Do you need a proper Camera or SLR to get decent quality photos?

[Bucks]

After seeing a few posts recently on the forum about photographing pens & the word white balance & grey cards used its made me wonder, Do you need a proper camera or SLR to get decent quality photos? I take all mine using my iPhone which seem pretty good to me, or an I missing something & could they be greatly improved with a proper camera? I do have a Canon SX60HS (which I don't know how too use properly lol) but using the iphone is so easy.

Below are a few samples of my photos taken using my iPhone, Any hints & tips on how to improve them greatly accepted,
feel free to be brutally honest

 

[DJB Penmaker]

I think the photos are generally perfectly acceptable, if a little soft but that could be down to lighting more than anything.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Bucks]

I think the photos are generally perfectly acceptable, if a little soft but that could be down to lighting more than anything.

Thanks Derek, When you say soft, do you mean not sharp/in focus? If so could that be down to handholding the camera/phone?

 

[DJB Penmaker]

Lacking crispness. If it's down to hand holding, again more light means the camera will probably use a higher speed to take the photo at which will help with camera shake and it'll probably default to a higher f-stop which also gives greater depth of focus.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[fortress]

They look very acceptable to me Paul, all my photos are taken on My Galaxy S6 with a Grey background.

 

[BensBespoke]

If you use GIMP or another free art programme to adjust the levels - and up your lighting a bit, I don't think you would need an SLR.

If you do want one.... the Canon D20 is decent and you can get them for about 60-70 quid on ebay...

Tripod would help a lot too.

 

[Bucks]

We use one of these with a little fluorescent strip light which does flicker a quite bit though, It sounds like I maybe need to be upgrading the lighting somehow

 

[fingwe]

There's nothing particularly wrong with your photos, and I wouldn't say that you'd necessarily get better straight out of an SLR camera. Most photos will need to be processed in some way (via GIMP, Photoshop, Photo editor online - Pixlr.com, or microsoft windows own editing software....all are good choices). The difference is that once you get into one of those programs you'll have a lot more to work with, and your photo quality won't suffer so much when you try and get the most out of the exposure. It has to be said that shots on a white background are very hard to do well, even with decent equipment. I actually used to be a photographer (landscapes were my speciality though, not studio stuff), and even with an SLR which cost well over £3,000 just for the body, I used to struggle to get objects on white looking good.

 

[Bucks]

I think I'll stick with the iPhone for quickness & ease of taking the photo then it being almost instantly available on my iPad, I use Pixelmator on my iPad for any editing (don't know if it's any good, but seems ok to me) I think I could do with looking into some way of improving the lighting & maybe some sort of tripod to hold the phone

 

[Dalboy]

I take mine with this little set up and a Fuji finepix F80 EXR and adjust the white balance for the background and I end up with the results like in the picture of the truck. I just make sure that I don't do it in direct sunlight as it produces to harsh a shadow I also as can be seen of the set up do it in the conservatory so I get light from all around and not just one side which you can get by taking a picture near a window.

 

[Bucks]

Wow I love the trucks Derek especially the bottom one

 

[silver]

TBH, the only point for me is to be able to see the items clearly, close up and on a simple background to enable us to accurately see them.

As far as I am concerned that can be done with all of your pictures so I would say change nothing., keep it as it is and nothing wrong with them.

I have a light box (Similar to yours) for pens and small items, anything bigger I have a 1m x 1m light tent.

There is a lot of talk on here about picture quality, yes its important as my first comment.. But, unless you are showing them at the Tate gallery I don't see the point on wasting so much time on it when you could be doing other stuff more important.

Your pictures are more than good enough for me, then again I aren't the curator of the Tate.

 

[Bucks]

I don't see the point on wasting so much time on it when you could be doing other stuff more important.

Time is something we certainly don't have enough of, that's why I like taking a quick snap with the iPhone

 

[Morse]

Time is something we certainly don't have enough of, that's why I like taking a quick snap with the iPhone

I agree with you on that Paul.
I look for constructive criticism so I can improve, or change for the better my technique.

Dave

 

[Bob Ellis]

I have tried using my Olympus SLR for pen photos but they are no better than photos taken with my Lumia phone, which can take photos up to 20mp in good lighting, so I make sure the lighting is good and use my phone for preference because it is a lot easier to use than the SLR.

 

[21William]

One of the things I've noticed is that nicely sharp photos can often get degraded once they've been uploaded. Not sure what the answer is to that one.

 

[Penpal]

Certainly pics on the IAP and some other forums seem to pick up. Someone asked a car manufacturer what is the horsepower of your car........the answer was adequate.

I use a small lamp like yours as a top light and LED,s for either side and yes they flicker as well. I make a habit of switching them on well before I use the setup it makes a difference.

Your choice what quality of pic you choose,not for a minute do you feel satisfied until you combine speed with quality as you do with your pens.

Peter.

 

[Dalboy]

As for the photo quality I take mine on the highest quality setting that my camera has, I need to do this mainly because like the two trucks the Woodworker mag needs high quality images for any articles I write but quite often I have to have two copies one for the mag and the second for when I post to some forums which need reducing in size, sometimes can be a pain having to have the two just a good job I have a decent size external hard drive.

 

[BensBespoke]

There's nothing particularly wrong with your photos, and I wouldn't say that you'd necessarily get better straight out of an SLR camera. Most photos will need to be processed in some way (via GIMP, Photoshop, Photo editor online - Pixlr.com, or microsoft windows own editing software....all are good choices). The difference is that once you get into one of those programs you'll have a lot more to work with, and your photo quality won't suffer so much when you try and get the most out of the exposure. It has to be said that shots on a white background are very hard to do well, even with decent equipment. I actually used to be a photographer (landscapes were my speciality though, not studio stuff), and even with an SLR which cost well over £3,000 just for the body, I used to struggle to get objects on white looking good.

That's exactly the problem I have .... hence using the book.

Got a D20 at the moment.... looking at the Canon D7 second hand... would that be a worthwhile upgrade ?

 

[wm460]

I have a light tent but its a pain to set up so just set the lights on the kitchen bench wen needed.