johnglobal Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Hi all I know this might be a little off topic, but I think its a very important element of any professional ecommerce site. I have often tried to take my own pictures using a good quality digital camera, but I can never get the images to look like the really professsional sites. (nice clean edges, white background, perfect shadow etc, similar to magazine images) I recently found the following article " Digital studio on a budget" which may the only way to achieve this. http://www.peimag.com/pdf/pei00/pei0700/we...dingpei0700.pdf Just wondering how some of your deal with this issue, and judging by some of the sites that go live, some of you have this problem also. Anyone any advice? Anyone manage to get great product images ? Thanks John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Wow, great article. I've been having this problem for a few weeks now. My pictures are pretty terrible. Good reading here, but I don't even have $50 to get my site up on Google's Adwords Select. Thanks for the article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 a good photo/image editor is a must. Photoshop - Illistrator -Fireworks al great, but pricey. You CAN download trials.... Linux GIMP is excellent, and free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnglobal Posted October 23, 2002 Author Share Posted October 23, 2002 I agree with you, good imaging software is a must, I use fireworks even creates thumbnails automatically for you.. However I can assure you the pro's don't spend HOURS using the lasso tool trying to seperate the product image from a yellow shaded background, then using the paint can to fill... They just photograph the image and use it, anyone else got any good tips, suggestions or comments ? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobbzilla Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I use a Nikon Coolpix 990. Obviously the better the digital camera, the better the picture. Here is a sample picture of a finished product shot. I use a 2 white postboards one on the table and one leaning (bending) towards the wall. I mount the camera on a tri-pod (this is extremely important to getting good results with a digital camera for still shots) and turn off the office florescent bulbs (which make strips in shiny products) I have a photo lamp on a stand that I use over-head to light the product up as desired. I then use photoshop to mask away the background. There are pluggins that make this work much easier & faster (extensis mask pro comes to mind) but I usually just make a mask and use the 'ol line tool (with anti-aliase checked) to remove the product from the background and then delete what is left with the eraser or lasso. I then use the built-in dropshadow filter from photoshop and I'm finished. I sometimes adjust the color balance & brightness & contrast and selective colors to brighten up the photo. After the photo is in photoshop it usually doesn't take me longer than a couple of minutes to get the finished product. That's how I do it.. I'm sure there is a better way.. but after all we are creatures of habit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobbzilla Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 stupid me. I guess I'll never learn. Preview before Post. Doh! Nikon 990 sample image Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Wow, great pics! I'm borrowing a digital camera from my buddy, and it's a pretty decent one. What about this "Photo Lamp" you mention? Is this at any photo type store? I took a few photos you can see at http://www.illuminous-times.com/images/bab...owder_16_oz.jpg and http://www.illuminous-times.com/images/cin...n_bun_16_oz.jpg. The first one is a lot better than the second, but they aren't great. There's still a lot of reflection on the glass. Yet if you go to Yankee's candle page, their pics also hgave a lot of glare on the glass jars, yet they just look good and professional. Do you think it's more of a lighting issue or the camera isn't good? (I think it's a 2.1 megapixel camera). If you could add your 2 cents on what I should do to get better pics, it'd be appreciated since this is the last main hurdle before I launch my site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_C Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Turn off your flash and use indirect light. Take the picture at the best resolution possible to work with in Photoshop. Remove the background completely and increase the color saturation and contrast to make things *pop* a little more (your images look flat). Set against a solid, neutral color (white prefered) background and add a bit of drop shadow. When you get something that looks good, then resize the image to what you need, double-check that everything is still pretty, and export for the web as a high quality jpeg (adjust the slider down just until you see image degradation, then kick it back up a couple points.) At no point in the process should you be afraid to touch up the picture. The rubber stamp & airbrush tools and restrained use of filters like unsharp mask & despeckle help greatly. "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 cool, thanks for the tips. I'll have to try that this wekend. 2 things though. some of the pics look blurry, and it looks like the digital camera cannot pick the candle out with the white background? I'm not sure. Also, how do you do the shasow drop? Is that something you can do in photoshop, or just lighting effects? Thanks again for the tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_C Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 For the blur and the candle you'll have to play with the camera settings; there's only so much that can be fixed in a poor original. Drop shadows are really easy in photoshop (easy to go overboard with too, so be careful) and there are a number of different ways to create them. The simplest way is to click the little "f" on the layer palette. That will bring up all kinds of good things to play with (note: these effects will only apply to the layer currently being edited). Any google search for "photoshop tutorials" will give you a wealth of information including how to create drop-shadows. "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvanderb Posted November 5, 2002 Share Posted November 5, 2002 Hi, I just thought I'd give you this link I got with my AuctionBytes newsletter, on how to "Build a Cheap Background for your Auction Pictures". http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/seamless Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnglobal Posted November 5, 2002 Author Share Posted November 5, 2002 Thanks Linda Thats exactly the type of thing I was looking for when starting this post. Anyone else got good lighting tips etc... John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertl Posted November 5, 2002 Share Posted November 5, 2002 Another tip: Use a different color backgound than the colors in the subject, try to eliminate as many shadows as you can. Once you have the picture, it is than easy to delete that color and make your background transparent. This is called making an aplha channel. Lite Blue and Lite Green are the ones mostly used. Its what is behind your local weatherman when he stands in front of the map. You can use cloth material too for neat effects. I don't use a digital camera, I use a film scanner, but it will work either way. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredi Posted November 5, 2002 Share Posted November 5, 2002 Hi all, Possible use more complex acceptance example: Digital Camera - HP, Photoshop, meni filters. Photo from site Flowerhill Fredi. Support forum for osCommerce in russian language - from Ashkelon. Support since 2002.Best regards, Fredi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New 
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.