Awesome thanks, i was thinking of using my closet, it already has a light, and i have a couple of those hanging lights that u can hang off of something. People use them when theyre renovating houses in dark places or for other stuff too i guess
I used to use this trick all the time in my earlier reviews (first 15 or so). For me I have a long chest freezer right next an "unused" wall that is perfect hight for laying most review items on. By thumb tacking in a large white cardboard / "poster board" I would get a nice whit background and by using another underneath the item I would also get a nice white "floor" BUT there would always be that annoying line of where the two would but against each other (as you got in some of your shots).
By simply pushing the floor poster board up along the wall so it overlaps the back (thumb tacked to the wall) poster board it gives you a near seamless transition which you see in most professional photo shots. This is a quick and dirty method which gives good results and results in less photoshop work, but is not as good as a real photo booth. You can pick up a good cheap "pop up" photo booth / light booth on ebay. I got a 3x3 for about 30bucks. This will take care of the background which has to be WHITE.
For lighting I use 4 23watt "daylight" GE CFLs from crappy tire (check the specs as not all "daylight" branded CFLS are 5000-6000. I've seen el cheapo's which were listed at 2500K in the fine print). Mine are 6000k so they can cause a bite of BLUE tinge to your shots but the white of the lightbooth filters it back to "white". With the posterboard I needed 6 - 8 CFLs to get the near the same level of quality, and still had to worry about shadows a lot more than I do now.
As Eldonko pointed out set your exposure to +.75 or +1 (you need to play with the results to see which looks better).
The big secret is the more work you do in the photo shoot the less you need to do in photoSHOP ;)
Take LOTS of pictures. I usually take anywhere from 3GB on a small cooler review to 12GB for a case review, and then just pick the best. Less can be more, as I rather 30 good shots than 50 w/ 30 good and 20 mediocre.
__________________
"If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe." -JR
“if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.” - Dr. MLK jr
Thanks for the tips,
If i get accepted i think im gonna jump straight to the photobooth. $30 doesnt seem unreasonable at all and you can use them when selling items as well.
Thanks alot for the tips
Trust me, the G9 is a great mouse, but take a little time to get used to the new feel as no mouse really compares. Good review arekieh, you beat me to this one. I just got a new 4U case the other day and might give it a go, if I have a moment. Just out of curiousity, is the "dry" layer coming off your one grip (assuming this is the grip you use)? I'm having issues with mine and might give Logitech a shout and see if I can get a replacement grip.
James
Last edited by James_8970; October 25, 2008 at 07:35 PM.
Thank you for the comments James. Truthfully, the reason this review was a bit lacking is because I sold the mouse 4 months ago, so I had to dig deep into my brain to remember alot about it ;). However, a buddy of mine has had a G9 since it was released, the "dry" layer off the dry grip is also coming off of his mouse, which is why he know uses the comfort grip. Logitech would probably be happy to replace it for you. In my experience their customer service is pretty good.