I need some suggestions on my pics

[DKF]

Here is my latest photo....I have done nothing to it....Camera is a "Canon Power Shot A95" I do have a light tent and take most of my pictures on "Auto" as I am somewhat camera challenged....I do use the "macro" setting, and no flash....I have "Picasa", and use it for my cropping and basic fixes. Any suggestions/help/basic advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[toolcrazy]

Your depth of field is off. You can fix this by 1) making the pen parallel to the camera lens. Or 2) using you camera in manual and maxing the f-stop and adjusting the shutter speed to compensate.

BTW, nice pen.

Definition: Depth of field - When you photograph something and the front is clear and it gets blurrier the farther back you get, this can work in reverse, also. Your photo above, the back, the finial, of the pen is clear but the nib is blurry. The can be compensated by decreasing the aperture size, higher f-stop and decreasing the shutter speed. This requires a tripod as the exposure time will increase.

 

[rlharding]

I won't even pretend to be able to tell you about the technical stuff. What I can tell you is this:
To me, it looks like the pen is on a carpeted floor just infront of the base boards. When I find my head heading for the screen to have a better look it's usually because the pic is out of focus.

NP

 

[DKF]

I am with you both on the blurry, ie. lack of crispness...It is in a tent with a gray material back drop...taken using a tripod. Like I mentioned, it was on the auto setting. I will try the f-stop a shutter speed adj. Thanks for the input.

 

[gerryr]

To me the entire pen looks slightly out of focus, which could easily be due to camera shake. Use the self timer in the camera to take the photo. I agree with Ruth about that "baseboard" looking thing in the background, it is really distracting. A seamless background should be pretty easy to accomplish.

 

[DKF]

Originally posted by gerryr

To me the entire pen looks slightly out of focus, which could easily be due to camera shake. Use the self timer in the camera to take the photo. I agree with Ruth about that "baseboard" looking thing in the background, it is really distracting. A seamless background should be pretty easy to accomplish.

Thanks ... I can easily fix the "baseboard look" by smoothing/draping the backdrop. Interestingly, the auto timer was used...I believe it was the 2 second timer. Maybe I will have to look to see if the sens is dirty. I will keep messing around to see if I can come up with that "crisp" photo I am looking for.

 

[gerryr]

You should be able to set it for a longer delay than 2 seconds. The whole purpose of the self timer is to allow the photographer time to get in the picture and 2 seconds is not nearly enough time for that.

According to the specs on DP Review, you can also set it to a 10 second delay.

 

[gketell]

I've used picasa when on my work machine. It really does a poor job of resizing a photo. It always makes them very grainy and that is certainly a big part of the issue with this photo.

Depth of field is another. It is perfectly focused (as far as I can tell through the grain) about 2/3 of the way back on the body of the pen (right under the reflection) but from there on in any direction it is out of focus.

The last thing is the back ground. As was pointed out, you want to get rid of that crease because it distracts the eye from the pen. AND while it is a perfect color background for the body of the pen, it matches the cap too well so the cap blends in and hides. I personally would use a darker, almost charcoal, grey for this pen.

GK