11 Jan
2003
11 Jan
'03
2 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Erik S. Klein once stated:
- Use a medium or dark colored matte item as a background. I have an
old black bed sheet that I use as well as a large piece of cardboard
with a matte black finish. Between the two I'm able to pretty much
black out everything but the computer.
I would probably recomend a neutral color background---black may be a bit
too dark to use effectively.
- Use multiple diffuse lighting sources. If you
can't get those big
photography lamps and diffusers then just bounce the light from spots or
lamps off of a wall or use something else (like a cardboard box) to
block the light that would go directly from the source to the
photographic subject. The goal is to light the computer well and
eliminate glare - especially on screens.
A large piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil makes a good
reflector, and to reduce glare on monitors you may want to try hairspray.
Professional photographers use it to reduce glare on glasses so it might be
worth trying on a monitor if you don't think it'll hurt it.
- I like ACDSee for photo editing. It's a great
tool for cropping,
adjusting levels, changing image formats and sizes and generally
preparing a picture for the web. I rarely use Photoshop for much
anymore.
I use the GIMP under Linux with no problems (although you *may* want to
have lots of memory before doing this---at 32M of RAM, my 120MHz Linux
system is a bit sluggish 8-)
- I try to do multiple angles and inside shots as well
as detail
pictures of interesting items (such as cards, unusual cables and the
like).
If it's a digital camera, go wild with the pictures. Take lots of
pictures; more than you think you need. Then select the best from the lot.
Why not? It's not like you have to pay for developing the pictures.
-spc (Go for quantity, then select for quality ... )