Photographing your gear - tips, tricks and questions
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Love this thread. Been doing photography for a long time,but photographing clothes is like Kryptonite to me. Have a real tough time getting accurate color representations of the jeans some times,which can be frustrating and I ,ultimately end up not posting it.
If you have the option to manually white balance do it straight after setting up your shot..
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A very good photographer I know once told me, "Don't be afraid to get close."
"If your photographs are not good enough, you're not getting close enough" Robert Capa.
The advice I can give for people not shooting in a studio is to find a decent light source. Make sure that that light source is hitting you on the front without anything too bright in the background. That may sound a bit obvious but if you're shooting without a flash and on an iphone getting the lighting right is key. Can't beat the sun for light… even if it's cloudy.
Keep the angle of your phone or camera level. When i'm shooting my fit pics i aim the camera for the middle of my torso for jackets, shirts etc and just below my knees for jeans. If you end up having an extreme angle it'll look weird due to the perspective.
OH! and don't clench your fist... makes you look mad or something
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Getting the colour right is tricky using an iphone indoors under different light sources… Natural light is best.
While shooting in the studio we use a colour mate which helps us get the closest colour temperature to natural light as possible. If you have a white balance section on your phone or on any post production software setting the colour temp to around 6000 and tint is usually around 0 plus or minus 3.
I don't know if that info is useful. This is all based on my lightroom settings. It'll change from light to light which is why colour balancing is one of the biggest headaches for me. Something with more knowledge can add more about it...
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This is all very useful info. Thanks everyone.
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bitchin thread
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Thanks for mentioning me @neph93 and @marlin
I do not see myself as a good photographer at all.
I tend to go for quantity for quality. If I take enough photos at least one of them is bound to turn out ok.
Taking photos of denim is tricky. Especially if you want the photos to be "true" to the denim and show them as they are.
Here are a list of things I do find important.
Background:
- Make sure you have a background that "works".
Light: - Make sure you have a good source of light. I prefer sunny and cloudy weather where the clouds dampen the light a bit. Direct sunlight can sometimes be hard to work with and can create weird shadows and overly bright areas.
Equipment: - Use a camera and not your phone.
- Get a decent camera lens.
- Use a tripod (I do not own one) or use something to put your camera on ie wall, chair, postbox or similar.
- Use a ladder or a chair to stand on when taking photo of your jeans laying on the ground.
- If you take photos indoor use a flash. Preferably a flash that you can turn around so that it is pointed to the ceiling so that the flash light can bounce from the ceiling and down to the floor and jeans. If you have the flash pointed directly at the jeans and floor the result is alot "harder" and can create some weird shadows.
Editing: - Get Lightroom or something similar to edit the photos afterwards.
Depending on what is on the photo the jeans may tend to be more blue or green or red in its tint then reality is. Therfore I always try to get the white balance right. I do suck at lightroom and most often then not I press the auto edit button. Then I have to drag down the brightness and contrast and sometimes the other options a little. As the pictures most often then not becomes overly bright when I press the "auto" button. Then I change the colour balance to make sure that the white is actually white and not white with a blue tint or yellow tint.
A sufu member cmboland wrote a good guide a couple of years ago that I really liked.
https://www.reddit.com/r/rawdenim/comments/2vm1ps/denim_white_balance_tutorial/
https://imgur.com/a/1kwUJLast note.
Try to experiment with different backgrounds and light settings and for that matter camera settings.My Equipment:
- Canon EOS 50D
- Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3,5-5,6 IS USM (My main lens)
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
- Canon EF 100mm f/2,8L IS USM Macro
- Canon Speedlite 430EX II
- Make sure you have a background that "works".
