixels per inch is a much smaller picture than a 20k image at 72 pixels per inch. so changing the resolution will make your picture show up bigger on the computer screen. don't be fooled by wht paint shop does when you change it. it will make the picture look like it got smaller. a picture 600 X 480 pixles fills the screen here real nice. so you can actully size your images for sharing that way also. simply put there is more than one way to skin a cat. in fact I resize all my net sharing photos by simply making them 600 pixles wide. the image is constrained so the heighth is automatic. remember always save your original photo though. as soon as you don't you will have reason to need that 3 meg image. start large. and make it smaller. you can't add detail. If you know you anly want the picture for the net. 1 meg is plenty big enough remember it can only be 90k to get into your post so you will whittle down that 1 meg considerably.
as for focus. I have not seen a camera that can auto focus in macro mode unless you are at least 3 feet from the object.my camera is more like 5 with 3 megs photos you have plenty of room to crop out all the surrounding area and still have a sharp image of your pen.
it only takes once doing it right if you know what you did afterwards. so always make notes of what you are doing. what setting you have the camera on etc. nothing worse than getting that really good one and then realizing you have no idea how to do it again. look at it this way. the camera is a machine and it is doing only what you ask it to do. the hard part is knowing how to talk to your camera. poetry about the glimmer in it's viewfinder, and sweet nothings in its infra red sensor do nothing for it either. this girl requires real and sincere communication. pointing your camera at a pen and hoping a good photo will come out, is about like putting a blank on the lathe. closing your eyes and poking your gouge at it hoping a pen will result. sure it may happen. and if you consentrate you will probably be more successful with the pen than the picture.


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## Gary (Mar 27, 2005)

Daniel...I value your posts and read every one of them. But could you use the Shift Key...pleazzzzzzzzzzz!!! It is so hard to read a long post with no capital letters even at the start of a sentence.[]


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