Now that I am starting an official blog I thought I ought to figure out how to take better pictures.  Originally I was taking the pictures with my digital camera on automatic, downloading them to my computer and then editing them in Adobe Photoshop Elements.  I always had to lighten them, change the contrast, crop them and finally reduce the image size.  I figured there had to be a better way.

I went online and looked at a bunch of Photo Boxes thinking this might help.  I read a lot of the reviews, none of which were terrific not to mention the cost of these things.  I decided I already had a white storage box so maybe I could do something with that.  I set it up, took a couple of pictures that still came out yellow. I think it was because I used a soft white bulb which really had a yellow tinge to it.  I finally moved my Ott light in front of the box and the pictures were coming out better but still not great.

I have had my digital Canon camera for a very long time and I always thought it took great pictures.  A couple of months ago it had a “spot” on the screen.  Now that spot is bigger.  I have a feeling I am going to be in the market for a new camera.  In any case, I downloaded the manual for my camera, as the original was long gone and started reading.  Much to my amazement I found out I could manually pick the settings.  I finally figured out the best settings (so far).

The first picture is what I used to take.  The second picture shows what I take now!  What a difference, huh?

This is the old way I took Photos. See how dark and yellow it is?

This was taken using my Ott light which has clean white light. Camera setting was 1600 ISO. Lighting was set at Fluorescent.