Just curious to see what options and settings you put on your digital cameras when you take pictures of your Oakleys?! I am still trying to perfect a great shot with enough light not to use a flash and have true color hues come out...

I like to do my shots with natural light during the day.

I went overboard when i got my digital camera two years ago and it has 7.2 megapixels which is way more than i need (but its a bigger than average number and thats the american way). but when i finally get some pics of my collection i plan on setting it down to about 3 or 4 megapixels. after that, im not sure how to take good pictures either, so any advice would be splendiferous.

It is not the easiest type of photography to do, but who doesn't like a challenge? Lighting is by far the most important factor. It also depends on what effect you are going for. If you are going with an artistic approach on a uniform background lighting becomes all the more vital. I do not use flash and I use a tripod to ensure no blurry pics. I also use the timer so I can avoid being reflected in the image. I invested in a macro lens this summer so I am considering re-shooting my entire collection, but don't know if that will be biting off more than I can chew. Not sure any of that helps, but the best advice I can give is play around with it until you find something you are happy with. It may take a while or you might find the pics look great the first time. Whatever the case, photographing a collection can be a lot of fun.

Definetly a lot of fun! I've taken quite a few pictures various ways and always like to see how they come out!

O-Whores is the ones that need to post in this thread, their pics are great.

I never use a flash, this makes things a lot harder since the risk of blurring is always there, so a tripod is a must as Rick said. I usually set the camera to auto, but I try to let in outside light for the best results. In addition, I set the white balance to match the scene, or I use the auto balance using a white sheet of paper so it adjusts as neccessary. I also increase the exposure rate a bit to make everything really bright, works well on pictures with a white backdrop. Brightening things after the fact on the computer may end up looking funny. Also I have a large roll of paper that gives me a bottom and side with no sharp edge, so mo matter how I take my picture, the background is seemless.

210 mm Lens / F 2.8 / Spot Measuring

It's more like my standard setting for 'portraits'

I havent got a decent camara, so i use my sony ericsson w800i mobile phone, which is 2 mega pixels and i take my fotos in the daylight and on the best settings it has.
i dont use the flash but its there if i need it, also my fotos that i do take, i can send them via bluetooth to my pc or any other fone that has bluetooth!!
and the pictures dont come out badly as you can tell when you view my pictures upon this website.!!

Canon digital, bounced flash, 17 - 40mm lens and 100mm macro, no tripod, but it would help. Using a small white box or even just white paper would help a lot as well.

very nice...

Macro and an 8 Mpx camera lets you have some fun too:

http://www.o-review.com/forum_detail.asp?ID=4644

Dann , you beat me to it , i was just about to link that thread

Fred, get out of bed earlier! ;-)

You get 6 hours on me too.

I have to agree that the O-Whores pics are fantastic.
I've seen them in action and just to let everyone know their pics are so good because the are anal retentive neurotic freaks and I do mean that in the best way heh

Screw you, Kami. =P

Todd, thanks for the compliment. Heh...we don't really do anything that impressive. But for anyone who is bored enough to read...

We have an 8.0mp Canon Digital SLR for taking all of our collection photos.
Large items we just place on our bed which has a red fitted sheet, and use a regular red sheet for a backdrop.
For smaller items - like our eyewear - we have a small, cheap $15 white shelf from Wal*Mart that we set everything in. It's about 23 1/2 x 12 x 11 1/2. I use a flash because the white helps bounce the light in such a way that it cuts down on the shadows but still delivers some pretty decent colors.

I then take all the individual images to Photoshop, crop, resize to 800x600 and tweak if necessary (brightness/contrast, sharpen...). Then I assemble them into collages so the collection is completely uniform. Well...for the most part.

One of these days I plan on getting a much better setup so that everything is on white, I have a much larger space to work with and can better control how my angles are so that each pair is taken from the same perspectives. Right now I do it all by hand.

because the are anal retentive neurotic freaks

You just described 94% of O-Review members. The other 6% still rely on their camera phones to catalog their collection.

We've turned Kami into a hardcore anal-retentive bastard. Wait till you see his collection pics. I get the feeling they'll blow ours away...