Re: white countertop sheet and reducing picture size
Bullseye:
A countertop sheet is a large sheet of of stiff, smooth white plastic, about 1/16" thick; it's usually employed to inexpensively cover counters or to line drawers. You can get this photo background material at Lowe's, Home Depot, or other home supply stores. It comes in huge sheets, which the store can cut to size for you. I use two sizes, one suitable for handguns, and the other for rifles. It has the advantage of being wipeable, to get rid of small drops of oil or other residue. A dampened rag will clean it easily.
Be careful to use spot metering when you photograph a gun on a pure white background, or your shot will be too dark. You want to expose for the gun, not the background.
With respect to reducing the size of your picture. I use commercially available software known as CompuPic. While it's primarily a viewing and organizing package, it allows you to crop, downsize and alter other parameters of your picture quickly and easily. I also use Photoshop, but it's a bit cumbersome to use. Compupic is available from Photodex, and you can download a trial version. Google 'em on the net.
By the way, I've found that when downsizing a pic, it's not as sharp as the original photo. CompuPic or Photoshop can re-sharpen the image. Check my pics of "Some nice N-frames" in the album section of the forum. They've been cropped, downsized and sharpened with CompuPic.
Hope this helps.
John
Bullseye:
A countertop sheet is a large sheet of of stiff, smooth white plastic, about 1/16" thick; it's usually employed to inexpensively cover counters or to line drawers. You can get this photo background material at Lowe's, Home Depot, or other home supply stores. It comes in huge sheets, which the store can cut to size for you. I use two sizes, one suitable for handguns, and the other for rifles. It has the advantage of being wipeable, to get rid of small drops of oil or other residue. A dampened rag will clean it easily.
Be careful to use spot metering when you photograph a gun on a pure white background, or your shot will be too dark. You want to expose for the gun, not the background.
With respect to reducing the size of your picture. I use commercially available software known as CompuPic. While it's primarily a viewing and organizing package, it allows you to crop, downsize and alter other parameters of your picture quickly and easily. I also use Photoshop, but it's a bit cumbersome to use. Compupic is available from Photodex, and you can download a trial version. Google 'em on the net.
By the way, I've found that when downsizing a pic, it's not as sharp as the original photo. CompuPic or Photoshop can re-sharpen the image. Check my pics of "Some nice N-frames" in the album section of the forum. They've been cropped, downsized and sharpened with CompuPic.
Hope this helps.
John
He takes great ones. Also, on the countertop laminate, be careful with the edges as they are very sharp and can slice like a razor. I made some counter tops years ago. We would file the edges after routing them. Use a flat file and file down one way only.
