Hi, i hope i have posted this in the correct place, but whats the best way to get clear sharp photos?
I have a very good camera, but it is new and i am still navigating my way round it. Thanks.

For me (any I am not that good at taking photos).

I always take my pictures in natural daylight with the flash turned off and I use the marco setting on my camera.

Jenny

Thanks for the advise, how is it we all have avatars of our dogs

In my case my dog is better looking than me

Jenny

Okay, this is just what I've found ..

I drape a white sheet over a high backed chair and put it infront of a window on a cloudy day. I then put a piece of frosted plastic on the seat of the chair. (The sheet helps to reflect light.) I then take my pics with no flash on the macro setting. Simple. No shadows, and no distracting bits to draw attention away from the item. I then get it into Photoshop, lighten it a bit and add a little contrast, at voila! That's how my best photos were taken.

Hope that helps.

I would just add to the already excellent advice given that I find a tripod a great help too.

Emma

I met a professional photographer recently and I was quite shocked by the lovely shots he took with my basic digital camera. Everything I took previously had huge shadows. He said the important thing was always to have lots of light. He used 2 quite powerful lamps on either side of my bracelet and it made a real difference!

Good luck!

Alison

I have neither dog nor cat in my avatar .. just a bead!

And the only thing I would add to this already super advice - get up close and personal

Something else - look at your item from different directions. Top, one side, the other, level with the surface .... try all sorts of angles.

But light is very important - but there are two types of light - white light, and yellow light. You get white light from the sun, or special bulbs, and yellow light from normal electric bulbs. If you use normal light bulbs, you must check the settings on your camera. If you use white light - you're going to get better results, and truer colour.

I know it all sounds daunting (sp???!), but don't worry - it gets easier, and we're all still learning and tweaking our techniques. Most importantly - have fun!

Thanks for all the advise, especially about white light, i wondered what the settings for white liht were!!

Ella - as far as I'm aware, your camera assumes that it's seeing white light. So if you take a pic with your normal tungston (sp???!) light, it'll look very yellow. That's when you need to change the setting to the little light bulb (usually) to tell it to compensate.

Just on the tripod issue - I love my tripod, but I'd never use it for taking jewellery pics. I find it very restrictive, and I can never get the angles I want. I sledom have a problem with shaky pics - and if I do, it's because I wasn't concentrating. Seriously - try it with and without, and you'll find that you'll get far more creative with your angles without one.

Thanks guys, that helps a lot.