Your tips on taking better pen photos?

**azkid** · November 22nd, 2018, 08:22 AM

For those of you who post beautiful pics of your pens, how do you do it?

Can you post an example pic or two and walk us through lighting set up, use of light box, composition, aperture, post processing, and any other tips that might help those of us struggling?

Or can you give tips on pics we post and how to make them better?

**FredRydr** · November 22nd, 2018, 11:05 AM

There's a thread on this in the photos subform.

**ChrisC** · November 22nd, 2018, 11:25 AM

Tripod + light box, get whatever is a good deal on Amazon. Good phone or camera will help too. That's pretty much the short answer.

**christof** · November 22nd, 2018, 10:15 PM

Fotosetup von -c_m_z-

for me, the flashlight is the key.

**Chrissy** · November 23rd, 2018, 05:14 PM

I have one of those fairly cheap collapsible photo tents that's made from white material and a wire frame. It opens up like a cube that's open at the front. It sits on a table at about hip height. I have two electric lights on the outside, one at each side, close to and shining through the material. Then I put my camera on it's tripod at the front and put my pen on something in the centre of the base or stand it on something. I don't always use flash in addition to my lights as it can sometimes bleach out some details.

Once I have taken my photos, I upload them to my PC using Adobe Bridge, and if necessary adjust white balance with Photoshop Layer - Curves. Then I resize to make them either 200 or 300 pixels per inch resolution, at a width of about 1050 pixels. Then save as a jpeg large file at either 11 or 12 resolution.

A tripod is your friend for taking photos of pens.