New camera and photo setup

[Nolan]

Well I got a new camera(new to me anyway) Cant complain it was free for helping a friend. He is gonna get a super duper one I guess. I wouldnt know except he told me it was gonna be[?] The camera is a Nikon Coolpix 4300, way over my head but its still a point and shoot I guess. Anyway I bought the tent and tri-pod on Ebay and have taken a few photos, not quit happy yet so could I maybe get some advice on proper lighting and such? What type of light do you guys and gals use? I am using it in macro mode with no flash on the self timer. I put it next to the glass sliding door as the sun was going down and dufused the natural light through the side of the tent. Any help would be great. BTW I paid 5 bucks free shipping for the tri-pod and 1 penny for the tent (the guy on the tent got me a little for "handling" charges) think it was about 20.00 bucks total.

Nolan

 

[gerryr]

Natural daylight changes color and temperature during the day, especially early and late. That can alter the colors in the photos, even though the white balance is supposed to be "automatic." I would highly recommend going to Home Depot and getting three compact flourescents of about 23 watts each. Make sure the ones you get have "5500K" printed on the packaging. You also need some cheap desk lamps to put them in. I use one on each side and one directly above. You'll get much more even light with this setup than by using natural sunlight(unless you spend a lot of time setting of reflectors). After you get all this stuff together, turn the lights on and put a piece of plain white paper in the tent. Move the camera close enough so the paper fills the viewfinder. Then set the white balance to the paper. Make sure you turn the flash off when photographing pens.

 

[Nolan]

thanks gerry! I will get it together then give it a try.