Chest of Colors forum

you all didnt know this? im suprised!

believe me mate you dont have enough light there, and the most important light ( from above ) should be as close as possible.

The side lights are to difuse shadows that big lamp from above makes... without the front light is like driving a bicycle with no pedals^^

Yep, the guys are right. You need more light, which means:
- stronger bulbs, or
- longer exposure (may be limited by the camera)

anyway, the basic thing with digital photography and postprocessing is:
- levels (adjusting contrasts between lights and shadows)
- removing possible color casts (coming from lights which are not neutrally white)

both require a bit of skill but are not really difficult. GIMP is good enough for the task if you want to use free software.

generally what was done in the darkroom with normal photography is done in 'digital darkroom' now, and that's what usually is needed after taking pics. as much as I believe in not improving miniatures by computer, I know these two adjustments can make or break your photos. I usually use three correction layers: levels (or curves in more difficult cases) - to adjust exposure, color balance and hue/saturation - to remove the color cast.

I prefer to correct any possible photo mistakes by these settings instead of re-taking all the photos again...

Thanks for tips Mahon, but I'd prefer to avoid computer enhancement of pics.
Isn't that forbidden in some online competitions, btw?

Ok, the quest continues
changes: 3rd lamp, tripod, auto-release.
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

better, yet still too dark.

a lot better. the thing that bothers me a bit is that the pics dont really look crisp?

yes a bit out of focus

heres a wild sugestion... ditch the box and try without it.

ditched the box, results were not satisfactory

returned to the box, played a bit more with camera settings
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

Crap, I'm still impressed!:D

@Nameless - bear in mind that even cameras do modify the 'raw' picture they take. most compact cameras already increase saturation and sharpness of your pictures, while most DSLRs don't do it and what you get is the raw picture from the matrix. If you have access to both kinds of cameras - just compare the pictures. Usually compacts provide better pics if you don't do any post-processing, while SLR pictures look (much) worse unless you want to use them as source for later processing. Simple and well-known fact about digital photography.

As for competitions - I am not sure, but it's possible. I know about some competitions where you have to submit the raw, unedited picture in addition to the 'official' version to prove you didn't improve the quality of the paintjob digitally.

Bear one thing in mind - most cameras cannot use their space between white and black optimally. That can be easily seen on photos where your whites are not white enough and at the same time blacks are not really black. That's what gets corrected with Levels. I know that's not what you want to toy with, but I wanted to explain some of the photo-fu whats and whys to you.

As for the photos - the photo of the scythe guy is really good! If you manage to keep this quality - that's the way to go!

damn!!! the last pic is great compared to the first version!!! that means I'm purchasing 3rd lightsource this week!