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Taking Good Photos of your Artifacts

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  • Taking Good Photos of your Artifacts

    Hi Folks! I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for the comments on my photos and share with you my technique.
    1. Camera - It is important to have a good camera. I'm not at all impressed with the ones on phones for a variety of reasons, poor resolution being the primary dislike.I'm an old 35mm SLR guy, but I'm really liking the digital camera available today. I use a Cannon Power Shot ELPH 100 HS. This little camera yields big results...you just have to get to know it.
    2. Lighting - The light has to be right. Daylight is good, but remember to turn off the flash function. I take a lot of my photos inside with room lighting and no flash. Be mindful of the position of your light source. You can achieve different effects by manipulating your light source, such as highlighting to brig out the flake scars on a piece. You can manipulate your flash function also. Use the macro function (Flower  icon on most digital cameras) for good close-ups.
    3. Background - Black is good. I use a cheap, foam backed black felt case liner most of the time. Black velvet works great too. The one drawback is black background materials are dust-magnets, so take care how you store it and keep it clean. Most "black" artifacts are actually not black when viewed against this back ground, but good lighting technique is imperative. You gotta play with it.
    4. Take lots of photos, or at least enough to compare with one another so you can chose that just right shot.
    5. Photoshop is a life-saver for me. You can really make a photo 'pop' with this software. Photoshop functions allow you to adjust lighting, sharpness and manipulate the background (especially removing that ubiquitous dust). I've included a few examples of my photos.
    Hope this helps! If you have questions, message me.
    Thanks, Truett



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  • #2
    Good info and a helpful topic Truett, I moved it from the "welcome" section as its more appropriate here I think.
    Folks, take a look at some of Truett's pics, very clear close ups make a huge difference and he has certainly mastered the technique which a lot of people struggle with, including myself. Thanks Truett!
    I "stickied" it too as this is a common problem with pics and is great advice.
    Southern Connecticut

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    • #3
      Thanks Truett,  I will try these thens and let ya know how it goes!

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      • #4
        Great post Truett,
        Can we add a couple of your pictures to that text for examples. I really like the flutted points picture and the Laurel Leaf blades too really pops. I have seen some very nice feed back on your photos so they would surly make this thread "POP"
        Thanks for the post
        Hoss
        TN formerly CT Visit our store http://stores.arrowheads.com/store.p...m-Trading-Post

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        • #5
          Thanks, Truett. I'm an old 35mm SLR guy myself. I finally bought a Nikon Coolpix L110. Good enough for in-situ's and close ups once I learned. Miss the multiple lenses and adoptability of my old Olympus, but not enough to upgrade yet. Pretty surprised and impressed by what the camera on the iPad can do as well. Lighting is so important. I collect trilobites and learned long ago how to highlight what I liked about them using light.
          Great idea to "sticky" this thread, Chris.
          Rhode Island

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          • #6
            Thanks for the photo tutorial. There have been a rash of poor quality photos lately. Folks, a good pic is really needed for Identification or just plain viewing. Decent ones can be taken by phones but you have to work at it.
            Like a drifter I was born to walk alone

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