Learning to take good pictures of cues

zeeder

zeeder

Will queue for cues
Silver Member
I've finally decided to actually learn how to use my camera and got some base settings from kenrockwell.com and took some quick baseline photos. As I continue my progress I will, hopefully, be sharing better and better quality shots. These were taken in my bedroom with crappy lighting with my Nikon D7000 and then edited on my iPad as my laptop charger died.

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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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You're on the right track. You need better illumination, a less distracting background and some post-processing to add some pop & sizzle - exposure, contrast, saturation adjustments, etc. Keep at it!
 
Sir Scratchalot said:
You're on the right track. You need better illumination, a less distracting background and some post-processing to add some pop & sizzle - exposure, contrast, saturation adjustments, etc. Keep at it!
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I agree with most of this.

The best tip I can give is to make sure your white balance is right. Without that, the nuances of the colors in the cue will never look right to you. These photos look like they might be a bit too warm... probably due to your light source.

Don't play with saturation too much... It can easily make things look fake if it's overdone.

Exposure adjustments are only helpful if your exposure is off in the first place.

Contrast can be a big help when trying to bring out the details... and nothing beats a nice neutral grey background (for my taste, anyway).

Keep it up... You are on the right track, and your camera is more than capable of producing "print worthy" images.


Cheers,

Mike
 
Thanks guys for your replies. The photos are definitely too warm! All the lights in the house are extremely yellow. I'm hoping to catch the right amount of cloudiness today to take some shots outside.

On the light/white balance front, I assume it's better to have the tone of the light correct instead of adjusting the white balance, but how far can white balance adjust for the wrong light?
 
zeeder said:
Thanks guys for your replies. The photos are definitely too warm! All the lights in the house are extremely yellow. I'm hoping to catch the right amount of cloudiness today to take some shots outside.

On the light/white balance front, I assume it's better to have the tone of the light correct instead of adjusting the white balance, but how far can white balance adjust for the wrong light?
Click to expand...

If you are shooting with the auto white balance setting on your camera, you'll be able to adjust it enough in post to get it right. The auto setting is good enough to get you pretty darn close.

What are you using for post? I use Adobe Lightroom, so that's what I know. It makes white balance adjustments (and pretty much everything else, for that matter) a snap.

If you don't get any clouds, just take it under a tree, or into the shade somewhere. As long as it's diffused light, it'll look much better than direct sunlight. Be careful of color cast when you're shooting outside, though. Sometimes, when you look closely at your highlights, you'll see a blue tint ("cast") from the sky. If there is no blue in the cue you're shooting, you can just turn down the blue levels of the whole photo until it goes away... Easy fix. If there is blue in the cue, though, you may have to play with it a bit.


Cheers,

Mike
 
The only post I did previously was adjusting the color and brightness a bit with the iPad's photos app. Ive got a lot to learn about post editing as well but it's pretty amazing how much more detail the Lightroom app gives with auto.
 
zeeder said:
The only post I did previously was adjusting the color and brightness a bit with the iPad's photos app. Ive got a lot to learn about post editing as well but it's pretty amazing how much more detail the Lightroom app gives with auto.
Click to expand...

MUCH better looking.

Now play with the "Clarity" slider a bit. You'd be surprised how much that and some extra contrast can help bring out the figure in different woods.

Below is an example of a fantastic Curly Koa forearm... It's one of my favorite!


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Sticky In The Cue and Case Gallery

There is a Sticky at the top of the Cue and Case Gallery which goes over cue photography in detail.
 
I tried playing with the clarity a bit and couldn't tell much. I think the lighting was just too bad. That said, here's my outside shots for today. I need to invest in some solid colored material for backgrounds though:

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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Looking really good!

For a background, just go pickup a solid color blanket, or your fabric of choice from the fabric store. No need to spend more than $10-$20.
 
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