Reading the manual for your camera which I've just downloaded from :-
My Retrevo - My Manuals (I hope this one is yours?)
It would appear that you have a good camera for taking your pen pictures.
1/ You have a Macro (Close up mode) which looks ideal. Page 66 describes how to set this up.
2/ You have a Custom White Balance mode that is explained on Page 83 (how to adjust to get your yellow looking pictures so that they will be balanced to a more neutral gray average)
3/ You have the ability to set your exposure manually for both aperture (How much light gets through your lens per second) and the shutter speed (how long the shutter is open for to let the light through). Page 62 describes how to set these settings of Aperture and Shutter Speed.
. a/ Set the aperture so that the whole of your pen is in focus (after manually focusing on the middle of the pen). Increasing the "f number" puts more in focus, but lets less light through the lens. (Try f13.6 - your largest F number available on your camera)
. b/ Set the shutter speed so that the picture you take comes out right in exposure (you will be working in the around 1/10 second range at this aperture using 2 "Halogen Desk Lights")
. c/ increase the shutter speed towards the "seconds" end of the scale to make your picture less dark.
4/ Use the self timer to expose the pictures on your tripod. Page 69 tells you how to go about setting this up and using the self timer. Set it to "2 Seconds Delay" to allow everything to stop shaking after you press the shutter release button on the camera to take the picture.
5/ Hang a 4 pound(ish) weight from your under your tripod's top with a bit of string and this will turn you Cr...py tripod into a good one and stop any residual camera shake.
Hope all this makes some sort of sense to you and that it helps a little.
Kind Regards,
John[FONT="]
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