Calling on all photographers - Help needed. (1 Viewer)

[Goldfish]

So, amazingly my animal house and rabbit hole sets have made the 2024 calendar! The bad news is that I am no photographer and the only SLR camera I own is with my daughter in Florida.

So, I am calling on any photographers out there for some thoughts/recommendations on how to take some good hi resolution pictures of these sets. Any thoughts/recommendations are welcome including layout/chip positions, lighting (I do have a small light box), how to take good pics with an iPhone, etc.

Also, if there is a photographer in the DMV area with equipment who doesn’t mind coming over (or I could come to you) to take a few high resolution pics of these sets, that would even be better!

Let me know! Thanks.

 

[Rieguy]

Wipe your lens, crop appropriately, indirect natural light, and use Imgur when posting directly to PCF. Those small things are honestly the main difference between meh pics and good ones when using an iPhone or the like. That said, I know there are semi-pros here that can give better advice.

 

[JeepologyOffroad]

Wipe your lens, crop appropriately, indirect natural light, and use Imgur when posting directly to PCF. Those small things are honestly the main difference between meh pics and good ones when using an iPhone or the like. That said, I know there are semi-pros here that can give better advice.

This covers it all. I also like to use zoom when taking iPhone pics rather than the standard 1x. Tends to come out better.

Another iPhone trick is to use the Live Photo feature and then select the best frame within the Live Photo. iPhone changes the color and look drastically depending how you have your phone set. Live Photo fixes this.

Portrait mode can also obtain great shots on iPhone but it usually requires solid lighting/setup whereas the Live Photo trick is fairly dummy proof.

 

[wickedwonka121]

Just point and shoot they said.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Did @CraigT78 share what the size of the calendar is? Obviously landscape (wide) mode probably makes most sense.

You take good photos @Goldfish as it is!

 

[CraigT78]

Did @CraigT78 share what the size of the calendar is? Obviously landscape (wide) mode probably makes most sense.

You take good photos @Goldfish as it is!

A mixture of both portrait and landscape work best for the built in Shutterfly templates. It allows for some variety.

 

[CraigT78]

So, amazingly my animal house and rabbit hole sets have made the 2024 calendar! The bad news is that I am no photographer and the only SLR camera I own is with my daughter in Florida.

So, I am calling on any photographers out there for some thoughts/recommendations on how to take some good hi resolution pictures of these sets. Any thoughts/recommendations are welcome including layout/chip positions, lighting (I do have a small light box), how to take good pics with an iPhone, etc.

Also, if there is a photographer in the DMV area with equipment who doesn’t mind coming over (or I could come to you) to take a few high resolution pics of these sets, that would even be better!

Let me know! Thanks.

Lighting and a clean lens. Stack pics, splash pot pics, and single chip pics all work for the calendar. Action shots without people in the frame also print well.

 

[mns99]

This is my chip photo studio that I posted before.

---

Lighting:
I use a ring-shaped light. Easy to use as it does not cast shadows.

I bought it at the DAISO discount store in Japan, but there may be something similar in the US.

Background:
I recommend using felt or black cloth. Of course, you can use speed cloth if you have it.

Camera:
I think it would be easier to use if you have a camera that can take macro shots. There's no need to stick to SLR cameras.

Chip position:
If possible, place chip in the center of the photo. Distortion will occur on the outside of the photo.

The left side is a chip taken at the center of the photo, and the right side is a chip taken at the edge.

Other equipment:
It's helpful to have a stand or tripod that allows you to shoot from directly above.

Image manipulation:
You can make good photos without using RAW format.
I use Gimp, and if you apply level correction, you can reproduce the colors reasonably well. You can also use Adobe Photoshop.

If you have a good photo, please share it with us!

 

[Machine]

and use Imgur

Why? can you elaborate?

 

[Rieguy]

Why? can you elaborate?

Regular upload gets downscaled (not sure correct terminology), whereas Imgur keeps it as is. Big difference in my opinion.

Example with Imgur on top, regular on bottom:

 

[CraigT78]

Regular upload gets downscaled (not sure correct terminology), whereas Imgur keeps it as is. Big difference in my opinion.

Example with Imgur on top, regular on bottom:

View attachment 1243044

Wow, that's a noticeable difference for sure

 

[timinater]

Don't forget to leave some "breathing room" in the image, as in don't crop them too close to the subject. It will give @CraigT78 more flexibility when it comes to fitting all the images into the layouts.

