Could you take a perfect picture with an unfamiliar camera of an unusual subject on the first shot?

[Fumesucker]

I had a rather unpleasant experience today. I answered an ad on Craigslist looking for help with taking pictures of costume jewelry to put on ebay, the person had a high end Nikon compact point and shoot which is one of the latest models out, a camera I've never even heard of before, let alone seen. What this person wanted was for me to teach them how to take pictures of their jewelry with this camera, a couple of very cheap photofloods (one of which didn't even work and the other of which was cutting in and out intermittently) and a light tent.

I quoted them $50 an hour for my time as a teacher and gave examples of some of my work that is in a similar vein.

When the very first picture I took with a totally unfamiliar camera did not come out to this person's liking, they then said they did not want me to do any more, gave me $50 and ushered me to the door.

To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement, I've never in my life dealt with someone quite that unreasonable in quite such a fashion.

I'm really wondering how many of you could get the very first shot with a brand new to you camera that really isn't all that well suited to the job at hand come out perfectly?

[Celebration]

1. oh, I'm sorry

Ach, well, obviously I have to take dozens of pictures just to get one that I want to show to my husband (well somewhat exaggerating), and that is with a camera that I know.

Just want to say that from what I observe here you are totally worth the money, and I have every confidence that they made a very unwise decision!

Put another way, some people are just too (fill in the blank) to give them a second thought.

[Fumesucker]

2. I appreciate your comment..

I'm over it now but the experience was not one I care to repeat..

The really crazy part of it is, they have never put an ad on ebay and I've been an ebayer for over ten years, I've sold everything from high end tanning beds and industrial equipment to cameras and lenses to my own design miniature antique weapons, I was fully prepared to show them the ropes and help them get the best prices for their merchandise.

[Mira]

3. To answer your question: The answer is NO - you would have to be a bit familiar

with the setup and the equipment to be able to not only produce but to teach. Half a brain would consider that logical.

If you are feeling better this will make you smile:
"Beauty isn't worth thinking about, what matters is your mind. You don't want a 50 dollar haircut on a 50 cent mind".
Garrison Keillor
(funny to me because I would rather have no jewelry than costume jewelry)

[Celebration]

12. Here's another quotation for you

Not sure who coined this, but it would be appropriate in this instance, since the subject was jewelry.

"Don't cast your pearls upon the swine."

[Fumesucker]

15. Theres a couple of comments I'm holding back on about this person..

As to who they were (or at least appeared to be) because I know they will make me sound prejudiced to some people.

Suffice it to say they spoke grammatical English but with a fairly heavy accent and were at pains to tell me they were an American citizen, something I didn't give the slightest damn about.

I actually cut them a bit of a deal because I enjoy teaching and I know it can be time consuming, for straight work, no teaching, I would have charged more.

[Celebration]

16. well, calling them swine

is pretty bad for the pigs!! I actually like pigs, so I shouldn't have said that. I now think the right quotation is something like-

"Don't cast your pearls upon the swine."

Suffice it to say that strange, antisocial behavior comes from all sorts of different nationalities, etc. I just think something was in the air this past week. I had a few issues with people, too.

[ManiacJoe]

4. Some people cannot be pleased.

If you actually get a perfect first shot from unfamiliar equipment in unfamiliar circumstances, it is nothing more than dumb luck.

The approach I probably would have taken would have been to use my camera to get some initial shots so that everyone understands what is desired, then try to get her camera to similar settings.

[Mz Pip]

5. I think the first picture I took

with my current camera was of the floor, with a corner of the couch and a bit of my shoe. There was also this motion blur that would not have been remedied no matter what my Photoshop skills might be.

I'd say you were doing pretty well if you managed to get the jewelry in the picture.

[Stevenmarc]

6. For the future

you might want to find out the equipment before hand and have a glance at the manual since they are all pretty much available online, that way you can have a little familiarity with the basic controls.

[Fumesucker]

8. Actually I did look at the manual before I took a shot..

It was a Nikon S 710, a very complex camera for a point and shoot..

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-Camera/26128/COOLPIX-S710.html

Not to mention the product to be shot was very unlike the sample photos that I was given when I queried regarding the job, it was a ring with a silver (looking) mounting and a large lightly colored stone while the sample photos I was originally give were of some sort of enameled ceramic.

[CC]

9. Sounds like you did better than

the average person would have specially with a bad set up for the lighting. I don't know why people think just because a person can take decent photos with their own camera it gives them some mysterious way of knowing how to operate every other camera ever made.:banghead: Then again my SO keep volunteering me to help people with their brand new cameras. They look at me funny when I ask for the manual so I can learn how to work their camera. I love when they tell me they never thought about reading it. :rofl:


A trick for future reference on shiny jewelry. If you want to knock down the shine spray it with hair spray for the shoot. Lets you capture the shot and washing off easily with no harm done to to piece.

[Fumesucker]

14. Thanks for the tip..

The weird thing is that they never mentioned colored stones in our phone conversations, they just wanted their silver (looking) stuff to "look shiny".. I pointed out that shinyness is all about reflections, they were trying to shoot under a light tent and everything was uniformly white, the silver didn't look shiny that way, it looked white.

In shot the silver looked pretty shiny but the stone color was washed out/overwhelmed by the direct lighting, the next thing I was going to do was put a black gobo to block the direct light and allow the reflected light to illuminate the stone from the sides and underneath.. I never got the chance.

[JeffR]

7. Since I can't take a perfect picture with any of my own cameras

of subjects I shoot all the damn time, my answer to your question would have to be a resounding NO.;)

Sorry to hear about this episode. This person sounds like a nitwit.

[tekisui]

10. If I did get it right, it would be pure luck.

It takes time to get to know a camera. It usually takes me about a month of shooting before I get a camera to do what I want it to do.

[gmoney]

11. Yeah, I would have asked for a few minutes to get familiar with the camera

Just explain that I wasn't familiar with that model and needed to see where all the settings were hidden, etc. Probably would have explained that before I got there even.

Would have also done a little research online ahead of time, review the owner's manual if it was online, etc.

But at least you got $50 out of the deal...

I'm coming off some very unpleasant dealings with a crazy jewelry maker... don't know if she's typical, but I've met more than a few loonies in the jewelry biz.

[Fumesucker]

13. My father was a jeweler/watchmaker and mom was an antique dealer..

You're right about there being some drama addicts in the jewelry biz. :)

I did indeed try to explain that it took a little time to familiarize myself with the equipment, they weren't having any of it.

Went from nice and friendly to get the hell out in about thirty seconds.

I could have gotten the shot with about ten more minutes to arrange the lighting and so forth, I was really just trying to get the hang of how the camera handled when I took the shot, I had no idea they were going to essentially snatch the camera and load the image into the computer and make a decision based on that one image.

[gmoney]

18. by now they've sold the camera and hired a sketch artist...

"What? You can't do a photorealistic rendering with one brush stroke? GET OUT YOU IMPOSTER!"

[Tindalos]

17. With an unfamiliar camera? No, definitely not

My mum and I have tried photographing jewellery in the past and it's a real pain in the you-know-what, even with a familiar camera. I'm sorry you got treated that way by that ungrateful person. In my opinion, your talents are wasted on them anyway.