i've tried a few setups trying to get nice photos of my toys, but short of buying a new camera, what are some things you photogs use to make your shots look professional?

i bought a collapsable booth/light tent thing, but i dont like it. i had a hand built one, but it was more trouble than it was worth in the long run because i had no way to break it down to store it out of the way

photo stores look at me weird here when i ask if they carry acrylic shooting tables

I don't know much about taking photos, I use a homemade light box and it works pretty good. However, I do know you best bet for the "acrylic shooting table" is the bay. Just search for acrylic risers.

Here are a few things that I find very helpful -

- White balance
- Macro capabilities
- Photoshop

+1 photoshop is indeed a life saver...

I built a ghetto light box and have been using it.
My camera isn't the greatest at all.
Everything is done in Photoshop.

Photoshop is key in making things look perfect. Not a single picture I've ever used wasnt in someway cleaned up in photoshop.

if you want to do serious post editting on photos, you might want to give lightroom a shot, it only a fraction of the cost of photoshop but its more for those shooting high dpi/ RAW. a good tip is try taking pictures outside, the natural light usually well let you set the iso pretty low to give a more crisp shot. a camera's megapixels only determine how large the picture will be, not how good it will turn out.

i already have photoshop... how do you think i get those realistic special effects in my photostories??

what i am getting at more i guess are backdrops, lights, etc.

MY camera sucks, really, but I do like the way my outdoor pics come out.

So now I largely take pics of toys outside, its also a lot more fun.