Journal entry for September 10, 2001
Today's summary: How I get my photos, future photography plans.
I've been working on a generic
eBay auction template lately, and asking a few discussion forums
for comments. The one comment I consistently received had nothing
to do with the auction description exactly... instead, it was that
my photos are way too dark...
That's something to keep in mind for future photos (and also, possibly,
changing the existing photos). It's very difficult since these are
small reflective objects. My current methods are unnecessarily-complex
and dissatisfying.
So on that note, I figured I might as well describe exactly what
I do to get the photos you see on my sculpture pages.
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Method 1, Direct Scanning: For my insect specimens,
I can scan them directly which results in a very high res
image. Most of the flattened-out "photos" seen in my gallery
are actually direct scans. This has the advantage of giving
me very very high detail. The major downside is that it needs
a lot of color correction in Photoshop, which is probably
part of what makes these photos seem so dark.
To the right is an example of a directly scanned pic, halfway
along in the retouch process.
Compare that to the final
cleaned version.
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Method 2, Digital Photos: I've taken a few digital
photos of the specimens, using my mother's camera. This has
the advantage of allowing an oblique view instead of the flattened-out
version required by the direct scanning method. The disadvantage
is low resolution -- because the camera is not very modern,
often the photos taken are barely acceptable as web quality.
For some examples, see the oblique photos of the rhino
beetle sculpture.
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Method 3, Traditional Film Photos: For every sculpture
I try to take some traditional film photos. That's the only
way to really get slides, since the digital photos of method
2 aren't good enough for that. I usually scan these photos
in since the "Photo CD" the camera shop provides is usually
too heavily compressed and the contrast they add is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, it seems like no matter what I do, these film-based
photos come out less than ideal. They still require heavy
photoediting to get the background truly black or white. For
some examples, see the oblique photos of the praying
mantis sculpture.
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Future photography plans
My parents are getting a digital camera after they move (or maybe
at Christmas?), for my mom and I to share. I plan to make sure it's
high enough res for me to use that exclusively in lieu of film,
scanning, et cetera.
My hope is that I can design a VERY well lit photography setup,
intended expressly for use with this new digital camera. Lighting
for accurate color balance, and so on. That way I won't have to
take two or three different kinds of photos, get film developed,
scan in the photos, edit them, and so on. My hope is that eventually
I'll be able to take photos and the only editing I'll have to do
will be very minor adjustments and maybe the removal of a couple
of dust flecks. I DON'T want to have to keep manually outlining
everything with black or white, as seen in the photo example above.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see what I can manage...
I know I could hire a pro, but it would apparently cost me at least
$100 a piece to get the assortment of photos I want -- and I don't
really trust another person to get the exact angles I want, considering
how complicated these little guys are. That's why I'm so intent
on learning to do this myself, and do it right.
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