Problems getting close ups with Kodak CX7300

I know this is an entry level camera with no manual focus/exposure, but
I wonder if anyone has any tips as to how I might achieve a good close
up.

I am taking pictures for eBay and when I get close to an item to take a
picture of it, I get one of two problems. Either the flash glare
obscures most of what I am taking a picture of, or the image is
generally blurry (out of focus).

I've tried putting it on the maximum resolution and taking it from
further away, then cropping to what I want, and the results are
better... but it's a lot of busy work (and pictures at the 3.2
megapixel are a ratty looking).

Any ideas? I find if I set the exposure to -1.0 the flash becomes less
of a problem (the glare doesn't go away though) but it's still rather
blurry.

On 1 Feb 2005 05:52:57 -0800, wrote:

I know this is an entry level camera with no manual focus/exposure, but
I wonder if anyone has any tips as to how I might achieve a good close
up.

I am taking pictures for eBay and when I get close to an item to take a
picture of it, I get one of two problems. Either the flash glare
obscures most of what I am taking a picture of, or the image is
generally blurry (out of focus).

I've tried putting it on the maximum resolution and taking it from
further away, then cropping to what I want, and the results are
better... but it's a lot of busy work (and pictures at the 3.2
megapixel are a ratty looking).

Any ideas? I find if I set the exposure to -1.0 the flash becomes less
of a problem (the glare doesn't go away though) but it's still rather
blurry.

Can't help you with focus because this is a function of your camera,
look it up in the manual to see how close you can get, measure that
distance and don't get any closer.

Lighting:

Light the subject yourself, for example, natural light from a window,
possibly diffused with paper blinds or netting. Consider using
reflectors made form A1/A0 sized polystyrene sandwich board (buy this
in an office supply shop).

Diffuse the flash by sticking a piece of tissue over it.

But if you find cropping hard work, this may seem impossible.

--
Owamanga!

"Owamanga" wrote in message
news
Lighting:

Light the subject yourself, for example, natural light from a window,
possibly diffused with paper blinds or netting. Consider using
reflectors made form A1/A0 sized polystyrene sandwich board (buy this
in an office supply shop).

Diffuse the flash by sticking a piece of tissue over it.

Before I got a good flash, I would diffuse the built-in D70 flash with white
panty hose or stocking. It made it somewhat better.

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 09:24:58 -0500, "Cynicor"
wrote:


"Owamanga" wrote in message
news
Lighting:

Light the subject yourself, for example, natural light from a window,
possibly diffused with paper blinds or netting. Consider using
reflectors made form A1/A0 sized polystyrene sandwich board (buy this
in an office supply shop).

Diffuse the flash by sticking a piece of tissue over it.

Before I got a good flash, I would diffuse the built-in D70 flash with white
panty hose or stocking. It made it somewhat better.

I bet that looked very silly...

Go outside much?

;-)

Even the SB800 and SB80DX diffuser isn't anything complicated - just
smoked plastic. I bet a couple of layers of scotch-tape (the slightly
opaque stuff) would work well on any built-in flash too.

I keep meaning to print my own color-gels for the external flash.
Printing solid color lumps (or two-color grads for that matter) onto
the special ink-jet OHP acetates should do the trick nicely. Even
better, I've still got some plastic ink-jet printable window decal
stuff left over that would self-stick onto the flash, yet still be
removable.

--
Owamanga!

wrote:
I know this is an entry level camera with no manual focus/exposure, but
I wonder if anyone has any tips as to how I might achieve a good close
up.

I am taking pictures for eBay and when I get close to an item to take a
picture of it, I get one of two problems. Either the flash glare
obscures most of what I am taking a picture of, or the image is
generally blurry (out of focus).

I've tried putting it on the maximum resolution and taking it from
further away, then cropping to what I want, and the results are
better... but it's a lot of busy work (and pictures at the 3.2
megapixel are a ratty looking).

