Once the backdrop's been assembled (OK, taped to the desk), you can set your products on it, as shown in Figure D.

FIGURE D


The two Pocket PCs are secured with a bit more tape. Roll over picture for a larger image.

If you look carefully, you'll notice the Navman PiN has a blob of blue tape behind it. That's because, when I set the handhelds on the backdrop, they kept sliding down. A blob of blue tape behind each resolved the problem. It took some additional futzing to get both to line up together, and then I took my shot.

Once the shot was taken, I did the normal Photoshop magic. I cropped the image tight. Because it was intended for presentation on the Web (rather than art for my wall), I down-sampled it to 72dpi and resized the image to 480 pixels high, which works great for a Web-based image.

And, there ya go. A $0.69 piece of cardboard and you've got a backdrop. By the way, you can extend this idea a bit. You can buy larger cardboard sheets at your local art supply store for a buck or two, and you can also get different colors, so you're not limited to white. If you're taking a picture of a piece of silver jewelry, for instance, you might want to try placing it on a piece of black cardboard.

After all, when the backdrops are only $0.69, you can certainly afford to experiment.

David Gewirtz is the author of How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The Emails Gone? For more than 20 years, he has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.