While updating my StokkPhoto website, I came across some photos from the actual setup I arranged when shooting some flower macro images at my parents’ house back in January 2009. As you will see from these photos, this was a rather simple setup; however, suitable for this use, and quite effective. Here is what I did.

As always with macro photography, I strongly recommend to use a sturdy tripod. To increase the chances of getting crisp clear results, also use a remote control on your camera, or alternatively you can use the timer-function on your camera.

To add the dark background, I simply placed my subject in front of a wall-mounted LCD TV, and to be able to control the light, I set up a Lastolite reflector and pointed a LED flashlight at it.

Simple, clever, and effective! Here is the setup, and the result.

Simple and effective macro setup - The setup

Simple and effective macro setup - View from the camera

Simple and effective macro setup - The result

Happy capturing!

One unfortunate consequence from more and more people owning and using digital cameras, is that images are being misused in e-mails and on the web. By “misused” I here mean the following:

• Take a picture using your fancy digital SLR camera (or any digital camera).
• Transfer that picture to your computer.
• Send the picture by e-mail or upload it to your website.

This might sound like a good idea – but trust me – it isn’t!

The “size” problem of today’s cameras

Using a modern, digital SLR might produce images anywhere between 10 and 15 mega pixels (MP) in size (or even larger). For instance, a 10,1 MP camera might generate images with a resolution of 3888 x 2592 pixels. By comparison, the average mid-range laptop today has a resolution of 1366 pixels in width. You see the problem? You now have an image about three times the width of your screen. Obviously, it is a bad idea to simply put it on your website, or send it via e-mail to a friend, before first doing a simple resizing exercise. Not only is the original image huge in physical size (resolution, or pixels), it is also a massive piece of data in terms of physical file size (megabytes). Moving this chuck of data (together with twenty other images) across the Internet not only puts a massive load on servers across your network, but it might also prevent your e-mails from being received on the other end. And if you put such an image on your website, it will make your website respond very slowly (and eventually piss off all your visitors).

For your own sake – and for the sake of friends and anyone else, please follow my advice on how to prepare your images for use in e-mails and on the web!

Resizing made easy

Resizing your photos is not hard. There are numerous online services you can use, however, I would recommend resizing your images using an application on your computer. Such applications are freely available for you to download. Based on my own experiences, I would recommend VSO Image Resizer from VSO Software.

Here is a video from VSO Software which explains the basic functions of VSO Image Resizer.

Don’t do this

There are numerous examples on websites not doing image resizing properly. One example is Jæren Kabelnett – they are notoriously bad at it and use  3072 x 2304 pixel 2.1 MB images as thumbnails on their website! That is no good and disappointingly unprofessional by an established, regional Internet Service Provider (I feel a strong urge to throw shit their way since they have shown no interest at all in listening to my advice on this).

Take a look at judge for yourself: www.jkn.no (in Norwegian)

Final notes on resizing

Here are some important things to remember when resizing your images.

• Remember backup. You should treat your “digital negatives” with caution, and make it a habit to always make copies to an external hard drive, CD or DVD before you go ahead to work on your images. In fact, your should always do it as the very first thing you do after transferring image from your camera to your computer.
• Note that resolution and file size can be reduced quite drastically without the image losing a lot of quality (I challenge you to note the difference!).
• When resizing, make copies. It is always better to make copies when you resize, don’t resize the originals. Take this from someone with years of experience – better safe than sorry!

Good luck with your image resizing!