That perfect image.. it's something we all strive for and something many of us pull our hair out over. Let's face it, taking a really nice picture of a glass bead is not something for the faint of heart!
First of all, if I were adventurous I might be out wading through our hip-high snow to find the perfectly lit spot to place my beads! Seems like it would be a good experiment, I'm sure the light would be wonderful! ...I guess I'm not that adventurous!
My 'real' job is Real Estate Photography. I take pictures of people's houses, no I am not a professional photographer, no I don't have a photography studio, no I don't do portrait photography and no, no, NO I do not 'do' weddings!!
I have however picked up a few useful picture processing tips that help me with my bead pictures, if you have Photoshop or a similar picture editing program you might give them a try some time.
Photoshop CS has a feature called 'shadows and highlights', you'll find it under the image, adjustments menu. It's interesting to play about with and see how it affects your photo. If my picture has dark areas where I'd like to see more of what's going on in the bead I might apply 'shadows', it lightens up shadowy areas letting details stand out more. You can preview the effect it has on your image as you use the slider to increase or lessen the percentage. - If you use it too heavily you'll get a nasty pixel thing happening so be careful.
Original photo
I take most of my bead pictures without a flash, and even when I use a flash I tend to take them on the darker side and lighten them up when I process them. A very simple way in Photoshop to lighten your image without loosing detail is to duplicate your background image layer, and then in the new layer set the layer options to 'screen' . Using the % slider allows you to control how much of an effect this filter has on your image. This is my favourite way of lightening my photos.
My pictures aren't perfect, but I think they usually give a fair representation of my beads, and perhaps that is the best we can hope for since in the real world everyone's monitors are slightly different.
Lightened with 'screen'
Shadows and Highlights and sharpen filters.
When I first started looking for tips on getting good bead pictures, I was having trouble positioning single beads to show their best features. Someone said salt! It works for me, a saucer of salt (or rice) allows the beads to sit the way you want. ... a word of advice - make sure they are DRY before you place them!! They don't look so good with grains stuck on them and blobs of congealed salt where water has run out of the bead holes, believe me - I speak from experience ;o)
Side by side comparison
Ooh, I didn't know about the screen option! I use levels to lighten, I'm going to have to try that! :D Thanks! Great first BlogIt post :D
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