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A MEMBER OF THE ZATZ MAGAZINE NETWORK |
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June 28, 2004 |
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
How to take fabulous photos of
your jewelry without using a camera
This week's news |
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BUDGET PHOTO SECRETS
How to take fabulous photos of your jewelry without using a camera
By Marilyn Gewirtz
Recently, at a meeting of the Bead Society of Palm Beach County, one of our members brought in a beautiful album of her beaded creations. I have been trying to create an album like that for quite a while, but I don't have a digital camera. When I asked her what type of camera she had, her answer was, "I don't. My husband puts my jewelry on the scanner and scans it directly to the computer."
Wow! The answer to my dilemma! I rushed home and tried it out. To my delighted surprise, it worked. Of course, I had to fine tune it so that the pictures were presentable, but in general, I had a great set of pictures. And it is so easy!
First, I needed to block out extraneous room light. With flat pieces, such as amulet bags or flat bracelets, I used a large piece of white cardboard for this purpose. I placed the items I wanted to scan in an attractive layout, placed the cardboard on top and scanned into Photoshop. Figure A shows the results of this.
FIGURE A
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A simple scanner made this incredibly clear scan. Click picture for a larger image.
Never one to leave well enough alone, I had to experiment. I happened to have an orange file folder sitting on my desk and wanted to see what would happen with a colored background. Figure B is a sample of this. I love it.
FIGURE B
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Don't be afraid to experiment with colored backgrounds. Click picture for a larger image.
Of course, you can see a few of the folder seams and edges. A little Photoshop magic with a simple crop, or a little extra work with the Clone Stamp tool could clear that right up.
With bulkier items, however, this didn't work because too much outside light caused the sides of my picture to get black. I needed something that would cover the pieces. A sheet or pillowcase is good for this purpose. Any other opaque, solid, colored fabric will work as well.
A word of warning however. On my first try, I just draped the pillowcase and scanned. Oops! I didn't realize my scanner was so good that every wrinkle in the fabric showed. So, I ironed the fabric and tried again. Figure C is the result.
FIGURE C
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A piece of cloth or a sheet makes a great background for your scan. Click picture for a larger image.
You can leave it with the fabric as a drape in the background, or if you are a Photoshop expert you could change the background altogether.
Any way you do it, it is fun to experiment and even more fun to know you have great pictures you've taken without a camera. Even if you don't already have a scanner, this is a great budget tip, because a good scanner can cost less than a $100, where a good digital camera (and all the lighting gear necessary for shooting images of this quality) can cost a whole lot more.
Marilyn Gewirtz is 43-year old ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' mom. When asked what she wanted her bio to say, she simply answered "David is my little boy." Some things never change.
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CONNECTED PHOTOGRAPHER NEWS CENTER
This week's news
Want to get the very latest photography news? The Connected Photographer News Center is updated every day with news of product releases, industry info, tips, techniques, and pointers to great photography resources on the Web. Here's this week's news:
Photographer legalities
Bert P. Krages author of the "Legal Handbook for Photographers", has published a 1-page PDF guide to what you can and cannot legally do as a photographer in the USA.
Sandisk Shoot & Store Flash cards
SanDisk announced that it has passed the 10,000-store threshold in its rapidly expanding efforts to offer inexpensive Shoot & Store flash memory cards to consumers in places where they shop frequently. Rite Aid and Kmart are among the latest retailers to begin selling the line, joining hundreds of other drug and grocery storefronts.
Apacer CP80 Disc Steno
The Disc Steno CP80 is an easy-to-use, secure, standalone digital photo to CD copier, just as its predecessors CP100 and CP200. The Disc Steno CP80 also works as an external CF reader and CD-RW.
DSLR Remote Pro
DSLR Remote Pro from Breeze Systems allows Canon EOS-1D, EOS-1DS, EOS 10D, 300D and Digital Rebel SLRs to be operated tethered to a PC using the FireWire or USB cable. Aimed mainly at the professional photography market, DSLR Remote Pro also has applications in areas such as microscopy, animation, industrial control, ID photographs and astronomy.
Olympus E-1 Firmware v1.2 update
Olympus formally announced the second firmware update for the E-1 digital SLR. With version 1.2, it is now possible to continually shoot photos in C-AF (Continuous Auto Focus) mode, continuing C-AF with the shutter button halfway depressed.
Lablinkpro Internet Print Service
Fuji Photo Film (UK) has officially launched LablinkPro, its advanced internet print service. Unlike existing internet print services that focus on general consumer retail business, LablinkPro has been specifically designed for pro-labs and professional photographers, linking the two together.
Underwater housing for FinePix F710
Fujifilm announced a secure underwater case to house the FinePix F710 Zoom. This sub-aqua unit allows the underwater photographer greater shooting versatility at depths of up to 40 meters, and has been ergonomically designed to withstand challenging conditions.
