BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Questions

Digital Camera & Lights ?

I am a creative director of a small fast growing design-firm and have been working in this field for nearly 12 years, I have directed various photo-shoots comprising cars, trucks, pack-shots etc. - but my knowledge about photography is basic and limited.

I am now in the process of putting-up a web-site that sells jewellery, ornaments, hand-made gift items, paintings and other works of art.

My main objective is to photograph these items to post them on my site, I am extremely particular about my work and am a firm believer of quality without compromise.

For this I need a good digital camera and a very basic home/office studio set-up, I don't want to spend allot of money in this venture but need help in making practical and sensible decisions.

So here are my questions:-

1. What Camera would I need, considering the fact that I would only use the camera for excellent web-quality images. I've been looking at the Nikon range (3100, 4300, 4500) and the Olympus (C-4000). The Olympus C-3000 ia attractive in terms of features and price ($ 450) but having read about so many cameras, I am kind of baffled ?

2. The solution, in my opinion, is to shoot all the items under nice soft light. One or two small soft-boxes would probably be the answer. Ideally once we've set up the lights and table, we would literally never move them, the camera would be set to a fixed ideal setting - we would then just repeatedly place and shoot all or any item that we need to post on the net; without necessarily changing the position of the camera and lights. Is there a cost effective lighting solution or can I make my own lighting system and use some kind of a diffuser (like tracing paper or semi-opaque perspex) ?

3. My knowledge of things such as metering, exposure, F-setting, aperture etc. is limited - I have learnt by now that these are the things that decide the quality of the final image, but, is there any camera that can do this automatically to a good extent so that I can get cracking immediately ? (I know this is a silly question but I just want to know whether there is a simple way to achieve good results)

4. I am interested to learn more about digital photography and have decided to educate my self through learning and gradual experience. But I need to achieve good results to put up my web-site. Any help, advice or suggestions are welcome....

Any help on this matter will be highly appreciated.

S. Chaudhry

To love this question, log in above
February 24, 2003