How to Post Great Photos in Threads

[St0ney]

Ok, I’m by no means an expert in photos but it is kind of a hobbie and starting to be a business with me so, I’ll share what I know.

Light, It's very important, as we all know for growing our plants. But guess what? It's also very important for taking good pictures. I found most of my problems with pictures were because I didn’t have enough of the right light. The HPS that I so love much is awful for taking pictures. And our masterful Ozgrowa started showing some beautiful shots of buds under his MH. Well crap, I though, I’ve got a 175w MV lamp sitting here not being used.

So, that’s what I used in that last set of pics I posted the other day. And they came out good.. but not good enough. believe it or not that 175x is not enough light so I’m looking into what kinda of lighting I need to more to more of a professional set up.

So, do you all wanna learn how I take those killer macro pics that everyone over? Besides lighting you need a tripod. Even a cheap 19.99 one from Wal*Mart will hold it steadier then you could. And with macro pics you gotta be still, the plant too. That’s why I’ve set up a ‘Photo Area’ with no fans, and plenty of light and room to move the tripod around. The next thing you need is a camera with both an optical zoom (digital zoom wont work as it corrupts the image too much for detailed images) and a macro setting, for really good shots.

My Sony DSC-S85 is a powerhouse digi cam. WAY more complicated then I needed but it takes great pics. I spent 700.00 on it a few years ago, for my web design company. Funny thing is I take more pictures of bud then products..

But anyways….I use the auto setting myself and the flash. That’s why you need an optical zoom. What I do is get abut 10-12” away from what I want to take a picture of and then turn on my macro setting. (This setting lets my camera focus on objects that are very close it.) Then I zoom the picture up to the bud site I wanna take a picture of. Making sure it’s centered and fills the picture as much as possible. And with a steady hand take the picture. And take a bunch, I have a rechargeable battery and a camera what is awesome in power management (the reason I bought it) and I can take 100’s of photos before I run out of power. So, I take 100’s, really. I take them all at 1280x960 and that’s not the highest setting I can go up to 2272x1794 but I found 1280x960 was a good medium between storage size and detail.

I will of course, reduce this size in my editing software. But it’s always better to start with high-rez and then step down to a web appropriate size.

Ok, here is a shot of the Grow and Show area, notice the chain on the celing, i hang the light there for bigger plants that wont fit under it there.:





A closer shot of the Show area.











So, I went to a local fabric store and bought this felt/cloth white cloth and stapled it to my wall and to a 1" dowel which i use to roll it up what i need to work on the plants.





I store it in a piece of Pvc that I cut in 1/2.




It's important to have a back drop because it shows off your pictures much better. The best colors I’m told, is white and grey to show off products, as you don’t want color throwing off your pictures or drawing the eye away from your subject. So put up a piece of black plastic, what ever you got. Up behind where you are shooting.



Here is the awesome wire job i did for the ballast..hehehe.

Ok up next is advanced photo editing......

[St0ney]

Macromedia’s Fireworks (macromedia.com) you can get a trial from their site and finding a crack outta be pretty easy, if you wanted to do such a thing,, not that we would approve something like that.

So in fireworks, open your picture(s) you can load more then one if you have enough memory. And pay no mind to my winamp player there.. I didnt think it was going to be in the pictures..lol



Ok, first off we need to make the picture were we can see it, so resize it to lets say 50%



Then we need to adjust the color. Now I took this under my 400w HPS to show you it can be done. SO auto adjust the color.



And then, here is my secret Sharpen. Now if you sharpen more then once you run a fine line of making your picture too grainy, so I try to stay with just 1 ‘Sharpen’ and maybe 1 ‘Sharpen More’ to make that sugar ‘POP’






Now it’s time to crop our picture. You must always adjust sharpness and color before you crop. Work with high rez first then cut to fit….If you don’t have the ‘Crop Selected Bitmap’ The you need to click 1 time on the picture to select, it should have a blue box around it.








Once you select ‘Crop Selected Bitmap’ you’ll have a box to resize and move around. Line it up how you like it and press enter to cut. If you mess us Ctrl+z will undo. And what you will be left with is this…





So lets trim it up now….






Now, the picture is still a bit big for some. For me this is perfect I like to keep mine just under 800 wide and this one is 798 so that’s perfect for me.. but for information proposes lets resize it. Now resizing will reduce how much that sugar pops so It’s important to keep it as big as you can.



So here I can make it what ever size I want in either pixels or percentage.



Next it’s time to optimize it for the web.. If you don’t have the optimize option on your right just press f6…





Ok, I like to keep it at 75% quality and NO smoothing for the best pictures and the smallest sizes.

