Show me how to take good keyboard pictures

[cactux]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[laggy-gaga]

buy a good camera..

[Findecanor]

1. Take the pictures outdoors in the middle of the day, so that you get sunlight. It is the best. It is often quite strong and the cloudier it is, the more ambient it is (coming from more directions than one).
Professional photographers use special lamps and rigs to get strong ambient light.
(I take my pictures on a table on a south-facing balcony using a cheap, old camera.)

2. Edit levels in a photo editing program. (I do this too)

[nathanscribe]

... and use the light. Photography is light through a lens onto a recording medium. Get those ingredients right and you're plenty of the way to a good picture. The rest is a sense of composition (angle, balance of light & shade, distance from subject) and technical aspects (focus, exposure). A creative person can make great pictures with cheap gear, but we're not talking art here presumably, we're talking clear, detailed images of technical value.

You don't need expensive equipment, window light is good, and many household surfaces can be used to provide a surface/background. Photographing at night, indoors on a dull day etc. is more troublesome.

If you're hand-holding, try to avoid shutter speeds slower than 1/60s.

[nathanscribe]

1. Take the pictures outdoors in the middle of the day, so that you get sunlight. It is the best. It is often quite strong and the cloudier it is, the more ambient it is (coming from more directions than one).

I'd recommend against this personally. I think hard sunlight can be too contrasty and heavy shadows against brightly lit surfaces can obscure detail rather than enhance it. Using light with some degree of obvious directionality is good, as it helps illustrate texture etc., but anything too strong and the contrast detracts from things.

[ripster]

The secret is to ignore what people say about your forum pic posts and keep taking more pics and experiment.

A subtle watermark is a nice touch.