my photos are so bad! any advice for lighting?

[mosmom25-6]

my photos are yellow, fuzzy and dark! i bought white bulbs and they still look yellow! i recently bought a box light and haven't received it yet but i could only afford 1 so i will still have shadows, if it work at all! i was looking at these small boxes with lights in them that you put your item inside of and take photos but I am unsure because they are super cheap! any advice? I don't have a lot if money to spend so am I just doomed to have bad photos?? thanks

[jeannicho22]

You might try one... I saw one for $7.95 and that may be a good starter.  I too suffer from lack of the photography gene, but I have mad skills with photo editing.  I plucked one of your pictures and tried to do something with it and there was nothing I could do.  Your contrast is poor which is why your photos look like they have a haze over them.  Here is the pic I borrowed and I can't honestly say it is an improvement, there just isn't enough light.

Also, I'm noticing you have a horizontal banding in many of your pictures, you can especially see it in the picture I altered but it IS in many others.  I'm thinking it is the camera.

[scga912]

Use the macro setting.

Take pictures near a sunny window or even outside. 

 No bells or whistles.  Only working with a 6.2mp Canon point & shoot.  The yellow could be reflections from your walls or just due to the poor lighting.  Flash is often your enemy.

They aren't perfect or catalog worthy, but I'm totally fine with them.  They don't look like stock photos.

I uploaded a few new listings this morning and took them on my covered front porch - in direct sunlight.

This is one of them.

Late in the day I opt for indoors near a very bright window.  Again, no additional lighting.

[slippinjimmy]

i bought white bulbs and they still look yellow!

What was the Kelvin rating for the bulbs? 3500 - 4000 is a good range but you also need to play with the white balance settings of your camera.

I have one cheap camera that simply isn't up to the task, no matter the lighting or white balance settings the color is "off". Obviously I don't use that camera for much of anything and certainly not for product shots.

[clu3]

Me too!  I seem to have the most consistent luck with the AUTO setting on my digital camera.  I discovered that increasing the ISO helps quite a bit when I start getting that yellow tone in pitiful light.

Definitely interested in others suggestions...

[webwanna]

I use a portable studio to take most of my pics (<$50).  I can't rely on natural lighting as most of the time I am shooting at night.  I also use a microscope for some images.  For diamonds for instance...

My images aren't always the best but I blame that more on me and my camera.  Eventually I'll upgrade my digital camera.

The portable studio is good to avoid the dark shadows and lighting issues you get when you have to use a flash.

[divwido]

I have a light box and lights and there just make the colors wrong.

I vote closer to the window and Macro settings.  A good photo software couldn't hurt either.  Lighten what's dark, sharpen what's vague.  And those can be as cheap as $ 20.

[divwido]

I think those are catalog worthy.  The train station looks professionally done.

[wesellitalldicker-dealhere]

Find an old clothes dryer and gut the inside out.  Paint it white and clip lights at the top aiming inside of the big box.  Best light box ever and cheap.

[wesellitalldicker-dealhere]

You will have to change your white light on camera or tablet, whatever you decide to use. I make mine highest I can and use a tablet.

[m60driver]

Download Gimp and run all your photos through that program. Gimp is free and has just about all the bells and whistles as Photoshop. There is a learning curve but then there is also The Google and YouTube to help guide you along in the beginning.  They have a color leveling tool that can take that off color background and turn it a much brighter white with a single click.

[yuzuha]

I swear by daylight bulbs.  This picture was taken inside at night under a single daylight bulb in the overhead lighting:

[markdown-media]

What are you using to take the photos with? A digital camera, or a phone?

- Yellow color: usually this is caused by your camera using the wrong "white balance" setting for the type of lights (or natural light) illuminating the object. If you can find this setting, try some of the other settings, don't rely on "auto". The best for color would be custom white balance, but you'd have to read the instructions for your camera on how to set this correctly, but it will give you the best color results.

- Fuzzy: usually caused by poor focusing or slight camera shake while the photo is being taken. I would recommend using a small tripod to hold your camera, and instead of clicking the shutter button to take the picture, try using the timer feature which is normally used for delay shots. This way you click the button, and it will give the camera a few seconds to stabilize before the picture is taken.

[totoro470]

Your items do look pretty dark. You should have a main source of light for your room plus a nearby lamp that you can adjust per item.

That said, no amount of lighting or setup will fix a bad camera. I used to use a cheap camera when I first started, It would look fine on some items but on others it would bleed colors, items would look fuzzy or with horizontal lines (like some of yours), and it was really hard to light items no matter what lighting I used.

I prefer to use tablets than a separate camera so I went out and bought a better tablet with one of the best cameras (tablets aren't known for good cameras) and haven't had many issues. I occasionally get some auto color "correction" that is a little annoying but nothing that I can't correct. Having a separate camera is probably cheaper and better for your dollar though. Megapixels are important but are not the only factor in quality- I'd say a lot of it is the way your camera/phone/tablet is designed, especially the software behind it.

[a_c_green]

---

@markdown-media wrote:

- Yellow color: usually this is caused by your camera using the wrong "white balance" setting for the type of lights (or natural light) illuminating the object. If you can find this setting, try some of the other settings, don't rely on "auto". The best for color would be custom white balance, but you'd have to read the instructions for your camera on how to set this correctly, but it will give you the best color results.

---

I was wondering if anyone was going mention White Balance here, because that is indeed the answer. 

The reason that your photos are looking yellowish under incandescent lighting is because your camera is trying to automatically render the colors as they would be seen under white light... which incandescent isn't. Look at your camera's White Balance setting. It's probably set for Automatic, which is fine for most lighting outdoors, but for incandescent lighting from your light bulbs, you need the Tungsten setting, usually symbolized by a light bulb icon. (There are similar settings for fluorescent lighting, symbolized by a tubular fluorescent bulb icon.)

If you're using typical household incandescent lighting, set your camera's White Balance setting to Tungsten, and you should find that all your whites are white again. All my listing photos are shot that way. Good luck...