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May 24th, '10, 01:30
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by debunix » May 24th, '10, 01:30

I've been playing with my 'granite' Yunomi.

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I'm trying to get the sparkle of the glaze to come to life, but not yet getting what I think I should be able to. The above was shot in outdoor soft shadows, and it feels dull.

The full cup in bright sun is glaring but not sparkling

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and this one with the flash feels way too shallow

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The red shape on this one, shot with my Kenko extension tubes all stacked together, in full sunlight, looks a bit like a nebula viewed by Hubble, bubbles substituting for stars...

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and this one makes use of the cup shape a bit at the rim
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But still, not making me go 'wow'.

Any suggestions for different approaches?

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Jul 8th, '10, 03:11
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by rayFrev » Jul 8th, '10, 03:11

so using Apple iSight web cam is not a good idea? lol, jk... nice thread although i don't think i have the patience to get good with my slownchy Cannon digital camera. The viewfinder on back is hard enough to deal with since i'm nearsighted and it looks in focus but when i import to my Mac it's a blurry garbled waste of time. THe trial and error would probably make me smash my Yixing pots against the wall.

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Jul 19th, '10, 18:50
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Geekgirl » Jul 19th, '10, 18:50

Sorry I missed a couple of these posts.
debunix wrote:The full cup in bright sun is glaring but not sparkling
I think you would probably have better success in a bright indirect lightsource, with an additional soft directional light to add dimension. Details like "sparkles" can be exceedingly hard to capture on film though, because remember that a photograph stops all action, including the interplay of light on a surface that is created from the tiniest movement in relation to the object.

The first image (the shade one - it doesn't show up on this post) is better for detail, IMO, but doesn't really have the "pop" that your eye and brain is capturing, amirite? :)

The third image probably is too shallow dof. One more stop down and I suspect you would have been happier. There's some nice texture there, although you need a bit of color correction if your intention is realism.

rayFrev wrote:so using Apple iSight web cam is not a good idea? lol, jk... nice thread although i don't think i have the patience to get good with my slownchy Cannon digital camera.
:lol:

Actually, I've seen people do some amazing artistic things with everything from web-cam stills to 1mp cellphone cams. Granted you won't get the detail that you can out of an actual camera (although the new iPhones and new Androids are pretty amazing,) you can still produce some interesting and creative photographs with those tools. Try it, you might be surprised!

I'm working on a little post about alternative tools for processing. I think I've mentioned on here before that picnik.com is an impressive photo-editing tool that is really easy to use, and even in the full (paid) version, WAY cheaper than nearly all the viable commercially available image editing options on the market. I might post it in segments, because my AADD is kicking in. :lol:

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Jul 19th, '10, 19:10
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Geekgirl » Jul 19th, '10, 19:10

Here's the example photo- the full size image is 5.4MP, it's completely unprocessed, except for the look that the camera applies automatically. I shot in "standard jpg" so the in-camera processing is minimal. Natural light, no tripod.

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EXIF (shooting parameters and image info) is HERE.

If you want to play with picnik editing on the example photo (or whatever image editing software you prefer,) you can grab the fullsize image HERE. (tell me if it doesn't work please.) I'd love to see what processing you come up with, feel free to post back to this thread and we can talk about it. :)

Picnik.com is here.
Like I said, picnik.com is an impressive little online photo editing tool that I use for .jpg editing more than anything else. For image processing, I usually use Adobe Lightroom, but it is only installed on my main machine, so if I want to do any quick edits on the fly (at work or on the netbook,) I use this program. It can handle your basic edits, and there are lots of little tricks and artistic effects you can use.

Many of them are only available at the "premium" level, but it is only $25/year. One of the best features (even at the free level) is that you can edit your photos where they are - on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, or your hard drive.

(edited because I deleted the photo. :roll: :lol: )

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Jul 19th, '10, 20:06
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Geekgirl » Jul 19th, '10, 20:06

So these are a few quick examples of what you can do creatively with picnik.com. Some of the tools are "premium," but most can be accomplished with the free version. The most useful premium tool is burning/dodging, which means being able to selectively lighten or darken a portion of the image. A quick notation of overall edits follows each image.

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"ortonized", increased vibrance, sharpened, brightened, drop shadow frame, watermark

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selective focus - blurs everything not selected

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you can rotate, flip or straighten your photos, for those of us who are always on the verge of tipping over...

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high contrast, vibrance, saturation, tinting, plus vignetting

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basic contrast and color edits

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"lomo" black and white conversion with contrast edits and fancy frame corners

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one of several color toning/cross process tools

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Jul 19th, '10, 20:29
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Geekgirl » Jul 19th, '10, 20:29

and as long as we are discussing what you can do with picnik, Sunny will help demonstrate how you can make all your family members look beautiful with a few selective edits.

Sunny before:

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Sunny after:

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Fixed: lipstick, mascara, eye color, hair highlights, doggie eye-boogies and 10% skinnier. Beeyouteeful!

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Jul 19th, '10, 20:33
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Victoria » Jul 19th, '10, 20:33

Loverly!!!

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Jul 25th, '10, 17:37
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by Seeker » Jul 25th, '10, 17:37

ZOMG!

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Sep 20th, '10, 02:37
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by electrickettle » Sep 20th, '10, 02:37

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

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Oct 5th, '10, 16:25
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Re: How to: photograph your teaware. A beginner's guide.

by entropyembrace » Oct 5th, '10, 16:25

Lmao Geek :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sunny is fit for a fashion magazine cover now! :lol:

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Oct 12th, '10, 18:42
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Re: Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

by Seeker » Oct 12th, '10, 18:42

Thought I'd post some photo play (also posted on share pots and cups just in case this one remains quiet).
got inspired.
and...
made one of these:
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first photo attempt:
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Needs work I know - not happy with how the chawan blends into the background on the left.

The chawan is by Cory Lum.

Cheers.

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Oct 12th, '10, 19:56
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Re: Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

by Chip » Oct 12th, '10, 19:56

Gorgeously serendipitous! :mrgreen:

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Re: Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

by Victoria » Oct 12th, '10, 20:18

Wow, that looks beautiful!

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Re: Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

by TwoPynts » Oct 13th, '10, 11:12

Awesome chawan!

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Re: Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

by Geekgirl » Oct 13th, '10, 11:57

The part you're not happy with is just a light issue. You've got too much on the left. Are you using dual flash? (should we move this over to the "how to photograph" thread? We could use some lightbox content over there.)

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