Vent!! Picture taking!! Arfggg!!!!

[Dennis McGarry]

Argggg!! Who the heck would have thought that turning a raw piece of wood into a beautiful pen is easier then taking a simple good pic of it!!

Went out yesterday and built a simple little 2' photo tent so I can take some better pics. Yea right! That was the idea, guess I should have been an engineer..... :)

Have a nice piece of white poster board for the backdrop, pure white sheet as the diffuser, and a light on either side with a CFL bulbin it, I think that is my problem. The bulbs are 2700k soft white, 1600 lumens. I just can not get a picture that is even remotely better then just taking it on the desk! Tried auto focus, manual, with setting my white balance and still crap. Going to go get some daylight regular bulbs this afternoon and try some more..

Thanks for reading and letting me vent! Time to make a pen!

[Mitchell Andrus]

Going to go get some daylight regular bulbs this afternoon and try some more..



What's wrong with using real daylight? If your camera has a WB setting for it....
.

[Dennis McGarry]

What's wrong with using real daylight? If your camera has a WB setting for it....
.

Umm Seattle comes to mind... :)

[Mitchell Andrus]

Umm Seattle comes to mind... :)

So.... Mythbusters still has that "sailboat burnt to a crisp"er solar collectorizer mirror array. See if they'll let you set it up. Even on a cloudy day this might do it.
.

[Brad Wood]

maybe try a neutral gray background

or, try using the gray card to set your exposure. I haven't tried that with these new fangled digital camera's, so I'm not sure if that is even possible.

[Mike Gager]

post one of your pics that shows the problem you are having, it might be easier to diagnose that way

[Dennis McGarry]

Think is the CFL bulbs, i got soft white 2700K too. Going to pick up new incandescent ones tonight and try with those.. Will post results

[David G Baker]

Dennis,
I use the daylight CFL bulbs for taking photos. I mount them in the clamp on reflectors that you can pick up in the hardware store for around $6. I use 4 or 5 of the lights, they are the equivalent of 100 watt incandescent bulbs and come pretty close to matching daylight. I built a light box similar to the one that Bill Huber has posted on his site and it works great. I made mine 36 inches square and covered it with white sheet material when I want soft light. Taking photos is like anything else, practice, practice and practice. Consider yourself lucky, you have digital and memory cards. When I started I had 4"x5" film holders that held 2 sheets of film that had to be loaded in a darkroom as well as processed and printed. Ah, for the good old days ( I wouldn't go back to film if I was paid a lot of $), love this digital equipment.

[Robert Eiffert]

Not knowing your camera. Does it have a choice of light balances? Might be a menu choice, or might be a button.

For example: Nikon D80 has a WB button which activates a rolling dial to set a range of WB. There is also a method for setting a custom WB.

If you have 2700K bulbs, those are really closer to tungsten / reg incandescent, so try those settings.

If you have a lot of other light (say a bright kitchen, or lots of windows) you could well have a weird mix of color temps. Which would show up as color shifts in a brightness range or a mix or colors in the shadows cast by the lights and object (pen). In either case, it could be hard to get a good white background and get true color in your pens.

White backgrounds need extra exposure to stay white. Otherwise, the light meter sets the camera to expose for a middle gray.

I've made a small tent ( ~ 2 ft on a side) for wife's jewelry. I use 3 or 4 CFL bulbs in matte photo reflectors. The custom WB came out ~ 100-150 K from a preset and could be from the tenting material. I've set my camera to auto bracket 1.5 stops each side of the meter and then add bias for black or white or colored backgrounds.

The tent light is really 'flat'. No shadows, but then also no modeling. If you're using 2 or 3 lghts, try moving one further from the tent to get a bit of contrast back. You can add a light to further brighten background.

Also, try a snoot. Wrap some black foam around a CFL and tape. It will provide a weak 'spot light'. You can use that to put a sparkle or highlight on a polished piece or the metal trim.

David, I'm with you on the film/4x5 Great fun then, but I wouldn't go back!

[David G Baker]

Robert,
I did a little 8"x10" and a some 11"x14"s when I was stationed at Fort Ord California. We had one of those lab cameras that took up part of a room and the bellows was big enough to walk in. I still have a couple 4"x5" cameras and one 8"x10" view camera. Most of my gear is gathering dust. Most of my experience is in the lab.
Sounds like you are doing pretty much the same setup that I use. I do have several flash units that I use on occasion if I need a lot of light.

[Bob Moyer]

http://www.ezcube.com/ This would be a great answer to any of your or others needs to sell their product.

http://www.ezcube.com/images/backgrounds/setup.jpg

[Robert Eiffert]

A couple of DIY methods:


http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent - Funky, but will get you started.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent - This is what I'm using. Portable and sturdy. Easy to setup. Take a picture of your setup for extra repeatability.

[Dennis McGarry]

A couple of DIY methods:


http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent - This is what I'm using. Portable and sturdy. Easy to setup. Take a picture of your setup for extra repeatability.

That is the setup I am using I am thinking now that my covering, (white basic sheet) might be letting to much a glare still through it. Going to experiment with some different layouts of it and the lights.

As for the camera its an older sony 3megapixel. I can set the white balance on it, no color temp, just point it at the white bankground and set wb based on that.

I can change the exposer setting and fstop as well but dont know to much about them, Lucky digital flim is cheap :) Since I am out of pen kits at the moment, I am going to work on the camera setup today..

Here are the two latest shots I took with it of the latest pen/pencil set and one of a eariler pen

[Mike Gager]

other then the focus being a bit off those dont look bad

do you have your camera on a tripod/stand or are you holding it free hand?

i found that even on a stand the camera would slightly move when taking the picture so i always used the automatic timer when taking pics

[Robert Eiffert]

Light and color looks fine. I think depth of field is limiting sharpness. If you can set f-stop, I'd start in the f11 or 16 and more if necessary. Then run the file through the 'sharpen' feature in whatever software you're using.

Remember to make a back up copy before playing in the digital darkroom. Though most have multiple undo levels, sometimes you need to go back and start over; sharpen too much or want to make cropping changes after sharpening, etc.

Nice pens!