Photographing Tea

[silverneedles]

you reshot the can, looks silky now, the colors are nice , good crop too

[Space Samurai]

Two Questions:

1) When using your digital camera, how much control do you like to keep. Do you set everything to auto? keep it manual? bit of both? I'm just curious what some of you have to say.

2) Printing pictures...what's the best way to do this? What do you use/how do you do it?

[scruffmcgruff]

Two Questions:

1) When using your digital camera, how much control do you like to keep. Do you set everything to auto? keep it manual? bit of both? I'm just curious what some of you have to say.

2) Printing pictures...what's the best way to do this? What do you use/how do you do it?

I have no idea about printing. You could take it to a kinko's, I guess.

P&S's don't get *that* manual, but I try to control as much as I can. It does autofocus, aperture, and shutter speed on its own, but I get to control the flash and white balance. I guess I can control shutter speed to some degree, as I can choose anything over 1s, and I can set the exposure level manually. Actually, I don't know what affect adjusting exposure level has on the camera's function. *runs off*

[Space Samurai]

I should specify that with printing pictures I'm looking for a way to get the sizes I want, not just the standard 4x6 8x10 and what not.

[Geekgirl]

Two Questions:

1) When using your digital camera, how much control do you like to keep. Do you set everything to auto? keep it manual? bit of both? I'm just curious what some of you have to say.

I keep quite a bit of control depending on where/when I'm shooting. At home, I go with aperture priority or full manual, set my white balance, but usually let the camera do the focusing. (My eyesight is not so great.) I nearly always use a tripod for stills unless I'm outside in bright sun. Aperture priority gives me the most control over depth of focus, with very little adjustment.

I also use a remote, so I can take long-shutter shots without my pressure on the capture button throwing the shot out of focus.

I shoot in RAW format, which is an uncompressed image, then use software to make adjustments and convert to JPG. Since there's so much more data to work with, the adjustments don't degrade the image like editing a JPG can.

BIG factor is color.

2) Printing pictures...what's the best way to do this? What do you use/how do you do it?

Here's where the color comes in. If you want to really have control of your color, especially if you print, you need some sort of color calibration for your monitor. I use a Huey Pro, which is as bottom of the line calibration as you want to go. Anything less than that will not get the job done. The unadjusted color on my large monitor runs to green, on my laptop it's very yellow. With color calibration I can make them match. I can also make sure that my monitor will show what will print.

The fancier color calibrators will also let you download color profiles from your favorite printshop, so there are no surprises when you send your pics for processing.

For run of the mill printing, I use a Canon Multipass (mediocre, and small prints,) or Costco processing (better, and inexpensive.) If I'm going to process to hang on the wall, or give to friends/family, I use a professional photoprocessor. (ProPhotoSupply for me, here in Portland.) I get their color profile, then double check before I take in the photos. They do a fantastic job, but it is expensive.

[Geekgirl]

I should specify that with printing pictures I'm looking for a way to get the sizes I want, not just the standard 4x6 8x10 and what not.

If you want odd-sized prints, you will have to do it yourself, with a large format printer, then trim it. Or you'll have to use a professional photo lab, where they will not crop your images to fit the paper. Of course this will also require trimming, so your longest side will determine your print costs according to the standard paper size. For instance, an oddsize 8x16 print would have to be printed on an 11x17 sheet. At the lab I use, that would run you about $14.

Most pro-labs will have a selection of "unusual" paper sizes though, that your local Target or Costco processing won't have. This can actually save you a bit of money in the long run.

[silverneedles]

I use aperture priority for regular shooting, manual for flash.

exposure/flash lock is pretty useful whereby you meter one part and lock exposure, then recompose for the shot you want.

i handheld majority, ISO 100 very bright day, 200 regular day,, 400-1600 indoor/night/low light/overcast (unless have a tripod or can rest the camera on stable item for long exposures for which iso goes to 200 or 100)

i shoot in RAW (on computer: extract the jpeg thats embedded in the raw-not sure if nikon does this too- to preview which to edit). JPEG from camera sometimes lacks much detail, and can't recover over/under-exposed shots as well as RAW can.

white balance always on auto... shooting RAW is sortof easier to correct but it can still be a pain. If i have time i set the white balance.

Print: I seldomly print. I read labs with Fuji printers are the best quality. The ones at Kinkos(Sony stations) print not sharp enough for me, and are expensive for 8x10, tho the output does look like a photo in terms of paper and glossyness, and it printed a black and white pretty good without any hue. Home printing can be ok quality too these days and cheap.

(dpreview forums have alot of info on photography, printing) (dont use CNET for reviews )

[joelbct]

Perhaps this has been mentioned already, but the teachat forum software auto-resizes posted images to a 600 pixel width if they are larger, and with very pixelated results.

So for posting purposes, to avoid the auto-resize pixelation, resize larger images to 600 pixel width before you upload them to a hosting site.

[silverneedles]

its not a "real" resize,
the displayed result depends on your browser and how it handles it,

if you rightclick-view image it opens up the full original sized image.

[tenuki]

my camera has 0 manual controls so I must surrender to the moment. i do however play around with the different 'auto' settings with interesting results, maybe i'll post some tips on tricking auto only P&S cameras one of these days after I have a better handle on it.

I've decided to take my foolishness a step further and use a 15 dollar disposable digital camera from Ritz for my next tea porn shoot. Should be interesting.

i've heard good things about costco for prints, but never printed a digital photo using a service.

[brandon]

Brent created a group for us on flickr to keep TeaChat photos. It is a better way to collect photos and comment on each than in the threads, I think. If you have cool photos, feel free to join and add them to the pool.

http://flickr.com/groups/teachat/

[tenuki]

I just wanted to share this photo here. As someone who paints and does fine art prints I've always been a bit put off by all the technical aspects of photography. I tend to get distracted by those sorts of things and forget to make art, so haven't done photography for years. I have the same problem with music production tools, and tend to use my ancient analog 4 track instead so I don't spend my whole time fiddling instead of making music.

However there have been some recent advances in technology that look like they may solve my problems. One is the advent of the good quality point and shoot, fully automatic, no manual control, inexpensive camera. This cheap sony cybershot lets me play again. The other is the small, simple recorders like the Zoom H2/H4 on the music side of things. 4 channel recording at the touch of a button, no muss no fuss, no fiddly. anyway...

(you can see the rest of the photo session over in the 'show off your pots' thread.)



When I saw this shot in iPhoto when I was downloading I actually broke out in a spontaneous giggle of joy. It is exactly in the style of my more abstract paintings that are informed by organic patterns, color and tone balance and the interplay of intersecting curves. I'm simply delighted to see this coming out of my camera. I'm not saying it's great, just really really happy it happened.

[Space Samurai]

As someone who paints and does fine art prints I've always been a bit put off by all the technical aspects of photography. I tend to get distracted by those sorts of things and forget to make art...

I know what you mean. This is why almost everything on my D40 is set to auto. I took the advice of more experienced photographers and trust that my camera is smarter than me. So I let it do it's thing, while I focus on doing mine. It's nice to know that I can take control if a situation warrants it, but mostly I just tweak my exposure if necessary.

I do like that picture, particularly this area:

[Geekgirl]

Just caught the post about the teachat flickr group. Maybe it should have it's own thread? Maybe a sticky?

[Salsero]

Just caught the post about the teachat flickr group. Maybe it should have it's own thread? Maybe a sticky?

If you come up with the idea, Chip can make it happen!