A Little Giddy...just a little!

Feeling a little giddy tonight!  Okay, not a little...A LOT.  Have you ever researched something til you found the right one for you only to realize you couldn't afford it?  Have you ever wanted something so bad you could taste it?  Ever looked at something for months and months, even years til you dreamed about it?  Ever stalked the internet price comparison sites month after month, waiting for your "something" to go on sale? ...Then finally - you get it!!

If you've answered yes to any of these, and the end result was you finally getting that "something", then you know exactly how I'm feeling this week...on Monday...I GOT IT!!! Finally..................

I've been patiently waiting two years for this!!  I am officially going from Point and Shoot to DSLR...yeah baby!  So why did I open the box yesterday and close it back up and put it away?  Was I scared by all the parts and the bigger user manual and all the buttons and knobs and pins and whistles??

Yep...so by Friday, I hope to have this............

There's a steep learning curve if I want to get the most out of this camera. The good thing is that the Nikon I currently use, has very similar menu's to this one, minus several added features and then some, but the hold is the same, and I'm "almost" not feeling quite like the dummy I thought I would be!  I'm also going to start attending some of the photography meet ups I've been stalking and learn all that I can from pros. 

Heres a neat photo I took tonight using one of the auto scene options.  Had I done this with my regular camera, it would have barely come out...if. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not even close to getting rid of my other camera's...yes that's plural for three. But I am thinking of sharing one of them with my son,  if he acts right.  He is constantly reminding me that I have too many!  what do you think...is four camera's too much? 
Unveiling in photography soon,

Learning is giving me a headache!....

There's nothing like having to learn something over again that you almost had mastered.  You know that feeling you get when you feel like a big dummy?  Your head starts throbbing from all the new?  Well, that's the feeling I have tonight as I sit here looking at my computer screen.  I just started working with Adobe Photoshop 9.0, and WOW... quite a few things have definitely changed including the location of things!  You see, I previously had a 2.0 version...yes...that was 7 versions ago, and would probably still be using it, if I could get into my computer that crashed this summer! 



New is good though, because there appears to be soooo many cool new features, but the problem I'm finding is there is no users manual readily available. When learning something like this, I need a hands on manual to look through, mark up and make notes. I guess I'm about to learn two new things - the newer version and how to study a different way.    

The first cool thing I did notice was that the auto enhance feature is a lot smarter than the 2.0 version.  With just two clicks of the mouse I went from this boring blurred photo:

to this bright and sharper version.........



Maybe I'll get the chance to entertain  with other great features as I learn how to do some new cool things with photos.  Next to my Nikon camera, Adobe is the next best thing when it comes to photography!  

What have you learned new lately?

Unveiling with new technology,

This Used to Be Soooo Easy!

Every year for Christmas, I will typically splurge and get myself something special from Santa. This holiday however, was not the typical holiday in our household, so I hadn't really planned on making a purchase for myself. BUT...a little family project of scanning 150 photos had me changing plans the week of Christmas.

My tried and true, HP Scanjet gave out on me at picture number 5!! So off I go to Office Depot in the snow to purchase me a new scanner...Merry Christmas to me...yeah right!

I ended up with a Canon CanoScan LIDE 100. The new scanner is slim and compact compared to my dust buster, and pretty quiet too. It did a fabulous job scanning photos in no time...I must admit, I was very pleased with the fast results...until tonight! Figured tonight, I'd scan a couple of quick necklaces I'd worked up to get back in the swing of things and boy, oh boy was I in for a surprise, because scanning jewelry used to be soooo easy!

Time was pressed this evening so I skipped the photo tent for a quick fix. I did however, accidently discover a pretty cool feature, I may use in the future, but tonight I just needed quick, no manual, no surfing the net for an instruction manual, just a quick scan, then lights out!

Well..this is what I ended up with and this won't do...not even for a quickie. I'll definitely have to locate the manual for this new toy because it apparently comes with some pretty neat bells and whistles!

first scan of two necklaces side by side. The scanner actually captured the two Kazuri pendants as separate photos...how cool is that!!?? What's not so cool is the quality of the image..bummer!

After playing around a little bit more, I figured out how to capture what was actually on the scan bed...cool again right? Nope..image quality still sucks!!

Canon if you're out there reading this post..HELLLLPPPP!! I don't have time to read a manual!!!

Unveiling and playing around,
Dee
You can find more of my jewelry on my website Runako Designs

The Magical Blur Revealed....

okay, so you know I've been playing around with my camera this past week, and I've been discovering lots of new ways to use it. Sad to say, I've only had the camera 4 years, but for some reason the manual just hadn't made sense up until now. Okay...I barely read it, but still!

