How do I get sharper images? NX1100

YCemAygun wrote:

Tripod is a blessing, especially when you don't have an image stabilized lens. Since you only need the images for web, I would not worry a bit up to ISO 800. You can even try 1600 and 3200 honestly, depending on how much you scale the images down and post process. Of course there is no argument that ISO 100 will yield the best results, but when you are shooting at 20 MP's and scaling them down to 2 MP's (or less) you are playing a totally different game.

If your camera is selecting ISO 200 very often, I am guessing that you have enough light, and your "Smart Range+" is turned on. Any shutter speed at or beyond 1/125th of a second should be pretty safe for hand held shooting. So you can set your aperture to around f/8 in "Aperture Priority" mode, and increase the ISO until you get to those shutter speeds. That is of course until your tripod arrives

And don't be afraid to experiment with the "Vivid" Picture Wizard mode...

PS: For any small product photos, especially if they involve metal and glass, I would suggest a photo dome. They are not cheap, unless you build a "ghetto", DIY one, but they are worth every penny.

Thanks so much for your suggestions.  I've already solved the problem by increasing the ISO to 400.

I bought a light tent once and just hated it.  It didn't diffuse the light enough, so the beads ended up with bright spots on them (from the lamps).  Overall, the look I got wasn't very good.  As for a light dome, I don't see any need for it since I am now getting satisfactory results with natural daylight.  Having a camera which gives clean results up to about ISO 800 means that I don't have to wait for sunny days to take the photos.  I will say, however, that the bright light reflection from the window doesn't look very good.  You can see my product shots at www.purebeads.com/catalogue.