52 weeks: Week 50 wrapup

© 2010 Simon Hucko

Been in a real photo rut lately. I blame the weather and general holiday craziness. Hopefully things will settle down a bit in January and I can get back into the groove with my photography. I'm not doing a 52 weeks or 365 project next year, but have some other short- and long-term projects in mind that I'll discuss more in an upcoming blog post.

My photo this week was a quick product shot to accompany my Chrome OS review. When I say quick, I mean it took me about 10 minutes from opening the camera bag to uploading the photo. These little product shots are pretty easy, and are good to be able to do when you're listing photo equipment for sale. (How many bad or non-existent photos have you seen on craigslist or eBay?) Or, in my case, they add a nice personal touch to a blog post about gear. A few tips to taking photos like this:

- Find a clean surface to set your item on. I used the floor. Tables work well, cutting boards, desks, paper, whatever, as long as there isn't any clutter on it.
- Make sure the background is free of distractions. A blank wall works. I used a piece of foam that we had lying around. Posterboard or foamcore work great, too.
- Light your item. I grabbed a work light, a desk lamp can work here. (Or any other light, the brighter the better.) I used some tissue paper for diffusion, but printer paper works pretty well in a pinch (you lose more light, though).
- Compose, focus, shoot, edit. You might need a tripod if your light isn't that bright. Editing should be fairly simple if you did the first three steps. I used the foam to set white balance.

Easy as that.

My pick this week is "snowfall" by irv_b:



Along with being the *only* photo this week, Irv captured the new snow very nicely. Exposure is right on. I like the layered composition, lots of texture to hold me in the image. The only thing I might have done differently was crop in on the left to remove the trunk at the edge of the frame. Nice balance between the two main trees. Thanks for sharing your wintry wonderland with us, Irv.

2 weeks left. Would love a strong finish here from everyone :)

~S

[title of blog] on flickr