Bowl Photography

[Russell Neyman]

Anyone know of a good book or video offering tips on photographing bowls?

[Maria Alvarado]

John Beaver, who is a member here, has a nice discussion on his website (pdf download) that has some useful tips. Mods, remove the link if not allowed: www.johnbeaver.net/assets/photography-for-woodturners.pdf

[John K Jordan]

Anyone know of a good book or video offering tips on photographing bowls?

Sorry, I don't have a book but I have some experience if it might help. I don't think bowls are any different than other small items - the lighting is paramount, followed by focus, background, viewpoint, and composition.

I have fair success with turnings and other small things using a home-made photo cube, a space covered with thin white cloth to diffuse the light. I use one full spectrum light on either side and usually one or two smaller lights for highlights. I made the photo cube from pvc pipe. I use a curved piece of mat board inside for a continuous background. I mostly photograph fairly small things - if the bowls are very large it may require a larger cube and a different material for a background.

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Some examples:

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JKJ

[Edward Weingarden]

Russell:
If you Google "photographing your woodturnings", you will find a number of how-to articles.

[Thom Sturgill]

Main issue with bowls is "Depth of Field" - get the front in focus and the back is out of focus - focus on the back and the front is blurry...

This is corrected by backing away from the item and using a telephoto lens to zoom in. Other items like shadow and strong reflections are handled with photo boxes like JKJ showed. Neal Addy used to have a great tutorial, but I see the link in my bookmarks is broken.

[John K Jordan]

Main issue with bowls is "Depth of Field" - get the front in focus and the back is out of focus - focus on the back and the front is blurry...


Depth of Field is a very important point! It's tied loosely to focus, of course but can be confusing at first. I usually tell people that the camera used to take photos of turnings doesn't make a lot of difference but with depth of field certain cameras can make a huge difference. However, controlling or even understanding how focal length affects DOF can be tricky and confusing at times since it not only depends on the distance and size of the object in the field of view but also the size of the sensor in the camera. A zoom lens can actually have a very narrow depth of field and is often used to blur backgrounds. With a given camera I generally use focal length (zoom) just to control perspective. (FWIW, I shoot most woodturnings these days with a Canon 70D with either a Canon 100mm fixed focal length portrait/macro lens - an amazing lens - or an 18-135mm equiv zoom lens.)

For those unfamiliar: The aperture is king with DOF (at a given focal length/zoom level). A camera such as a typical digital SLR will have an Aperture Priority mode. Setting the F-stop to a higher number (i.e. F16 or F22 instead of F2.4) will make the aperture opening smaller and result in a much larger depth of field. (A pinhole camera has great DOF!) However, there are other related factors which can complicate things if this is new info - it's a balancing act.

The most immediate thing is it can take MUCH more light for the proper exposure. You can add more light, use a longer shutter speed, or change the ISO/ASA (light sensitivity) setting on many cameras. Adding more light is best but often impractical, since a good photo setup will already use very bright lights. A longer shutter speed will require careful use of a tripod (which should always be used anyway) and probably a remote shutter release or cable or using the self-timer to prevent camera shake. Image stabilization can assist but should not be relied on in the studio. Increasing the ISO can keep the shutter speeds lower but usually at the expense of a noisier (grainier) photo. A longer shutter speed is usually the best option and is automatically used on most cameras with an Aperture Priority setting. Today's cameras usually have an Auto ISO mode which you may have to override to get the desired balance.

Note that there may be other issues with simply changing the aperture with some cameras and certain lenses - some lenses are much sharper at certain "sweet" apertures. The reviews at DPR (dpreview.com) for specific cameras show what works best. Sometimes the difference is extremely minor, sometimes not.

A quick Google search gave me this about DOF which looks good, at least at a glance: http://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/what-is-depth-of-field-how-aperture-focal-length-and-focus-control-sharpness-1320959
It points out correctly how the camera itself, specifically the sensor size, can have a big effect on DOF. This is tied, of course, to the focal length. Back when we were all using 35mm TriX and slide film for everyday work all this was simpler since the options were fewer! I first ran into the camera "sensor" (film) size issue when I started using 2-1/4 and 4x5 film cameras for studio and landscape.

Note that sometimes controlling the depth of field to make is shallower instead of deeper is useful, for example to blur backgrounds and make certain details stand out. I tried to use that in the smaller inset photo of the carved handle detail of the carved bowl I posted, to make the handle tendrils stand out a bit.

Good fun, and one of my favorite discussion topics!

BTW, expert woodturners John Lucas and Jamie Donaldson are also professional photographers. I know John has written a lot on the subject of photographing turnings and Jamie's photos are first class. I don't think they read this forum but I can ask if they have anything on a web page or video they can share. Knowing Sir Lucas he would probably be willing to answer private questions and tell all his secrets. He uses a wide variety of studio techniques but is also adept at quick and simple improvised photo setups, such as this tiny desktop, er, table-saw-top studio. :)

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JKJ

[Steve Schlumpf]

Neal Addy used to have a great tutorial, but I see the link in my bookmarks is broken.

Thom, I did find this PDF (http://mkmk.com/swiwt/PDF/photographing_your_work.pdf) of his tutorial. Hope it is what you remember!

[Thom Sturgill]

Yep! That's it. Good to see John K Jordan's response too. Alas, photography is not particularly my thing.

[John K Jordan]

Thom, I did find this PDF (http://mkmk.com/swiwt/PDF/photographing_your_work.pdf) of his tutorial. Hope it is what you remember!

Excellent tutorial, thanks for posting. I didn't read all of it but it looks very complete, logically organized, easy to understand, and written with humor!

I see it has a section on controlling reflections by my good friend and woodturning wizard John Lucas. The section following that is actually by Jamie Donaldson but I don't see it credited. The original is here, titled Lighting set-up for creating a budget studio: http://www.jamiedonaldsonwoodturner.com/techniques.html

Here's another PDF article by John Lucas called Lighting tricks using a photo box: http://www.turningwood.com/HOW_TOO/Lighting%20tricks%20using%20a%20photo%20box.pdf

and one on Photographing Really Glossy Woodturnings: http://nebula.wsimg.com/17b9a4c07da5b3c10dc5dfa5f30aa453?AccessKeyId=8E1EC 0DC707F1FE36FCB&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

JKJ

[Russell Neyman]

Good stuff. Should help. Thanks.