Photography

[MT Stringer]

Here ya go, bud.
How to build a light tent

I used the 1/2 inch pvc pipe and no glue. Easy set up and easy to take down.
A white sheet from Wally world and a pair of cheep lights.

Shoot a lot and keep the good ones; chunk the others.

Good luck.
Mike

[ianab]

What Handi shows is a good start, and won't break the bank.

He's got lighting (Shop lights and natural from the window)
Background (can be a simple cloth or paper sheet)
Tripod. (Need not be fancy, and for a small set up a little desktop unit would work)

No matter what camera you have, a set up like that will give you better photos. OK a $2,000 DSL will still be better than a $150 pocket camera, but that will at least let you get the best possible shot your little camera can do.

Then you can play with the shot is software, either whatever was provided with the camera, or something like GIMP (a free version of Photoshop) to crop the shot and adjust contrast, colour etc so it looks best on screen.

Ian

[handi]

Thanks Ian.

I did finally go out and purchase a good DSLR kit for about $800.00 but that particular photo was shot with a $300.00 Kodak 10mp digital camera.

Just as a point of reference and to see how hard it would be to do, I shot this video, stills and all using just my iPhone. I think it was the 4s, the 5 is even better.
Cutting Plastics on the Tablesaw
I used a full sized tripod, and one of the small flexible table top models as well. The "overhead" shots of the blades cutting acrylic was done with my phone on the small tripod actually riding on the plastic sheet.

With a bit of creativity, you can get great results.

Ralph

[Sawdustd]

All good advice about lighting and camera settings but there is one more step to consider -- enhancing, editing, croping, sharpening your photo's. I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements for years. Its amazing what you can do with a crapy photo. The "Quick" mode is easy to master. I'm in the proccess of converting 3K 35mm slides to digits -- taken over 50 years. Photoshop is not cheap but its a sound investment for whatever photo's you take. Good luck

Dave

[handi]

I use Corel's Video and Photo editing software. Love the software, and it is far less expensive than Adobe, but Corel's CS sucks.

Every time I've had an issue, I have had to figure it out on my own, they have been useless.

Ralph

[Woodshop]

MyKidsDad said:

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

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Neal Addy is a excellent turner here on the Woodnet. though I think he quit turning to pursue other interests.
definitely check out his tutorial. That's where I learned the most about taking nice photos and tweaking them after with GIMP
he has a link for it. it's free

[Routerman]

I hate convention. Studied the product shoot independently. Did shoot an excessive amount to get what I wanted, but not conventionally. Whilst, however, I do think the quickest ride is up the gradient. That is, do the light box thing and use diffuse light where appicable.
But appreciate, it can be done with nearly nothing.
I did buy a good camera and I use CS4 for editing, however.
But all the pix (tools & hardware) here were shot with ordinary 5000° K fluorescents overhead.
No light boxes, diffusers, reflectors, no heroics. Sometimes not easy but nearly always acceptable.

[thomasegan]

bobs64ford352 said:

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how to take semi decent pics with my wifes $150-200 regular ol'digital camera.

Thanks,
Bob

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You've gotten a ton of good advice. Plow into your camera manual; you'll probably find that little camera has 25 to 50 functions/modes you weren't aware of.
And once you have an idea what the various modes, settings are, you're well on your way to use it as a tool.
So experiment.
And get a feel for light.

Read up on the 18% gray card and see if you can determine how your camera meters and the metering (spot, balanced, etc) choices you may have.

And a +1 on shooting outdoors on a gray or overcast day. For close up shots (tools, wood, etc) this can be ideal. And I've also used a $3 clamp on reflector light for some added light on those days, too.

te

[Bartee]

All good stuff. I purchased a 48" wide roll of plotter ( big printer ) paper. It heavy paper and very white. I used it for background for THIS









I have since added one of the cowboy SETUPS

I do a lot of the stuff mentioned in the excellent link from above.

I shoot JPEG and edit with Google Picasa picture editor. Really good and easy. If you shoot the picture right Picasa can fix anything that is small.

For all of my shop project stories like this ONE I have 28 t8 bulbs of light in my shop. I shoot with a Canon t2i and a 24-105 lens. I manually set white color balance in the camera. This is a really good setup that allows me to take pictures and quickly edit an publish them on my web site.

If you are sell stuff, I think pictures make a BIG difference.

So color balance, tripod, and manual focus is a GREAT start. I love the lighting show above of the 4 chisels. And this idea using trash bags for defusers is excellent.

[bobs64ford352]

Thanks again everyone. I finally got a chance to play around. I need to get another light source but used the plastic bag over a lamp with a led bulb. I played around with positioning of the light but found myself frustrating with my half thrown together setup, that wasn't very stable. I will need to spend some more time on this. I couldn't find our tripod but I sat the camera on something and used the 2sec timer. Not many blurry shots, just poor lighting. I took one fairly decent shot, except for the sewer piping in the background (I'm doing this in the basement). Looks like I need to pay more attention to whats behind where I'm shooting. So far all I did to the camera was play with the white balance, set it to macro focus, use the 2sec timer and shut the flash off.

Here is a few examples:





The pizza cutter was kind of difficult due to the highly reflective cutting wheel.

I need to get myself a better sheet or something else that doesn't have wrinkles, another light and a tripod. I was having a hard time with my meat paws trying to hit buttons and keep the camera in one spot on a barely stable surface. Anything jump out at you guys that might be a settings issue?

Bob