Photography

[bobs64ford352]

Crappy pictures never really bothered me before but now that I'm gearing up to sell pens and other small items I'm getting frustrated with my photo taking skills, especially with the darker woods. I've seen posts before about this so I wanted to see if anyone wouldn't mind sharing some tips. Maybe even how to setup a small scale photo "booth" for pens and other small turning projects. I have room where I can setup something permanent, but I'm unsure how to do it, especially on the cheap and how to take semi decent pics with my wifes $150-200 regular ol'digital camera.

Thanks,
Bob

[MyKidsDad]

There is a photography forum on the IAP website that has a wealth of information on setting up a photo booth. If you look through their library, there is also a pretty extensive pen photo tutorial.

[MyKidsDad]

This is something I've had bookmarked for a long time. Also found it through the IAP website.
http://www.nealaddy.org/node/16

[kompera]

As a former professional product photographer... you need lots and lots of diffuse light, and a little tripod for the camera. Shoot on macro mode. This matters far more than the quality of the digital camera.

DIY diffuse lighting: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how...tudio.html

Or buy a cheapo softbox...
All in one package
Small cheap soft light boxes

[richtes]

My wife has been having me take pics of jewelry she's getting rid of. Have one of the cheap softbox sets from Amazon (the 24" cowboy studio one in the above post), but not really happy with the results.

Seems like the pics look good on the monitor (the 46" at home) but not on the laptop when I look at work. Downloaded one of the inexpensive camera control programs and that makes things simpler but isn't really necessary, just lets us take a pic and see it instantly on the TV.

Rich

[handi]

Bob,

Here are my basics:

Use a tripod AND either the camera's timer or a remote. 99.99% of blurry photos are from shaking.

Close ups can be tough with auto focus. Don't be afraid to shut it off and manually focus. If your camera does not have manual settings read the instructions for the optimal distance. Remember that high res photos can be cropped close without losing too much resolution.

Use natural lighting if at all possible. An overcast day is ideal since you get plenty of light without shadows.

For small objects like pens I bought a portable photo booth from Amazon. It is great! Like this, Less than $40.00
It comes with fill lights and backdrops. I usually put a small block under the cloth and set the pen on that. The fill lights are aimed at the translucent sides that act as diffusers.

In my shop I use cheap clamp lights as fill lights. I hang them from rafters, on stands, ladders, and anything else that can hold them where wanted. I bought some LED bulbs that do not get hot and won't break if dropped. I use plastic grocery bags as diffusers. DO NOT try that with incandesant bulbs! CFLs are poor for lighting unless you have proper filters or a setting on your camera.

This photo was used for a review of FastCap's Folding Chisels:


Here is the set up used!


The background is a bed sheet bought for this purpose, and you can see the mess around, but the photo came out pretty well.

Please feel free to PM me if you want more advice. I have been taking photos that get used in my magazine articles for more than 10 years, and have not spent a lot of money.

Ralph

[DallasStarter]

If you want a studio look, either Neal's article or the Stobist post are excellent resources. If you just want a really good image, you just need to find an environment with a lot of diffuse light (which is almost never inside unless you use a lightbox). Fortunately a great picture is rarely more than 12 hours away if you have access to the outdoors because there is good diffuse light outside right before the sun comes up, and right after it sets. Or if you're lucky it's overcast outside and you'll have good light for longer periods of time. Almost all of my stuff I shoot outside at the end of the day.

The issue with capturing detail in darker woods is based on metering. Your camera (depending on it's make and settings) will use it's light meter to evaluate the light in the area within the viewfinder and determine what exposure to use. If the wood in a dark pen is notably darker than the surrounding environment, the camera will choose the exposure based on the surrounding environment and the dark wood will be underexposed (too dark, showing no detail). Many professionals control for this by metering off a gray card and then locking the exposure. In this way you're more likely to get an even exposure - one that shows detail in the dark but that's only slightly overexposed elsewhere. You can lock the exposure on most any camera (and most smart phone) if you read the instructions. I've even heard people advocate that in a pinch the average person's hand is reasonably close to the 18% gray card photographers use, so you can meter off your hand. Alternatively, most cameras have an exposure correction setting that will allow you to adjust the exposure in a given direction from what the camera "thinks" is right. If you're shooting a dark pen, you'll need a higher exposure than the camera wants to give you, so play with that setting a bit and see if it helps.

Reed <---hapilly shooting in full manual since 2010

[sawdustdave]

Just recently Chris Schwarz had a blog post (I think on the Lost Art site) on what he used for picture taking. Worth a look. He states he tried to stay as inexpensive as possible.

Here's the link: Schwarz on Photography

[Cian]

Cian - adding no value whatsoever

[bobs64ford352]

Thank you all (even Cian) it looks like I have some reading and camera fiddling to do.

Thanks,
Bob