I will start off by saying that I am not an expert at photography. What I did was visit some forums and found some basic tips to take better quality photos. Based on what I found out, I would like to pass some of that knowledge on to help you take better photos to show your friends. So call me a facilitator of photography.

Setup: Probably the most important! You can make a light tent for less than $10. I used these instructions (http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent) and saw an immediate improvement in results.

I then purchased a light tent for $199. Slightly better results but much easier to manage.

Make sure you have a tripod! This will give you consistent photos as well as a steady platform. Cost is around $50-$70.

Lighting: Direct light will generate shadows so you must diffuse it with something. This will be taken care of if you have a light tent, but if you don’t, you can use normal globes with a thin sheet in front of it. Make sure the material is not resting on the globe as it is likely to catch fire. You may find that a standard bedside lamp with its shade might do the job. Experiment a bit here for the best results. You will also get much better photos if you can have 3 light sources. One either side and one from above, this will help remove any shadows.

Camera: All modern digital camera’s will do a great job. Do not spend thousands here because the results will not improve as much as the costs go up. The key functions you need which most digital cameras have are:

- Aperture: Adjusts how long the lens is open. Set this for as long as possible because more of the figure will be in focus. IMPORTANT: You must have tripod because a slight movement with blur the photo.

- Light Balance: This is the process of removing unrealistic colours so that items that appear white actually come out white. It is pretty technical but basically different lights will put shades of colours on a white surface, your camera needs to be able to remove this to make it look white.  IMPORTANT: You can also adjust this with basic photo editors now although they tend to adjust other colours as well, so it is not a perfect solution.The following photos show the effects of light balance.

- Macro: This allows you to take extremely close up photos.

Positioning: Try to make sure you “Frame” your shots. So have an equal amount of background bordering all your images.

For more detailed answers on how to take better quality photos, I can recommend the following forum: http://www.photography-forum.org/index.php.

Good Luck!

Ant