Beautiful, TASART. The lighting is even and diffused. The colors look perfect, indicating good exposure. The depth of field is suburb, with great focus. The white background is crisp and clean. I love it.

I studied photography in the 1970s too. I have had a lot of catching up to do with digital photography. Indoor catalog photography is also new for me. I've improved my photos to a point, but progress is stalled because of my camera. Rosanna's photos from the Kodak Easyshare look better than what I am getting from my Olympus. Yes, any camera suggestions are welcome while I save my pennies. I'm making a list.

With a good camera that takes exposure readings on pinpointed areas, bracketing exposure is less necessary. Most exposure meters are set to 'neutral gray'. If you take a reading on an object that has a neutral gray tonal value (imagine the color as black and white), your exposure should be good. Once you learn through trial and error the difference between overly bright, overly dark, or neutral objects (or backgrounds), you can do less bracketing by taking meter readings on the neutral tonal areas. (I hope this isn't too confusing).

If your camera is cheaper, chances are that exposure readings are made over a wider area of the frame. With this system, background and foreground merge for the meter reading. With this system, there is a greater chance of the meter being 'fooled', throwing off the exposure. You will need to do more bracketing, or use a 'neutral gray tone' background. Color doesn't matter, it is the 'tone' (position on a gray scale from white to black) of the color that is read by the meter.

There is an old photography saying: "Expose for the shadows, print for the highlights". Of course, this was so enough silver would stick to the film emulsion that some details could be seen in the thin areas of the negative, the 'shadows'. Digital photography seems to be similar. It works better to tame an overexposed shot that to try and pull up detail from an underexposed shot. But best of all is to make a correct exposure in your camera in the first place, so you don't have compensate later in your computer, compromising quality.

I used to worry about wasting expensive film and processing. Now I love digital cameras because I can shoot as many shots as I want and it all costs the same. And no waiting! How cool is THAT!