Help With Pic's Please

[twylite1212]

Any help on taking pic's of marbles would be appreciated. I've been collecting for a few years now but I'm still pretty new to this site. I've recently been trying to get some good pic's of my marbles but it's not going so well. I see what good pic's everyone has and I'd love to be able to take some anywhere near that good. I'm working with a 12.1 mega pixel sony cyber shot but I have a couple of other digital cameras with less pixels. I do have a scanner but haven't tried that yet. What should I do to get the best or better picture results?

Thanks.

[disco005]

I am in no way as good as some on here, but I like to use sunlight with a dark background, it really makes the colors come out (with a white background, the camera tends to over-compensate for the lightness and dulls the overall lighting of the entire photo)

I usually just set the marbles on a dark colored non-reflective cloth.

Use the Macro setting on your camera (usually indicated by a flower symbol). If you have a tripod to use, use the timer button too, that really helps me.

Hope that helps some

[m!b$]

More megapixels isn't necessarily a good thing.

Use manual focus, if you have it. Use spot metering, if you have it. Use your custom white balance, if you have it, and manual aperture and shutter settings. Underexposure is better than overexposure. As said above, use a tripod and timer, and super macro setting, and a low ISO, like 80 or 100. Use a larger resolution (at least 2000 pixel width), then crop your photos in a graphics program. Outdoor pictures will usually have alot of unwanted reflections. If shooting indoors, don't have the light source(s) too close to the subject.

[catfish]

Spot metering can be tricky however, depending on the color value you spot meter. For instance, if you let the camera do the "thinking" and spot meter something black then the whole photo will be overexposed as the camera is trying to make the black grey. U would have to set the camera to underexposed by a couple full stops in that instance. I would go to the local library and see if they have the book titled "Umderstanding Eposure". It's a really basic intro into understanding camera settings, what they do, and what times to use different settings. I have had really good results with point and shoot cameras ans just using the macro setting, flash, and then staying back from the marble a bit and using the optical zoom (not digital zoom), then cropping the photo in an editor of your choice.

[m!b$]

Spot metering, on my camera at least, isn't just a tiny spot. Unless it's a very large marble, the spot includes the whole marble. That way, the camera ignores the rest of the background.

The shutter speed may have to be adjusted a little, depending on the size and color of the marble. I usually leave the aperture setting at about 5.6.

I wouldn't use flash when taking pictures of marbles.

[catfish]

Spot metering, on my camera at least, isn't just a tiny spot. Unless it's a very large marble, the spot includes the whole marble. That way, the camera ignores the rest of the background.

-that would be center weighted on my camera, spot on mine is very tiny. I see our difference there.

The shutter speed may have to be adjusted a little, depending on the size and color of the marble. I usually leave the aperture setting at about 5.6.

I wouldn't use flash when taking pictures of marbles.

-I have had very good results with a point and shoot, but I do agree it's not ideal. Having said that though, the flash highlight is no bigger than what u see in your avatar photos. To each their own. I like to use two lens mounted flash heads on my macro lens when I do single marble photos and off camera flash for groups.

[m!b$]

My camera is a point and shoot too, not an SLR. But just about everything can be done manually on it, and that's the way I've gotten the best results with it.