Lastolite 6ft Cubelite
The new, fully collapsible, 6ft Cubelite provides the user with an easy way to create overall soft light with perfect amounts of fill on larger subjects. Delivering a completely shadowless, non-reflective environment the photographer is able to isolate the subject from their surroundings and create an environment by surrounding the subject with soft, even lighting.
Toshiba methanol fuel cell
Toshiba announced a small methanol fuel cell which weighs just 8.5 g (0.3 oz) and can produce 100 mW of power. Toshiba describe this new unit as small enough for integration into a wireless headset for mobile phones, but still efficient enough to power an MP3 music player for as long as 20 hours on a single 2cc charge of highly concentrated methanol.
ImageRecall 2.0
ImageRecall announced the European availability of ImageRecall 2.0, a professional-grade photo recovery program that retrieves lost images, data and sound files from flash memory cards.
Digital Screen Shade
The Digital Screen Shade with Glass Magnifier from Camera Bellows can help eliminate glare from sunlight, bright lights or reflections on digital camera LCD viewing screens.
Phase One P25 22 megapixel
Michael Reichmann from Luminous Landscape has posted his first look at the 22 megapixel medium format 645 digital back.
Digital photo printing habits
A new consumer study from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures reveals clear skies as well as clouds on the horizon for the digital photo printing industry. Among the positive signs are that digital camera users who print photos are taking far more pictures than they ever did with film and printing far more enlargements.
FortuneCity MyPhotoAlbum
FortuneCity.com has launched MyPhotoAlbum, an online service that will be offered for free to thousands of digital photography enthusiasts. MyPhotoAlbum is a premium online photo gallery community that allows users to easily upload, share and promote their photographs privately to their friends and family or publicly to the world.
Vicman red eye removal tools
VicMan Software has announced the release of Red Eye Remover 1.5 and Anti Red Eye 1.5 that utilize significantly improved redeye-correction technology. Red Eye Remover is a Windows program that can remove a common "red-eye" effect from your images, and Anti Red Eye is a plug-in that works with Adobe Photoshop, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, VCW VicMan's Photo Editor, Macromedia Fireworks and other Photoshop plugin-supporting hosts.
Arcsoft Video Stabilizer
ArcSoft Video Stabilizer provides consumers with a simple yet effective way to remove the shakes and jitters in home video footage resulting from sporadic hand movements, jolts and flutters while filming.
Dragon Burn 4.0
NewTech Infosystems announced Version 4.0 of Dragon Burn with major new features and a $9.99 promotion upgrade offer. New features added to this release include VCD/SVCD mastering, VIDEO_TS support for DVD Video burning, and Picture CD layout support. Dragon Burn 4.0 is also among the first to provide Mac users with DVD+R Double Layer support.
Alera DVD/CD Shredder Plus
Alera Technologies has introduced its DVD/CD Shredder Plus, a media destruction device for cutting DVDs, CDs, Floppy Disks and Credit Cards into small unusable strips, permanently preventing unauthorized use and it is HIPAA compliant.
Eye Candy 5: Textures
Alien Skin Software announced the immediate availability of Eye Candy 5: Textures, a plug-in collection of 10 texture generators for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Macromedia Fireworks. The first of a three-part upgrade to Eye Candy 4000, Textures produces a variety of surfaces, including photo-realistic snake and lizard skin, fur, brick, stone and wood.
No Delkin Mac driver yet
Delkin has issued a statement today in which they apologize for the lengthy delay in releasing a fully-functional Mac OS X driver for the CompactFlash version of its eFilm PRO CardBus 32 Adapter. Mac compatibility had originally been promised for early in 2004; in the spring, Delkin revised this to late May 2004. A final release date has not been specified.
DxO Optics Pro update
DxO Optics Pro, image correction software from DO Labs now supports the Nikon D2H and the Canon EOS 1D Mark II.
Fujifilm World adapter
The Fujifilm World Adapter allows you to use your portable electrical appliances in more than 150 countries around the world, and is compact and easy to pack away in any bag or rucksack. Whether you're charging your laptop or digital camera in Europe, or using your hairdryer in Hong Kong, this all-in-one unit eliminates the need for country-specific adapters.
New Bowens lighting
Bowens International is set to launch a new light bank aimed at digital photographers and video/TV studios. The new Studio Lite SL 455 (four tube) and SL 855 (eight tube) systems are set to be showcased to the world at the Cologne-based Photokina trade show in September, but will be available in the UK within weeks.
Foveon image sensor
Foveon announced the availability of the Foveon F19 sensor, a 1/1.8-inch 4.5 Megapixel CMOS direct image sensor that incorporates Foveon's breakthrough X3 technology to directly capture color in three layers, just like film.
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Copyright © 2003, ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
Connected Photographer Magazine is an independent publication of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Connected Photographer, Computing Unplugged, the ZATZ name, and the ZATZ logo are trademarks or service marks of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises. All other brands and product names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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