And if you click over on the preview tab you can see how big in file size and how long to upload on the web in the bottom left.



Now, lets export it, so we can upload....




And this is what you have





And that’s exactly what I do….

[Pepperpot]

Great info St0ney! I use Photoshop for some things but prefer PhotoImpact for my plant pics. I've heard good things about Fireworks and appears easy to use.

St0ney is correct about the lighting, the most important element in good pictures is lighting IMO!

Type of lighting:
Natural light. Now this is a whole subject in itself so lets talk about artificial lighting. MH & cool white floros produce good results but have gotten some special effects under HPS at times.

Direction of light:
Overhead, the least preferred unless shooting in a down direction.
Backlit, tricky but can be used for special effects.
Sidelight or slightly above AND sidelit, works wonders.
Lights on with flash, lights off with flash produce different effects.

This is just a very quick overview of the subject of lighting and shows you there is more to taking good photos, as opposed to snapshots.

Macro is the way to go for those close detail shots. A tripod is required, no air movement, don’t even breath on the plants, also I use the timer to snap the shutter so I don’t have to touch the camera.

This is a medium distance macro…



At a farther distance being aware of the composition and background for a more artistic shot…..



Close up macro….



Disclaimer: If you have a cheap camera you can still learn. Go take pictures in different situations and take as many as you can, this is digital remember, and I will guarantee, you WILL get a few great shots.

PP

[St0ney]

See now I gotta go move my light. I did notice I was having problems properly lighting it. and will be redoing it at some point.

I'll have to try the timer for sure And fireworks is great for publishing to the web. That’s why i use it, quick and easy and professional if you wanna get serious.

Thanks PP

[Profound]

This thread is definitely going to the favorites area
Im going to get rid of this cheapo camera I have for just getting by and invest in something a bit more up to date and par
Hmmmmm
Thanks everyone for posting info and helping in this post
RATED 5 star!!!!!

[CybeRopTiK]

Just added this one to my favs too! thanks for all the info guys, can't wait to try it out when my buds get juicy! I've got the casio exilim 3.2 MP, it's good and it's very easy to use with lots of cool effects and features! I got it a whille ago but I'm still pretty happy with it...so how do you post pictures larger than 107.5 kb and 800x600 pixels or whatever it is...do you have to have them hosted on another website then post the link? thanks!

[SuperJJ85]

Disclaimer: If you have a cheap camera you can still learn. Go take pictures in different situations and take as many as you can, this is digital remember, and I will guarantee, you WILL get a few great shots.

PP

Great thread guys!

If you're really new to this whole photography thing, I'm gonna' have to say that what PP just said is probably the best advice for getting great photos - take tons of them and choose the best ones! That's the beauty of digital cameras, it doesn't cost anything more to take 50 pictures over taking just 5.

The pics I took in my first grow journal were the first pics I ever took with a digital camera. I really didn't have a clue what all the features meant, so I tried all the features and took many shots of each, and then just deleted all the crappy ones.

Although I'm sure once this thread has evolved, everyone will be posting great photos around here.

SuperJJ85

[xjo]

One thing I would never be without is my tripod. There easy to pick up and fairly cheap. Great for taking macro shots, which I do using the timer facility so theres no movement at all when the camera takes the picture.
For real good close ups I use a jewellers loupe.
I'll whack together a little post regarding the loupe and its uses

Great thread

Xjo

[KiwiFliHi]

After stuffing about with half arsed efforts of a 'studio' I may get motivated and build a proper pic spot. My biggest problem has been editing, I've tried different programs but will have to check out the ones mentioned here, the ones I've messed about with lose all clarity as soon as you resize the pics.

I crop em in Paint to fit at the Gallery

Nice link to the camera review spot, I have the DSC-p10 sony which seems to be a love it or hate it camera, I think most problems are caused by stupid people like me on the button not the technology....

My favourite shot is the one with St0neys toolbox........ cool box there man

[milagro]

Originally Posted by KiwiFliHi

My biggest problem has been editing, I've tried different programs but will have to check out the ones mentioned here, the ones I've messed about with lose all clarity as soon as you resize the pics.

I too think that the editing is a big factor in producing great pics.

I just picked up the Fireworks St0ney was touting, and it is one massive program. It is waaaaaay beyond what one would need to only produce photos.... but man does it do it well! Thanks St0ney!

I have Corel Photoshop, and Adobe Photoshop, but can only do the most basic of functions in each. If there are any experts out there with talent showing how these or other programs can be tweeked... bring it on!

This community rocks! Can you imagine what it's gonna look like when the pages are all filled with beautiful budshots?! Yeeeeeha!


milagro