So, the next neat trick I found this week is how to create that magical illusion of a blurry background in a close up shot, its actually called depth of field. You know, the one where the images in the background seem to fade and the close up shot is clear? I've read a few tutorials on how to do it, but not fully understanding aperture and AE/AF, etc, it was all Greek to me until I discovered that my lovely Nikon 5400 has this feature already built into it, with automatic settings. All I had to do was switch to micro mode under the "scenes" setting, point and shoot, and the camera did all the work for me. If you don't have this automatic setting on your camera, try reading this article over at searchwarp.com it explains it way better than I ever could.

In addition to the new blurry background, I've been really experimenting with taking closer shots and at different angles. I'll let you be the judge on how my camera lessons are coming along. Let me know what you think.

This necklace will be available soon as one of my fall pieces....It's called "Rachel". Did I mention that I love my Nikon 5400?

Unveiling in photography,
Dee

You can find more of my jewelry at Runako Designs

Reading the Manual Can Be a Good Thing

There's a process to what I do. Part of that process is I make jewelry, take pictures, update website, and mail packages. Seems simple enough right? Well of all the above, the most daunting is taking pictures and updating the website. That's what I've been doing the past few days and most of this past weekend. I'm no professional photographer by any means, and with each photo session, I'm discovering something new.

This is my camera, it's a Nikon 5400, and I absolutely love it!! This is also the same sick camera from a few months back...but she's all fixed up now!
I must admit I had become pretty content with my photos, recently and had even gotten a little lazy about trying to make them better, until last night, when I was trying to shoot some close up shots of a few metal pieces and boy were the lights giving me a fit! You see, light + metal = bright glare, and I can't have that in a jewelry shot unless I'm shooting diamonds and diamonds I have not!

I started with one pair of earrings and 69 shots later, I was still on that first pair of earrings. I tried everything I could think of to cut down on the glare...then a light bulb went off as I closed shop to head upstairs. I remembered these little cover thingy's that had come with my light box..that I had never opened called light diffusers...duuuhhh!! So of course I had to see what they'd do and look at what a difference they made! Even the true color of the bag came out!

(Before diffusers)
(after diffusers)

I'm happy with my discovery of the light diffusers, and I'm certain there's probably a few other things I could have done, but this works for now. Follow me this week as I share with you a few more tricks I found, just by reading the manual!! And to think, I've had it for 4 years now!

And by the way, this is a new pair of earrings for the fall season called "Hollow Dreams" , if you just have to have them before they make it to the website, by all means contact me :).

Unveiling in photography,
Dee

I Can See True Color Again...

You never realize how much you appreciate certain things until you don't have them anymore. Well, that would be the case with my camera! Remember...It was on the fritz. Well, I finally got it back today. Okay, it has actually been fixed for about three weeks, I just couldn't make it to the camera shop by 5 to pick it up. Imagine shop hours from 12-5 and not open on Saturday??? who ever heard? Most normal folks don't even get off until 5....said, raising her hands...but the shop guy was very nice and I'm pleased with the fix. Apparently the CCD or something was going out and that's what was causing all the cross over in colors and the sorts.I tasked my bored child this evening with going around the neighborhood and taking some photos of flowers for me, just so I could see if the color was really working. To my surprise I didn't get any huffing and puffing, he was excited about it. Little did I know he took that to mean he could leave our block and venture a block further than normal, found that little tid bit out later; however, below are his results...Not bad actually, I'll have to give him a tip tomorrow for a job well done!
So, now that things seem to be working around here, I have a lot of catching up to do with jewelry photos.

Unveiling,
Dee
Dee creates jewelry that can be found at Runako Designs

Lights, Camera....Freeze???

When I'm shopping online, the one thing I'm looking for are clear photos of whatever it is I'm purchasing, especially jewelry. I hate visiting an online shop and not being able to see the details of the pieces. (click photo for close up)

When I first started putting pictures online to show of my work, it didn't take me long to figure out that there was actually an art to photographing jewelry, not that I'm an expert by far, but I'm a lot better at it than when I first started out. I wish I had taken photos along the way, of the different set ups I've used, just to provide a chronological story of my progression. I've gone from buckets, to Tupperware, to scanners, to outside, to you name it. I won't even mention how many types of light bulbs I've experimented with.

The current photos on my shop were taken in a light tent that I built from cardboard, but it was way too big and not very portable, so it had to go! Of course that left me with only one option of buying a new toy, what else was there to do? I had my eye on the flexible type in the photo to the right, so I purchased this recently from Ritz Camera shop, and I took my first couple of pictures today...I'm liking it! Its portable, and light and I can hide it when I'm done. The key to taking good photos of jewelry is to diffuse the light, capture all the colors and be able to zoom in for close up shots that will capture the details of the piece. I'm really looking forward to playing around more with my new set up, and Photoshop and hopefully, getting even better pictures especially of metals and pearls.

Pictures is just one important factor when starting an online business, leave me a comment and let me know what other things you look for when shopping on line. I'm looking forward to hearing and possibly adding some of your suggestions to my own shop.

Unveiling the detail,
Dee