Website Images...

[Paul]

There was talk that Paul would do some PS tutorials

I can do it but i thik majority know how to sharpen images up

[Lee]

hi. As i can see you photo is under exposed as you did bot used flash to not ruin a picture with hot spot reflecting of the mug. You can fix that by bumping you iso value up. Regards to size reduction you dont use crop function in photoshop do you??? Better off use edit/image size and there change option for size reduction.
Or another solution is to get the pro tog to do it for you and they all will look lovely.

Thanks for the advice Paul - I do turn the flash off not to ruin the image as I have to be close - but not sure what ISO value is...? I resize the images using Ctrl+Alt+I.... to approx 175 pixels high whilst retaining the constraints.. The photo resolution is about 180 once loaded in photoshop...

I'd love a pro to do it, but as I'm new and making no money at all (yet!) I've got to keep the costs down where possible... I toyed with the idea of not actually printing the mugs etc and just trying to photoshop the image, but then I felt it wasn't real, plus I want to be sure I could produce what I was selling...

I will have to play around with it again tonight... Maybe I shouldn't cut around the image but just resize the mug and background....? I just liked the way some are displayed on other sites, such as alligiftors for example...

[Paul]

Well. In my opinion cutting edges on photos for web site if this is main source of the busines is pointless as people eat with they eyes. If they see nice crisp image and their like it then more likely they goig to buy it. Is like in restaurant. Will you eat if cheff make a mess on your plate? regarding ISO you should have button on the camera body or under menu. Have a look there. You should see something ike 100, 200. 400. 800 and so on. Try 400 firtst. If still to dark then then bump it up up to 800. If to bright go lower. Regarding to resizing pics it does not mater how small you resize them they still should be crisp ans sharp. Whats importend isalgorytm you use. In ps Under edit>image size you should see small window. Somwhere on the bottom of this window is drop down menu where you can chose algorytm. I think is called bicubic sharpen but iam on my tab now so will confirm this when back home. Will post some screen shot. Alternativly to this all, you can post me up to 2 items and i will photograph them for you free of charge and then post them back with your pics edited. i can do min. 2 photograps of each item.


edit:

sorry for the confiusion: option in PS is not in Edit. is in Image>image size

[Lee]

Paul - thanks again for going the extra mile!!!! I have found my camera manual - and found the ISO setting! Its the one I was referring to earlier but I highered it instead of lowering it I have also found the bio setting on PS show I'll play around with that....!

The reason I was cutting images, was because I have struggled and struggled to get a decent back drop apart from white paper - I was looking for desktop size photo backdrop but havent located anything yet...plus I thought it seemed to be common practice looking at other things...

And thank you for the offer to photograph and prepare a couple of images, but I guess I need to learn a suitable way of doing this in the long run..... (I'll proberly eat my words!!!)....

Here are the difference of images with the background I used, anf then cutting it...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]199[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]200[/ATTACH]

None look good compared to other sites...!

[Paul]

ok. if you dont want me do this for you then you can get more tips first of all. Background. in your case white. it need to be much more farver from the mug so there is more chance to miss the shadow. 2nd. try lit background itself with something. desk lapm should do. And also try to use your flash on camera but fire it tru yogurt pot or bit of plastic from milk bottle. it should defuse light a bit so there wont be any hot spots. dont worry if your background is grey. always will be if not litet with some light. but make sure it is this same grey every where. not bit darker on top and lighter on the bottom. is easy to make it wite in PS also when you useing white paper as a background make sure you got another sheet on the bottom too.

[Lee]

Thanks Paul - I'll try these tips again...! Regarding changing the background on PS - how can this be done without cutting the image and laying it on something else... because that would enable me to put a consistent backdrop behind the mug wouldnt it? Also, is white better, or would a different colour make the mug stand out more?

)

[Paul]

I think white is best and most clean color forsites. unfortunatly is not that easy just to change background. is much easyer to create proper picture
but trust me. do what i said and i am sure you will find out improvment. if you got descen exposure then go to curves. there you can change f=grey background for white.

[Lee]

"go to curves. there you can change f=grey background for white." hmmm, might have to pick your brains on this one again!!!!!!

Whenever you're fed up - just start to ignore me!!

[Paul]

lol sorry. go to: Image>Adjustments>curves




click this eyedroper thingy and then click somwhere on your grey background. but as i said you need pretty good exposure first.



edit:

thats what you can do with curves. your old pic:



is not perfect as exposure was too wrong but much lighter now...

[Lee]

Superb - I've just had a play around with ths, looks like a really useful tool! You thought about creating a tutorial for people like me and maybe selling it as a download?