# newbie at photograpghy



## bassfishingpro (Jun 28, 2009)

I am interested in taking some photos for show, and have no idea where to start.  I presently have a canon dc40, I know I will need to upgrade.  I see alot of professional looking photo's that I look at and am completely amazed and at the same time confused.  How do you get a picture of a pen and have it look suspended?, not sitting on a table look?
I have bothered you enough for now.  Thank you for the advise I have recieved so far
John


----------



## Rollerbob (Jun 28, 2009)

Far beit that I am a photo pro, but some use a nail on a piece of wood under the flooring and place the pen on it after taking out the refill.


----------



## gketell (Jun 28, 2009)

Your best bet is to post links to the images you like so we know which ones you are talking about.  Then we can give you accurate advice.

As Bob said, a nail through the hole will support them.  Or use black acrylic as the photo base and a small wedge of black acrylic under the cap, most of it will "float" above the mirrored surface so you can see the bottom too.  Or, you photoshop out the original base and "float" the pen over whatever you like.

Post a picture.  We'll try to explain the "how".


----------



## bassfishingpro (Jun 29, 2009)

Thas for the info so far, I am off to get a camera ater in the week.  Do you have any suggestions, or is a camera with a macro setting good enough.  Thanks for the Black acrylic and photoshop idea. Some of the items loof as though they are on a white cloud.  Must be a photoshop project. Once again thanks for all of oyur assistance

John


----------



## gketell (Jun 29, 2009)

You want several things in your camera for the best photos:
  1) manual focus
  2) manual aperture and shutterspeed
  3) custom white balance setting
  4) timed shutter release
  5) if you get a dSLR you want to have 
      5a) mirror lockup
      5b) a moderate telephoto zoom
  6) if you get a point and shoot style you want to have a macro capability

Bonus is to have some way to remember your preferred settings.

You will also want a tripod, a light tent, 3 lights, and a 18% grey photo card.

With the above you can take "perfect" pictures. 

Recommendations on specific cameras?  I would get one of the dSLR kits from either Canon or Nikon.  Both are great and give you lots of choices of lenses for future growth.  If you also want to use the camera for kids' sports then look to frames-per-second as a deciding factor.  The higher the better.

GK


----------



## george (Jun 30, 2009)

Beside all above a tutorial on taking photo might be useful. Here is a link to a great one; it was written by one of our members.

http://www.nealaddy.org/node/16


----------



## HawksFeather (Jun 30, 2009)

GK,

I am interested in knowing your camera set up when you use the mirror locked up.  

Thanks,

Jerry


----------



## bassfishingpro (Jul 1, 2009)

as far as the floating, its_virgil's avatar is what I am refering to
John


----------



## gketell (Jul 2, 2009)

Hi Jerry,

On the Canon 40D to get mirror lockup you use Custom Function III-7.  This makes it so it takes 2 presses of the button to fire the camera: first locks up the mirror, the second takes the picture.  Generally used for long exposures where the mirror bounce could cause vibration to ruin the picture you can use it with the auto-timer and a tripod it eliminates the camera vibration from the mirror bouncing around for the sharpest of pictures.

On the Canon 20D (the other camera I have) it is Custom Function 12.

Specifically, I mount my camera on a tripod, set up for the shot, enable mirror lockup and 2 second self timer and shoot the picture.  The mirror locks up, 2 seconds pass for the camera to settle down, the picture is taken, then the mirror drops and I'm ready for the next shot.

GK


----------



## gketell (Jul 2, 2009)

To get a floating pen like that you want to take the picture on a neutral background so you don't get a color tint to your pen (white or black or grey) then use photoshop to separate the pen from the background.  Now put the pen on its own layer and add a drop shadow.  Add a layer below the pen layer and fill with whatever background color you want.

Far easier said than done.  But not HARD to do.

GK


----------



## HawksFeather (Jul 4, 2009)

Gk,

That makes more sense now.  With the mirror locked up on the Minoltas (35 film cameras) that I have it would not allow you to see anything through the view finder.  I kept thinking that there had to be more to it.  I now have a Canon Xsi and I have not played with it long enough to know if it has the lock up feature or not.  Since it is a lower end model it probably does not.

Thanks for the reply.

Jerry


----------

