How To: Take professional looking photos of your AAO

I had someone send me a PM asking how I took the photo for my signature. So I figured I'd write a quick tutorial for anyone interested. Hope you like.

Step 1

The first step is setting up a good backdrop. In the tutorial, I'm going for that "sitting alone in a very white room" look that advertisements usually have, so my backdrop needed to be white. You can acheive this by draping white sheets behind and under the laptop (try to keep tention on them to reduce wrinkles), or you can build a very cheap photo booth like I did.



Either way, most of the work is done after the pictures are taken. Here's a photo of my "photobooth". Not much to look at, huh? It's nothing more that white posterboard taped together with masking tape. The most important aspect if you build a photobooth, is to have no back corner. To do this, simply tape one peice of posterboard halfway down the back of the booth and let it bend smothly to halfway accross the bottom of the booth and tape it into place. This will give the effect of an "endless" background.

Step 2

Now that we have our backdrop, we need to decide the angle of the laptop. Straight on shots look "ok" but aren't very interesting to look at. Look at the following two pictures. The second, even though not cleaned up yet, still looks more interesting. It's what is known as a "three-quarter" shot. Because it is asymetrical, our eye is drawn to it and we find it interesting. All I recommend is to take several shots from different angles and then look through them until you find the one you like most.

First photo: Strait on. Because it's symetrical, our eyes don't find it interesting. It is "normal" and "bland".


Second photo: "three-quarter" shot. Because it is asymetrical (both sides are not the same) our eyes are drawn to it.


Step 3

Once you have taken the photo and are happy whith the angle, it's time to fire up your favorite image editor. I use Adobe Photoshop 7, so that is what I show in the tutorial. Other editors should be similar.

The first thing we need to do here is get the colors and levels evened out (because if you are like me, you aren't a perfect photographer). There's just one small problem standing in our way. We have 2 different light sources at play. One from our light and the other from the laptop's LCD screen. So, we have to apply the changes to each light source seperately. Otherwise, the software will get confused and neither light source will look right.



To accomplish this, we will select the screen using the "Polygonal Lasso" tool. This tool is ideal for selecting the screen because you merely have to connect the four corners of the screen by clicking on each corner.



Once you have the screen selected, go to the "Image" menu and select "Adjustments" and then "Auto Contrast". Repeat this process twice more, but instead of "Auto Contrast", chose "Auto Levels" and "Auto Color". This will make the screen vibrant and colorful.



To finish this step, go to "Select" and choose "Inverse". Now everything BUT the screen will be selected. Once again we want to run "Auto Contrast", "Auto Levels", and "Auto Color". Now both light sources should look pretty close to real life. If not, then you may want to manually adjust the color balance or brightness/contrast.

Step 4

Now we need to get rid of our backdrop. Since the backdrop is "white" it's pretty simple. Select the "Smudge" tool and set it's range to 100%. Now smudge over any areas of the backdrop that aren't white (or at least close to white ) with an area that is. All you should have to do is click a white area and drag it over the offending non-white area and it will smear the white over it. Like this:



Step 5

Now that the backdrop is entirely "white", we need to brighten it to the point of actually being white. Select the "Dodge" tool and set it's Range to "highlights" and it's Exposure to "100%". Click and drag all over the backdrop to make it completely white. You don't have to be too careful around dark parts of the laptop, but you want to be careful around light parts. Light parts will lighten even more if you drag the dodge tool over them or get too close.



Step 5

The last thing to do is to color the shadow so it will be gray instead of yellowish. This happed because the camera didn't have enough light which causes the picture to become somewhat yellowish. Sometimes you don't have to do this step, either because your camera had enough light, or photoshop fixed the colors when you did "Auto Color" earlier. But, usually this step is still necessary.

Select the "Brush" tool and set it's Mode to "Color". Make sure Opacity and Flow are both set to "100%". Drag over the shadow and it will become grayscale. Be careful not to drag over parts of the laptop that should have color (like lights, the screen, or the red hinge caps).



Step 6

Sit back, relax, and enjoy your professional looking photo. Just don't show your family and friends or you may find yourself taking lots of pictures!

Well, that's it. I hope someone finds this tutorial useful. Let me know if you do, or if you know an easier way to accomplish this task.

Here's the end results:

 

Excellent tutorial. Thanks for your efforts. Can you tell us what's the best kind of indoor light source to use?

 

Most cameras have a "white balance" feature that can compinsate for different lighting conditions, but I prefer bright white flourencent lights. White light is going to provide you with the most accurate color representation. Standard incandecent bulbs tend to turn the picture yellow or orange.

The light you see in the tutorical is actually a magnifying glass that has a flourecent bulb built in. I "borrowed" it from my brother who used it for model building. :twisted:

So... short answer: White florecent lights... and you're welcome.

-Ray

 

This doesn't really matter too much. What you want is the right colour temperature for whatever your white balance setting is in the camera. I normally use 5000k CFL bulbs (150w incandescent equivalent). You also have to compensate for the fact that you're shooting a scene with alot of white in it and the camera is trying to expose for what it considers "neutral gray", which is either 14% or 18%. It will normally expose and the white won't be so "white". For a scene with that much white, I normally spot meter the white, then spot meter the subject, then determine what would give me closest to white background without blowing out the actual subject.

For the white background, you can go to any dollar store and buy a sheet of large white posterboard. This way, there is no crease and it looks like a seamless background if done properly.

 

How do you make a custom sticker logo? I love this!...

 

We have an eBay business selling tablet PCs. Many of the laptops we get have scuffs and scratches on the screen bezel (lid), so we bought a cheap vinyl cutter to make vinyl overlays that cover the scratches.

I made the "Anti-Apple" logo in photoshop, then imported it into SignBlazer and cut it out.

You can get the vinyl cutters for around $150-200, or you can get sign making companies to cut them for you.

For anyone interested, this is the vinyl cutter we have and the company we bought it from: Creation PCUT Vinyl Cutter

 

1ne - Where did you get the crossed out Apple Logo sticker? I want one very badly.

 

Thanks for the tips !

 

Excellent tutorial 1ne. I think you should expand your eBay business and sell your anti-apple logo. You'd make a killing! I'd buy 3! :lol:

 

Maybe the title should be "How to: Make professional looking photos of your AAO" :lol:

 

That's true. It is more of a photoshop tutorial than anything... How about: "How to: Make up for your lack of ultra-expensive photography equiptment by using photoshop"?

LOL. Honestly, I would if I wasn't affraid Jobs would sue me for copyright violations...


Apple = Evil;
Micro$oft = Lesser of Two Evils

 

I don't think they could... how many case stickers are out there that copy the Intel logo but look something like...



Just as one example... there are tons though... You're not hurting their business in any way buy marketing such a sticker. The people buying them hated them in the first place.

 

My favorite intel rip :mrgreen:

Great turtorial i have been putting off checking it out and now i can not wait to test it out
I am just looking through this and i still can not believe some cheap posterboard can be brought to this i am so ovely apreciated for this thank you so much!!!