On the Shave of the Day thread I have been so impressed by the wonderful photographs that members have posted. I marvel at their "good eye" for a perfect composition. (I also learn a lot about shaving gear and new products.) I post my daily picture of my shaving combo for that day but they never seem to have that special something that makes it a perfect photograph. So, I raise the question: what are some of your secret (and maybe not so secret) tips and tricks to take that perfect SOTD photograph?
Its simple technology that elevates my photo's. Photo's are taken with an Ipad and enhanced with a free Photobucket app. Everything I learned about composition was copied from other talented folks SOTD photo's here. I have noticed a growing number of guys using light boxes and think I might build one myself as that really takes photos to the next level..
grandad always said you had to do the 4s's to go anywhere. ______ shine shower shave he'd laugh like wild as I repeated that to my parents.
I try to create a tight composition (small work space!) incorporating most, if not all, the components being used. Many are taken in the evening or early morning where the only light is incandescent (i.e. WARM). I used to use a sony digital camera but this has given way to the iPhone 6 (more convenient to snap a few shots & simply email them to my workstation upstairs. Most shots are too warm and the contrast is lost so inevitably there is some post-production (photoshop pro CS6) which allows for some color adjustment, contract, balance, etc. Image is sampled down to a reasonable size and text is applied. Saved as a jpeg and uploaded to a photo-hosting site. For expediency, I try to follow a standard pattern of composition (bowl or soap tub framing the razor) that I will vary at times. But as you can see below, most shots follow a similar theme. After doing several hundreds of these set-ups, they go pretty quick.
I do find that the rule of thirds works pretty well in SOTD photography as well to get a balanced/well composed image. Sure, rules are meant to be broken and often successfully so but there is also something to be said about about sometimes being able to lean on old guidelines. I often simplify the rules in my mind "throw something up in the upper right and something in the lower left". Snap. Most of my own photos takes about 30 seconds from putting stuff down to snapping with my phone. Often only one shot as I'm lazy. I use CS/Photoshop and run through the same script on every photo with very few exceptions; Levels, sharpening, brightness/contrast, saturation, re-size, re-sharpen. Done. Post-processing can make the most mediocre of photo look great. If you see a photo you really like in a magazine or online the odds are very high that it didn't look like that when it came out of the camera
All very good advice...thanks. On SOTD I try to identify the stellar photos and then try to figure out what it is about those photos that make them so appealing. Some of them are similar and others are so different and yet they work so well. I think I need to just play around with composition, light, backgrounds, etc until I hit the "sweet spot". I will have some time to focus on this over the Christmas break. Good project!
Making great photographs is a hobby unto itself of course. I find product photography which is what these photos are, the most difficult to do really well. I'm amazed how many really skilled photographers we have here. I follow the SOTD threads just to look at the pictures.
It also helps to have some really nice gear, like shown in HollyRolla, and Darkbulb's photos. Dem str8s are photogenic fer sure!
Tight shots, rule of thirds, face labels, eliminate shadow and reflection unless intended. Less is more.
An SOTD photo is essentially a "still life" and there are lots of books to read and YouTube videos to watch on that subject. Doing that will give you lots of ideas. Also search for "product photography" which is really also still life and you'll find even more stuff to give you ideas.
