Taking Pictures Of Bonsai

Lesley

My Husband and I just purchased our first digital camera this week. We're going to share it! It's a Canon PowerShot S45. We're learning how to use it. He's experimenting by taking pictures of me and my daughters at our worst and I'm experimenting on my trees and can't wait to use their pictures in my posts and tracking software. It will make it easier for member input and I won't have to develop all those throw away cameras!

My question is- Any suggestions for taking pictures of trees? Like: What's the best background? Should it be an indoor or outdoor picture? Should I hang a colored drape behind the tree, if so, what color is best to use? If it's outdoors, should the tree be in the Sun or is Shade better? How about close-ups are they better?
How often do you take pictures of your trees?

And then, How do I post them?

Thanks to All!

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Ladybug

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Jay

Lesley, I have an older Canon (Power Shot A20, a 2.1 Megapixel) Camera. I find that it is extremely important to have a solid plain background. Some like it light colored, and others prefer a black background. I use a sheet, towel or poster board for this purpose. If I shoot outdoors I usually don't use flash or extra light. When shooting indoors I use several floodlights at differing angles. Remember, experiment... you ain't wasting film!!!

As for taking pictures, I usually do not take them often enough, if that answers your question.

Posting is easy, just upload them to your 'puter, remember where the file is and the name, jpegs are best. Make sure they are reduced to under 75K Iwould go under 70K and then click on the Browse button for an attachment when you post... thats it!

Jay

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Treebeard

Lesley, I too am interested in one of things you ask, namely, best background. As you can see from my posted photos, I just use a wooden fence. Trouble is, it's very 'busy', and doesn't show some trees very well. I have heard that black velvet is good, as is a plain white sheet. I've tried plain white, and the shots all come out wishy-washy and also a flash is a no-no on plain white. I might try black velvet next, unless someone says it is no good...

Regards,

TB

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Thomas_J.

I just use a piece of black material as backround for my pics. Velvet might be a bit more expensive but I'm sure it would do nicely. Velvet might be good also for not getting as wrinkled as some material does including the material that I use. The problem with white is there is a tendency to get shadows more easily. The digital camera will offer you a lot more to experient with when it comes to lighting. I find natural lighting the best rather than flash. A lot of my pics are done in the garage with the black background under my flourescent shop light. When outside the bright sunlight will be a bit much for a good picture, at least for my taste. again experimenting will be the key here because everyones taste is different. I can say one thing for sure though, you will have a lot of fun doing this. If you have any trouble trying to get some pictures on the forum here, just let us know, I'm sure one of us will get you going. Here's a pic taken yesterday of my juniper that I've been posting from time to time just to show you what I mean about the overhead fluorescent light and no flash.

Attached Images

aaa jun lit#1 2-05.jpg (49.1 KB, 155 views)

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Thomas J.

Lesley

Jay: Thanks for the info! You make it sound so easy. I'll try posting real soon. I just need to work up some courage!

Treebeard: When I started taking pictures this summer, I used my deck. About all you can say when looking at them is at least I have records of my work! Your recent picture (The one about which pot works) is way better than any of mine and I like the mossy look on the fence. It adds character and natural effects. It looks very good!


Thomas J: Wow! Are you sure all you did was put this tree in the garage in front of black fabric and under a fluorescent lamp!


Thanks Guys, I appreciate the help! I'm having alot of fun!

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Ladybug

Joe Mc

How do you guys keep the images so large and clear and still under 75K? When I post a pic they always end up tiny and blurry.

This photo is 74.8K. It started out as a big beautiful photo.

Attached Images

acer9_web.jpg (4.8 KB, 111 views)

Thomas_J.

Joe,
Are you using a digital camera or are you scanning your photos?
Your digital camera should have come with an editing CD so you can edit your pics to whatever size you like and not lose any of the clarity. Even a scanner should have some kind of editing software. I know some scanners won't allow jpeg though.

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Thomas J.

Joe Mc

I am using a digital camera. (Canon A200) The software it came with doesn't have an image resizer, not that I can find anyway. I have been opening the images in PhotoHouse and reducing the size there.

The photo I posted of the maple, was saved from a webpage and reduced using Photohouse. It started out as 500K.

I guess I will have to purchase an image resizer, or try to find something free on the web.

Thanks,
Joe Mc

Treebeard

Hi Joe, unless you're using ms paint, you should get some sort of screen like this when you save a jpg file. It is a feature of adobe 3.1 and adobe 7.0, so I would imagine all versions in between will have it too. I don't know about other editing packages, but I would imagine that they all have the same feature.

Just drag the slider to control the quality of the resulting image. I can often use a value of 4 for a 640x480 photo and the file size will be 50k - 60k.

Regards,

TB

Attached Images

jpeg options.jpg (67.6 KB, 90 views)

__________________
"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
-----------------------------------
christopherguise.co.uk