Any ideas? I find if I set the exposure to -1.0 the flash becomes less
of a problem (the glare doesn't go away though) but it's still rather
blurry.


Yes. Get a camera suitable for your needs. This is a nice beginner's
P&S camera, but it is not the tool you need.


--
Ron Hunter

wrote in message
oups.com...
I know this is an entry level camera with no manual focus/exposure, but
I wonder if anyone has any tips as to how I might achieve a good close
up.

I am taking pictures for eBay and when I get close to an item to take a
picture of it, I get one of two problems. Either the flash glare
obscures most of what I am taking a picture of, or the image is
generally blurry (out of focus).

I've tried putting it on the maximum resolution and taking it from
further away, then cropping to what I want, and the results are
better... but it's a lot of busy work (and pictures at the 3.2
megapixel are a ratty looking).

Any ideas? I find if I set the exposure to -1.0 the flash becomes less
of a problem (the glare doesn't go away though) but it's still rather
blurry.

Whenever I've taken pics of small items for eBay, I always use a small table
lamp to light the item, a tripod for the camera, turn off the camera flash,
set the camera to macro mode if it has it, and place the camera the distance
away for it's macro to work most effectively (for the CX7300 it appears it's
macro focus is at 4" / 10cm). Even with the cheap cameras I use, this always
seems to work pretty well. If the pic is a little too dark or bright or
yellow I just load it into Photoshop and choose Edit - Autolevels, it
generally produces results that are fine for use on eBay.

Dan

I took many photos for eBay using my first digital camera, an HP 315
with 1.3MP. As previously suggested, I placed the items on a table
with a sheet of bristol board underneath and lighting was with
photoflood bulbs. Other lamps would do too. Turn off the flash and
place the camera on a tripod. The camera would shoot down to 1 second
or so, and I got some good usable photos with this simple set up.
Bob Boudreau
Canada

"railfan" wrote in message
oups.com...
I took many photos for eBay using my first digital camera, an HP 315
with 1.3MP. As previously suggested, I placed the items on a table
with a sheet of bristol board underneath and lighting was with
photoflood bulbs. Other lamps would do too. Turn off the flash and
place the camera on a tripod. The camera would shoot down to 1 second
or so, and I got some good usable photos with this simple set up.

I just use a small cheap desk lamp, photos for eBay rarely need to be high
quality, but I do ensure that detail can be seen in them as there's nothing
worse than a fuzzy picture which makes it impossible to tell what you're
selling :P

Dan

"Owamanga" wrote:
"Cynicor" wrote:
Diffuse the flash by sticking a piece of tissue over it.

Before I got a good flash, I would diffuse the built-in D70 flash with
white
panty hose or stocking. It made it somewhat better.

I bet that looked very silly...

Go outside much?

Wait, I was supposed to put the hose on the FLASH??

Greetings Darkfalz,

Actually, the CX7300 focus distance is .8m or 2.6 feet to infinity. So, you
need to make sure that you are at least that close to your subject. Also,
there are no close up options so there is no help in that regard. If you
stay inside that range and carefully measure the distances, I would start at
three feet to be sure you are in the focus range, and edit your images from
that exposure. I would also be sure you are using a solid support (tripod).
Possibly also use the timer to prevent movement from pressing the shutter.

Let me know how you make out. Send some images along if you like so we can
review.

Talk to you soon,

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company





wrote in message
oups.com...
I know this is an entry level camera with no manual focus/exposure, but
I wonder if anyone has any tips as to how I might achieve a good close
up.

I am taking pictures for eBay and when I get close to an item to take a
picture of it, I get one of two problems. Either the flash glare
obscures most of what I am taking a picture of, or the image is
generally blurry (out of focus).

I've tried putting it on the maximum resolution and taking it from
further away, then cropping to what I want, and the results are
better... but it's a lot of busy work (and pictures at the 3.2
megapixel are a ratty looking).

Any ideas? I find if I set the exposure to -1.0 the flash becomes less
of a problem (the glare doesn't go away though) but it's still rather
blurry.