From and black-and-white 8 X 10 print made by William Duncan c. 1960.

Over 50 years ago my father made this photo of 4 of us dressed up for Halloween. As I recall, our trick-or-treating consisted of visiting the Douglas family home in Hawkeye, NY–there were no other reasonable nearby options but we made out just fine.

The photo, shot with my father’s beloved Kodak Retina II A on Plus X film, was developed and printed to an 8X10 in the kitchen/darkroom. If memory serves, a light bulb on an extension cord placed inside the pumpkin provided the spooky light.

I’ve acquired a new toy tool.  It’s been fun playing with utilizing it for a new perspective on things. I’m shooting for a higher standard in hopes that my photos achieve new heights.  I could tell you more about it by I would just be droning on.

Lori’s 60th birthday celebration picture with bourbon and cigar.

Lori has been a bit distressed about marking her 60th birthday: she’s reached middle age.  (She plans to live at least until 120.)  I wanted to commemorate it with a photo that emphasizes the spirit of how I would like her to approach it: with equanimity or indifference.  She’s too busy enjoying life to pay much attention to arbitrary chronological milestones.

I was a bit surprised when she agreed to the concept as I described it. A cigar and glass of bourbon were always part of the narrative but the venue changed from field of daisies to woods due to uncooperative weather.

A moderately wide aperture reduced depth of focus. A low ISO and 1/250th shutter speed enabled darker tones in the woods so that some lighting would help bring the subject out a bit more.

Lighting was via two studio strobes.  One was camera left in a pan reflector for a slightly diffused overall subject lighting.  Another strobe in a grid high camera right behind Lori brought up a little separation on her shadow side. Both were at very low power because of the wider aperture.

We are pleased with the results.  At least photographically.  We got many good poses to pick from.  Unfortunately the cheap cigar made Lori ill and it took her the rest of the day to recover from all the puffing to bring the shot to life.

So, aside from poisoning my wife on her birthday, I would say things went pretty well.  Lori may differ.

I’m consolidating and getting rid of decades worth of photographic gear, partly to simplify, partly to raise some cash to cover the cost of my new system.  (More on that later.) My best option is to sell on eBay but it requires a bit of homework to make it worthwhile.  I have to do the research to find the value of each item and then prepare photos and descriptions of each one for sale.

Preparing the photos for sales is relatively easy and a little care makes the results more appealing than most other eBay posts.  It seems a bit odd when people put fine photographic equipment up for sale with crappy pictures–it affects credibility.

After a little tinkering, I settled on a lighting setup I can use for a variety of product-style shots that look good for the eBay listings.

Lighting for product photos of items being placed for sale on eBay.

I use two LED light sources.  Key light is through a diffusion panel camera left and a background light below the table is reflected off a white fabric panel behind the table with the subject.  Items are placed on a piece of white tile board allowing for a plain background letting the eye concentrate on the actual items for sale.  An aluminum foil reflector, camera right is used for fill.

The setup is in a corner of our basement and allows for the tedious but efficient processing of the photos required for the listings.

Two lights (LED at left and one below table reflected off white panel behind) is used to light items to be sold online.

The results from this particular setup shows how the items for sale are featured without any other distractions and the lighting shows off the items in enough detail to illustrate the condition.

The image shows the effect of the simple 2-light setup to light photography equipment for sale.

Here’s a sample of some of the images made with this simple but versatile setup:

In addition to shooting some decent quality images for the sales, I had a few other things going for me:

• Most of the items are higher quality and performance with well-known specifications and track records.
• I’ve taken very good care of all of them; they’re in uniformly excellent condition.
• I’ve researched selling prices for each one and assigned reasonable prices near the upper end of used market selling prices.
• I include bonus items when it makes sense (e.g. lens plates, memory cards) and I offer free shipping to keep the transactions simple. (I build average shipping cost into the asking price.)
• I strive for accuracy on the descriptions including being meticulous about any flaws like scuff marks, missing peripheral pieces, etc.

So, how is it going so far?  I posted the first 5 items (4 lenses and a camera body from the sample images above) and sold 4 out of 5 within 24 hours and the fifth in less than a week.  I’m maxed out on my eBay selling limit for a month but have the next batch queued for listing in the next cycle.  I’m divesting my unused equipment and buyers are picking up some excellent quality items at reasonable prices. So far so good.

Twelve focus stacked wide aperture images create an in-focus blossom with an out-of-focus background.

Combining focus-stacking with wide-aperture (shallow depth-of-focus) images can create some nice effects.  I wanted this alstroemeria blossom to be completely in focus but the background blurred.  By using a wide aperture (f/2.8) and 12 images varying the focal point, the stacking operation enabled nice crisp focus on the entire blossom but the out-of-focus background remained soft, almost watercolor-like.  It’s a combo you won’t be able to get with a single image.