Several people have asked me how to get a pure white background when shooting a product, say, for Etsy, or eBay, or any scenario where the product needs to be displayed against a pure white background. Right off the bat, there are MANY ways to do that, and to a large degree it depends on what gear you have at your disposal. I used 2 studio strobes in the movie below, but I’m pretty sure you can pull this off with a couple of speedlights as well.
Setting Camera Exposure MANUALLY!
Control Your Camera…or It Will Control You
I made this video in order to help y’all get some insight into manual exposure. You don’t HAVE to do the math….as in figuring out your Shutter, Aperture, and ISO values based on stops. That’s what your METER is for! Check out the video below.
My Favorite (cheap) Things
Gear Is Good
It has become a cliche that buying more gear won’t make you a better photographer. This is definitely true. However, once you get to a certain point, which usually occurs around the time you get good at setting exposure manually, you begin to see the possibilities that open up with certain items. Below is a list of my favorite things that have helped me in my photography. The good news is that with one exception (Canon S90), they are all pretty inexpensive….as in less that $50, and in several cases, MUCH less!
Photographing a Bird
We Got Lucky!
A catbird built her nest right in front of our window. When my wife, Lucille, showed me, I ran and got a tripod and set up my Canon S90 point and shoot camera. I leave it set up at the window. The idea was, and is, to shoot few frames each day and monitor her progress, from nest building to hatching her eggs, to feeding her babies. When I’m done I’ll create a time-lapse video of the entire process. This is as close as I’ll probably ever get to a nesting female. Here’s what she looks like:
Equalizing Sky and Ground for Landscapes
The Problem
Today’s digital camera has a limited dynamic range. Therefor, when you are shooting a scene that includes the sky and the ground, if you expose for the ground the sky gets blown out, and if you expose for the sky then the ground goes into deep shadow. Neither of these options represent the way our eyes see that same scene. What to do?
