Am I getting there?

[DJkevintron]

I burnt one of my bulbs out today and was so determined to get a least one shot so I drug my photo box outside.  Not a great idea but at least i got a shot.  I tried to edit it but you can kinda see where things got bumpy thats because the shadow and grey parts were almost the same color no matter how I played with it so I eyed it.  I just was wondering what am I doing right at least because I needs to win me some Transformers.  I hope to get more light bulbs by tomorrow.
Here is the direct link.

[engledogg]

DJK,

You want to keep the shadows...a soft shadow adds a bit of realism and make your pics look real, unlike the Hasbro stock photos which seldom have any shadows.

Also, it seems that you might have done a bucket-fill type editing action on your pic.  See how the border around the part isn't smooth and looks sorta jagged?  That's usually the result of a bucket fill.  Avoid doing that as more often than not, the computer isn't very good as getting all the pixels filled in smoothly and the end result isn't optimal.

To get rid of a grey background, it's best to follow the shmax photo guidelines and manipulate your editing program's levels.

The pic also seems a bit fuzzy...are you using the MACRO function on your camera?  

It's a good start...Lord knows my first efforts were less-than-stellar.  If there's anything else you need, I'll definitely try to help!

MIKE
engledogg

[shmax]

Also, what resolution are you shooting at? Sometimes if you shoot with a 3MP camera or so, or crank the resolution way down, you lose the sharpness of detail we like to see. You also might try checking your ISO setting--it should be set very low, around 100. But yes, as Ed says, the main problem here are the jagged edges. For a part like this, the only Photoshopping you should be doing is a quick bump to the upper levels, as described in the tutorial. Good luck.

[DJkevintron]

Thank you exactly the feed back i needed.  I got a bit of adjusting to do before the next run(yeah i didnt really mess with the camera settings yet).  OK one more question hows about this package I think I faired a little better.  I trimmed the edges on this too but I think it worked lot better cause its a card.



and here is the direct link

[shmax]

DJKev, repeat after me: "Never trim, never erase, never bucket-fill".Well, okay, every now and then you need to erase a speck or crumb or something from the background, but for the most part you should not be doing any micro-manipulation of your photo. Assuming you're shooting against a well-lit white background, all you should ever need to do in Photoshop is adjust the levels, crop, resize and save (white parts need a little more love, but we'll save that for next time). This should all take less than 30 seconds.


Also, you're still having the fuzziness issue. Try shooting at a higher resolution, and save out a larger file. For package back shots, we like them big enough so that all text is legible, which for this toy would probably be in the 1200-1500px-wide range. If you need a little personal tutoring, send me a PM and I'll give you my IM info so we can chat and we'll get ya straightened out...

Keep trying!