 

[Tonysquander]

Imgur makes a huge difference. Only downside besides the extra steps of using Imgur are that if those pictures are ever removed from Imgur they disappear from PCF as well. That is why sometimes in older threads you will see missing pictures where they used to be.

 

[CraigT78]

Don't forget to leave some "breathing room" in the image, as in don't crop them too close to the subject. It will give @CraigT78 more flexibility when it comes to fitting all the images into the layouts.

Shutterfly sucks in this regard. I end up cropping 85% of the pictures anyway.

But yes, breathing room is always appreciated

 

[BarrieJ3]

Honestly? Pay someone to take photos. We pay folks for cleaning and murdering and milling etc.

If I ever did customs or purchased a 1/1 set, they’d 100% be shipped to cleaner, photog, me in that order.

 

[ChipMonster]

Example with Imgur on top, regular on bottom:

View attachment 1243044

Hello,

Maybe I’m doing it wrong but I’m seeing some downscaling vs. the original right at the stage of uploading pictures to Imgur. They look ok at the part where I load them in in the first screenshot but then colors wash out as soon as I publish in order to get the link in the second screenshot. You can tell by the orange chips comparison below…

Am I missing something?

 

[ChipMonster]

Mine still looks like Rieguy’s bottom picture after going through Imgur. Both look the same to me…

This is the original on phone:

Vs my Imgur upload

 

[Rieguy]

Hello,

Maybe I’m doing it wrong but I’m seeing some downscaling vs. the original right at the stage of uploading pictures to Imgur. They look ok at the part where I load them in in the first screenshot but then colors wash out as soon as I publish in order to get the link in the second screenshot. You can tell by the orange chips comparison below…

Am I missing something?

You're not missing anything. Imgur decided to take a huge shit all over their own website/functionality on both desktop and mobile, with the latter being significantly worse. While you can still mostly work around it if you scale down your images to under 2mb on your end, it is an extra (annoying) small step and there is obviously slight degradation still from your own changes, albeit way less extreme than what Imgur does. It's been like this for the past 3-4 months. Can't say I'm surprised; it's like these companies can't help themselves.

 

[ChipMonster]

You're not missing anything. Imgur decided to take a huge shit all over their own website/functionality on both desktop and mobile, with the latter being significantly worse. While you can still mostly work around it if you scale down your images to under 2mb on your end, it is an extra (annoying) small step and there is obviously slight degradation still from your own changes, albeit way less extreme than what Imgur does. It's been like this for the past 3-4 months. Can't say I'm surprised; it's like these companies can't help themselves.

Ugh, that’s really annoying but at least it’s not user error on my end! Are there alternatives other than Imgur? I have some CPC chips I’ll need to show off soon so want to put them in the best light!

 

[upNdown]

This covers it all. I also like to use zoom when taking iPhone pics rather than the standard 1x. Tends to come out better.

i noticed this when photographing high school sports this year with a new iPhone. I’ve always been a 1x then edit guy. But there’s something about newer iPhone’s zoom that’s noticeably better.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Imgur deleted my account w no warning sucks. Lot of good chip photos I took r now off PCF.

 

[Marius L]

Problem with imgur is that the photos will be lost at some point. I much prefer slightly worse quality than 30% of PCF pron being gone in 5 years... like just mentioned a lot of older threads have broken imaget links which is pretty sad and annoying to see.

 

[Highli99]

i noticed this when photographing high school sports this year with a new iPhone. I’ve always been a 1x then edit guy. But there’s something about newer iPhone’s zoom that’s noticeably better.

I believe new iPhones have a mechanical zoom possibly? It’s wild what they can do. If you haven’t played with the magnifier feature it’s worth doing. Insane close ups of chips. You can see fibers.

 

[ChipMonster]

Imgur deleted my account w no warning sucks. Lot of good chip photos I took r now off PCF.

Problem with imgur is that the photos will be lost at some point. I much prefer slightly worse quality than 30% of PCF pron being gone in 5 years... like just mentioned a lot of older threads have broken imaget links which is pretty sad and annoying to see.

That seems like way too much trouble for what it’s worth! Ok, I guess I’ll just do direct uploads in that case