HOWTO: Take jaw-dropping photos with a mid-grade digital camera and worklights

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Photo: Ray Dobbins (click for big)

The Velosniper points us to the amazing bicycle photography of Ray Dobbins. Using consumer cameras, Ray gets tremendous results in his modest garage photography studio. Ray's process has been perfected with considerable trial and error, but surprisingly little money. With a $30 tripod, $35 halogen Sears work lights and a $55 roll of seamless, Ray has proven that I can no longer blame my camera for my poor quality photos.

From Ray Dobbins:

I started with a very cheap 3.2 megapixel digital camera, the Olympus Camedia D-395. About four months ago I moved up to a better camera, the 4.0 megapixel Kodak EasyShare DX7440. It has a better lens, more features and higher optical zoom, which really helps with the close-ups. However, all things being equal, the difference in the quality output between the two cameras is not significant. One of my best looking albums, the Colnago Oval CX, was taken with the Olympus. The big difference is in the features. So don't think that you need an expensive camera – even my new one only cost around $300.00.

Take a look at the Colnago Oval CX gallery, consider your own photographs and then come to the grips with the fact that he took those photographs with a generations-old digital camera that routinely sells on eBay for under $40! Ouch! We suck! Ray rules!

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Photo: Ray Dobbins (click for big)

Ray Dobbins Photo Set-up (via Velosniper)