Need help with canon eos 400d

CruelCoin

hi guys.

to give you a better idea of what i need, my occupation is as a horticulturalist. i grow and wholesale shrubs and trees to garden centres and landscapers.

what i need is advice on how to set up a canon eos 400d with the standard 18-55mm lens and hood so i can best take pictures of shrubs trees and flowers.

i'm a basic beginner at photography so any and all help is appreciated.

for an idea of my photo prowess go to www.rentes.ie, the pictures there were done by yours truly.

thanks for any help guys!

opti76

CruelCoin wrote: »

hi guys.

to give you a better idea of what i need, my occupation is as a horticulturalist. i grow and wholesale shrubs and trees to garden centres and landscapers.

what i need is advice on how to set up a canon eos 400d with the standard 18-55mm lens and hood so i can best take pictures of shrubs trees and flowers.

i'm a basic beginner at photography so any and all help is appreciated.

for an idea of my photo prowess go to www.rentes.ie, the pictures there were done by yours truly.

thanks for any help guys!

in your custom functions in the camera increase the sharpening and the colourtones.... and shoot in raw format this gives you more options for post processing

Mellor

Seeing as the shots are basic information shots, try the point and shoot presets on the camera

sheesh

Try using the landscape setting if you are not too close as it shows more green (so says the manual) try and find out the minimum focusing distance for the lens.

elven

I think backgrounds are your main problem there. See if you can find something to use as a background for the pictures, that you can set up easily and fold away again. Something plain, and not brightly coloured that will take away from the plants.

Then use something to get the plants off the ground so you aren't just pointing down at them - a big pot turned upside down might do, or if you have a plant stand of some kind.

Find a spot that has some indirect sunlight - you don't want heavy shadows, but you don't want it to be too dark either. In an opaque greenhouse is ideal. If your background is dark, you may find that the pictures come out looking a bit washed out, and if it's light, they may come out looking dull - this is where your camera's light meter and automatic exposure can be fooled. You can either adjust for it on the camera using exposure compensation (the little ev+ and ev- setting, check out your manual) or brighten or darken in the PC even using something like picasa2.

Fionn

as was said you need to change the angle somewhat and arrang your shooting area for light, background and composition, look up the rule of thirds - even applies to product shots at times, you want to make the shots attractive as well as informative, in the situations where you cant set up your shooting area you could consider a higher ISO (that controls how sensitive the camera's sensor is to light) and flash - the only thing about using flash is that it can create lots of harsh lights and dark dark shadows you could also consider any other available (portable) light source too.

Borderfox

Maybe paint one of your walls white and put the plant as said above on an upturned plant pot and take shots then. Maybe might be worth getting a cheap tripod so you dont have to use flash. A polariser for the 18-55 would enhance the plants and take any shine off the leaves.

nilhg

I think for your own convenience you should consider setting up a mini studio, find a nice bright area (but not in direct sunlight) and setup a neutral background, something that will show your plants off to best effect. Then get a reasonable tripod and a cable release (or infrared) for your camera, set everything up and it should only be a case of switching plants and shooting a set of shots.


If there is a site that has some examples of what you would like your shots to look like, let us know and I'm sure somebody will be able to help you achieve similar results.