the haraldsons »

Well sure Gerg. First off I use a d-slr camera so I have a bit more control over my settings than a regular point and shoot camera but even with a point and shoot camera you should be able to get nice images as well.

I try to avoid having to use the flash, especially when working with an item like a bicycle where the flash can be reflected on the parts. Sure you can use a softbox or other purposes to remove this harsh light but for our purposes try to pick a time of the day where the light is more even.

Once you’ve taken your fantastic shots, remember get down get up find a new angle to make a fresher photo, import them onto your computer and fire up your Adobe Photoshop.

In Photoshop I use a variety of different tools to tweak my images. Mainly I usually start by doing some of the auto adjustments to see what they get me. Auto Contrast, Auto Levels, Auto Color, if any of these are not pleasing just back up a step.

After that if the photo still needs more I usually end up playing with the levels tool, dodging tool (usually set for highlights), the history brush, the auto highlights/shadows adjustment, color balance, etc.

Of course I just love little borders so I usually will run a quick action that I have saved that will first add a small white frame (image>adjust>canvas size) and then the same steps for the black frame.

Save for the web and whala!