Question about taking photographs of wood turnings with a point and shoot camera

[Dave Kartzman]

Good afternoon....

After struggling with the point and shoot camera that we own (Sony DSC-W80), I believe I need to purchase another camera. Unfortunately, it will need to be another point and shoot (so my wife can use it and stick it in her purse). In past postings about photography, it has been suggested to find a camera with manual controls. There are several that I have found with manual controls and are well rated for interior shots, etc.

I do have a question, though, concerning the barrel distortion that I have gotten when taking photographs using the Sony. It has a 10x optical lens, but when I pull the camera further away to avoid the barrel distortion, I discovered that I don't have to move far away for the camera to go from optical zoom to digital zoom and the photographs get grainy. Would the solution be to get one of the megazoom cameras that have an 18x optical glass lens, or am I missing another solution to this issue?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide. I have been working on taking better photographs, but this point about the distortion is not one I have been able to overcome.

Dave

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dave - I would think that as long as you have a tripod to keep the shot steady, just about any camera would do. You shouldn't have to zoom in on the subject very much at all when taking the photo and can use a graphics editing program (many good ones are free) to crop to the actual size of photo that you want.

As far as manual options on a camera, you would want to be able to turn the flash off, a timer to prevent camera shake would be nice and if you can get one with the ability to adjust white balance, you should be set. Some cameras allow you to change lighting by selecting cloudy, sunny, etc and while not perfect - will get you close enough to real so that you can adjust final colors in your graphics editor.

[Steve Vaughan]

Dave, I am inexperienced in taking pics, but I'm learning a little from a couple of professional photo friends. I've got a point and click camera too. I'm trying to use additional lighting (my two lathe lights plus two work lights) and I take lots of pics, with and without flash, some zoom and no zoom. I don't ever go to digital zoom. Once I take all my pics, I select the few possible good ones and tweak them in my default photo editor.

Ditto what Steve said on the white balance adjustment and adjust the lighting setting on the camera. It's all a greater learning curve for me too.

[Scott Hackler]

I would definitely look for a camera that has the ability to do manual settings (such as shutter speed, ISO), the ability to turn OFF the flash and turn OFF the digital zoom. Digital zoom is junk and is basically the camera enlarging and cropping the picture. You dont need hardly any optical zoom for studio shots in a photo tent, as the camera should be relatively close to the front of the piece (mine is usually 12-18" from the work and I still have to crop the pictures in Paint Shop Pro afterwards.

[Chris Burgess]

I am not a photographer by any shot but I do know that you should not use Digital Zoom. When you zoom with optical the lens extends but w/ Digital it is acually software zooming in and a lot is lost. I have an Elph that I use and I set it on a tripod and slow the ISO down as much as it will go. I back a way a little and zoom in on the pic (Optical only). They are not the best pics but they work. Ohh and ditto on the lighting, I dont use the flash. I use lamps to find the right lighting.

[Sean Hughto]

The poor man's method is to shoot outdoors. Late day raking light is usually good, and overcast days - with their bright but diffuse light - also.

The main problem with turnings is depth of focus. You need to increase your focal length or close down the aperature (slow down the shutter) to get a greater depth of focus. Best you can do with a point and shoot without aperature controls is to shoot from as far back as possible that still gives you sufficient clarity and detail.

[Jamie Donaldson]

There are many point and shoot cameras available now that allow manual overrides of aperture(depth of field), focus, color balance, and zoom, and many of them below $400. Check out reviews on dpreview.com and you can get good info about specific models. A sturdy tripod is the best lens sharpener available as well, and you will benefit from reading my Phrugal Photo Studio tutorial under the tips menu on my web site JamieDonaldsonWoodturner.com

[Dave Kartzman]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. The Point and shoot camera I have has the white balance, and once I started to play with that, modifying the EV settings, and using 5500 kelvin lamps, the photographs got much better. The problem that I am still having is in order to minimize the distortion I have to move further back, but when I move back far enough so that the bowls appear as they should, the shot is more granular than it should be because I noticed that I went from optical zoom to digital zoom. That was the reason for the question about the megazoom cameras.

Jamie, I will definitely check out DPreview.com as well as your tutorial.

I sincerely appreciate the assistance from everyone. Getting the photographs to properly represent the turnings is quite a challenge, but what's life without challenges....

Dave

[Jamie Donaldson]

Back the camera away from the turning as far as the optical zoom will allow without shifting into digital zoom, then move forward to fill the frame(crop) as needed without changing the zoom setting. This will minimize the barrel distortion resulting from using a wide angle focal length.

[Dave Kartzman]

Thank you Jamie... I just did what you suggested. I think this looks better. Your thoughts?

I really appreciate the help.

Dave

203813

[Jamie Donaldson]

In this image you've cropped too tight to the edges of the frame- leave a bit more space at the sides by backing away. I'm not a big fan of flash because it flattens the subject(reduced 3D effect) and creates hard shadows on the background that can distort the profile, but flash usually gives good color reproduction. This camera angle is excellent, shows some of the interior as well as the profile.