-- 1 -- The Nikon Coolpix 900 camera review

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Nikon Coolpix 900:
Focus on objects of desire
Using the Coolpix for high-quality still life photography with Photoshop tips
Ernest von Rosen (November 1998)

I've found the coolpix 900 to be great for product shots, especially where detail is important.

I'm often asked why I moved on from the Sony Mavica FD-7 digital camera and much as I loved that FD-7 it boiled down to one word: "resolution". It was in fact with this client, Jones Soda where I finally realized that the edges on the glass bottles just weren't sharp enough for with the FD-7 for what I had to do. So enter the Nikon Coolpix 900.

couple shot In the following pages I will point out some its features (and setbacks) and show examples of how I've used the Coolpix for higher resolution photography. For the Photoshop hacks, I've included some of my tricks to remove the backgrounds in each photo so you end up with "the object of desire".

a closer look at the Coolpix 900 camera

TIP #1: Removing the background
Step #1: The original photo of a bottle against light grey paper. Duplicate the photo layer and then turn the background to white. What you will be doing is removing the grey on the top layer so that you will have the bottle on one layer floating over the white (or you choice) background.	Step #2: Use the "select color range.." option with the value set about 40 and click on the grey background. Then use the eyedropper with the "+" to add areas. Make sure that you leave some of the shadow though (as shown to the left of the bottle).	Step #3: Click on the "Quick Mask" icon to view the mask as a painted object (shown here in green). Now the trick is to very carefully paint in the areas that were "over selected" in the previous step. Use the paintbrush, airbrush, or eraser as needed. For the edges use a hard brush edge. For the shadows use a soft brush and don't forget that you can set the opacity to something smaller like 50% in the brush options box.	Step #4: Click back to the normal select icon (the two are side by side on you toolbox bar) and hit delete to remove the grey. Now look closely at the edges and do some very gentle touch up work with an eraser as needed. See my earlier notes for final Photoshop touch ups.