Photographing Artwork 2

Continuing from Tuesday:  by adjusting 3 settings of an HP R707 digital camera a piece of artwork went from being poorly photographed to professionally represented.  See the example here: Photographing Art.  The settings on this camera are saturation, sharpness and contrast  and are found by clicking menu, and scrolling down the screen.  There you find all three defaults set to medium.  By changing each one to high, indicated by a "+" sign, photography magic happened.  I suppose this could have been photoshopped, or something.  With this discovery on the camera, though,  I am just delighted to save time skipping this extra step.  did I just type, 'delighted?'  I don't use that word often, so this is a big deal discovery.  I also used an old tripod that I had for my heavy 35mm's.  It is so cool, I have to show it to you:

              Click Any Photo To Enlarge

It would be particularly useful for plein air painting because it is so compact.  It can't weigh much more than a pound and measures about 4x1x3" when folded up.  What is great about this mini tripod is two of the legs, which are the small metal rods, store inside the handle.  The third leg is adjustable in that it can be lengthened.  This third leg is also a clamp that can be attached to a tree limb, portable easel, bicycle, or a pole up to about 1-1/2 " thick.  The device that holds the camera has a ball socket joint that can be adjusted from straight up vertically to 45 degrees on the side horizontally.  Furthermore, this ball socket rotates 360 degrees on a horizontal plane.  I hope the photos show this tripod well.  Unfortunately, I have no idea who made it.  It has "Made in Germany" stamped on the side.  I know I obtained it at least 20 years ago and, amazingly, it fits the digital camera.  Once the camera is in place on the tripod, it can be set to go off automatically with the 10 second timer.

To Read Labels, Click Photo To Enlarge

Doing a search online, I found this exact tripod had sold on eBay for less than $5 on October 30th.  I also found a similar model in a store in Oregon, but it is no longer available.  So they can be found with some diligence.  There are many other models of mini or table top tripods.  What those are lacking, however, is the clamp feature which is really nice for those of you that like to paint out in the woods; oh, sorry, en plein air.    

More on photographing artwork will be posted next week. Saturday, I have a work in progress update for you.



Add your thoughts by clicking 'comments' below: