Trying To Llearn Pictures (Critique Requested)

[Christopher K. Hartley]

(Critique Requested on the pictures, the vase is not complete yet). I have just started my photo booth and have not gotten much into the lighting as yet. Any comments would be appreciated please.:)

[Ron Coleman]

The vase looks good Christopher, a nice classic shape.

Now for the pictures;

Start with a white background so as to not detract from the color of the wood. You may need to play with the white balance settings on your camera to get a true white. Incandescent lamps tend to give off so much red that it is really hard to get a true white sometimes without a little manipulation in PhotoShop. Also, if you have any fluorescent lights on that will cast light on the photo setting they can cause a dingy cast from my experience.

If you move your view point of the vase down so that you are looking almost straight at it, the shape of the vase will be more apparent to the viewer. It's hard to see the inside and the outside of a piece all in one picture without confusing the viewer with too much detail from the grain.

The shadows will drive you nuts.

Ron

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Thanks Ron, I'll start working on it. I have just been using a Kodak Easy Share and I don't recall seeing any white settings in the menu options, Could it be under something else?:)
The vase looks good Christopher, a nice classic shape.

Now for the pictures;

Start with a white background so as to not detract from the color of the wood. You may need to play with the white balance settings on your camera to get a true white. Incandescent lamps tend to give off so much red that it is really hard to get a true white sometimes without a little manipulation in PhotoShop. Also, if you have any fluorescent lights on that will cast light on the photo setting they can cause a dingy cast from my experience.

If you move your view point of the vase down so that you are looking almost straight at it, the shape of the vase will be more apparent to the viewer. It's hard to see the inside and the outside of a piece all in one picture without confusing the viewer with too much detail from the grain.

The shadows will drive you nuts.

Ron

[Jim Becker]

The one thing you did with all of those pictures is had the angle too high. Therefore, one cannot truly see the form. Your "main" picture of a piece generally wants to be mostly front and center with just a slight hint of the inside of the rim to provide depth. You can always provide additional shots of details. So move the camera down a little so you're not looking down at the piece more than a proverbial hair. The second picture above is the best of the lot, but the angle is way too high. IMHO, of course...tempered by looking at a LOT of photos here and elsewhere.

You'll want to bounce a little more light to reduce shadows, too, as well as find the white balance setting that provides the truest color with the lighting you are using.

[Brian Weick]

Yea Chris I have a comment,
Send the bowls to my address - I' l give you address. And make sure you use bubble wrap- I wouldn't want it to break. - My opinion- Out standing! - So when can I expect your turning to arrive at my door?????hmmmmmmm?? I have a feeling I will be waiting for something that is never going to arrive-LOL:D
seriously though ~ Very nice work Chris and the pictures are very well done- that's why I got a new digital camera, mine was 7 years old- I think it was time. Nice pictures! :)
Very Great work Chris.
Brian

[Marc Martindale]

Christopher,

Look at the settings on the camera itself, there usually is a setting for white balance. There will be some settings for the different types of lights (tungsten, flourescent, ect.) and probably one where you take a picture of a white page under your lights and use that as a custom setting. I've got a Kodak camera too and will check it out when I get home, if someone else doesn't expand on it first.

Setting up that properly helped my photos A LOT!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Can't help you with the pictures Chris because I am a camera dummy. I will say the vase is beautiful. What kind of wood is it? Well done.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Still too much shadow, but how about center?:)
The one thing you did with all of those pictures is had the angle too high. Therefore, one cannot truly see the form. Your "main" picture of a piece generally wants to be mostly front and center with just a slight hint of the inside of the rim to provide depth. You can always provide additional shots of details. So move the camera down a little so you're not looking down at the piece more than a proverbial hair. The second picture above is the best of the lot, but the angle is way too high. IMHO, of course...tempered by looking at a LOT of photos here and elsewhere.

You'll want to bounce a little more light to reduce shadows, too, as well as find the white balance setting that provides the truest color with the lighting you are using.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Can't help you with the pictures Chris because I am a camera dummy. I will say the vase is beautiful. What kind of wood is it? Well done.Bernie, it is wormy Spalted Pecan. Thanks:)

[sascha gast]

so far all suggestions are great, but I have to add one more. White is a decent background but lends itself to blow out too fast if you are not careful.
go to a photo place and get either a #18 grey, that's considered neutral grey. I think your backdrop might be close. however, you still need to fiddle with the white balance as much as you can on camera or open in photoshop or similar and look for a tool that lets you put an eyedropper symbol over the background and it will then make it neutral grey for you. #18 is best and also easy on the exposure because measured in light, it's right around 128(black is 0, white is 255) so it really is smack middle. it makes it easy to expose correctly. with white, you risk blowing out the background too much and #18 makes your turning pop like crazy.
I hope that made some sense

[sascha gast]

Still too much shadow, but how about center?:)



bring the turning much further away from the back and also put some diffusion material in front of the light.
I eventually gave up on light tents and got myself a real studio with strobes, softboxes and everything else, but that's me:D

[Ron Coleman]

Sascha has a point about the distance between the piece and the background. Looking at the shadow, they appear to be very close together. More distance will make the shadow stand away from the vase more but it will be easier to wash it out with some fill light.

Ron

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Christopher,

Look at the settings on the camera itself, there usually is a setting for white balance. There will be some settings for the different types of lights (tungsten, flourescent, ect.) and probably one where you take a picture of a white page under your lights and use that as a custom setting. I've got a Kodak camera too and will check it out when I get home, if someone else doesn't expand on it first.

Setting up that properly helped my photos A LOT!Mark, I do have the setting you mention that says (tungsten, flourescent, ect.) I set it on tungsten not knowing why.:)

[Ron Coleman]

Still too much shadow, but how about center?:)

Looking better. Just remember, play, play and play again with different setting and different setups. Shooting pictures of you're own work isn't easy in the beginning but after a while things will start looking good. Just like turning, it gets easier the more you do.

Ron

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Looking better. Just remember, play, play and play again with different setting and different setups. Shooting pictures of you're own work isn't easy in the beginning but after a while things will start looking good. Just like turning, it gets easier the more you do.

RonThanks Ron and all you guys I'll keep at it. I'll work on the shadows after I get this part:)

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Yea Chris I have a comment,
Send the bowls to my address - I' l give you address. And make sure you use bubble wrap- I wouldn't want it to break. - My opinion- Out standing! - So when can I expect your turning to arrive at my door?????hmmmmmmm?? I have a feeling I will be waiting for something that is never going to arrive-LOL:D
seriously though ~ Very nice work Chris and the pictures are very well done- that's why I got a new digital camera, mine was 7 years old- I think it was time. Nice pictures! :)
Very Great work Chris.
Brian
How about if I meet you half way and send you a blank of this wood?:D

[Jim Becker]

Still too much shadow, but how about center?

Much better angle. First picture is better than the second...the latter is cropped way too close. Color balance is still off, however...that may take a little experimentation with both your camera and your software.

[Nancy Laird]

How about if I meet you half way and send you a blank of this wood?:D

Can I get one too, Chris?;) I really like this piece, but I'd call it a jar rather than a vaaase.

Nancy (90 days)

[Marc Martindale]

Hi Chris,

My Kodak Z740 doesn't have any custom settings for white balance, the only thing I can do with my model is in the manual mode select the type of light I'm using - daylight, tungsten, flourescent or open shade. My Minolta DiMage S404 is the one (I now realize I have been using it to take woodturning pictures) that has the custom setting for white balance. Depending on what model Kodak you have, you might be in the same boat, then you have to use some advanced settings in the photo software. That's way beyond my rudimentary knowledge.

I hope I've helped you in some small way at least.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Can I get one too, Chris?;) I really like this piece, but I'd call it a jar rather than a vaaase.

Nancy (90 days)I think I owe you some anyway don't I? I had a computer crash and lost all my PM logs. Let me know your contact data again. Thanks.:)

[Paul Engle]

Christopher, the vase looks good and it looks like your homing in on the pics. The pecan I got from you doesnot look that good , well done indeed , If I ever get my camera back from which ever of the 4 daughters carted it off I may get to post more pics by oh say 2010 :o :eek:

[Dick Strauss]

Chris,
Make sure all lights are the same variety (tungsten, flourescent, daylight, etc) if possible. That way if you have to make corrections you don't have a half blue and half yellow image to fix.

Try to shoot everything in Raw format if you can. Raw format allows you to change the color balance after the fact with no image data degradation. That way if you shot using the "Tungsten" setting on the camera but actually used flourescent lighting, you can correct with no loss in data.

Also, Sascha hit it right on the head. If you have some form of Photoshop, you can use the eyedropper tool and click on the neutral (gray is best) background. Assuming all lighting is the same, you can remove the color cast pretty easily in this way.

You may want to consider three backgrounds (gray, very light gray, and charcoal gray/black). If you're limited to one go with the gray. Some very light woods look best with a darker background. Also, pictures of walnut pieces look "flat" with a dark backdrop because there isn't enough contrast.

I'll be happy to help you do some color correction or walk you through it if you send me a copy of your photos.

Take care,
Dick

[Dick Strauss]

I made the background more neutral for your last pic:

72386


Dick

[sascha gast]

http://i.pbase.com/o6/55/652955/1/86039712.5aFNwXqF.100_1669copy.jpg

and here my version. still need to work on the shadow a bit, but with a bit of photoshop................

[joe greiner]

Although somewhat constrained by weather, try some shots outdoors. But not in direct sunlight. North side of your house/shop/studio will generally be the best location (South side for alternate hemispherians). This will generally dump more light than you can conveniently get with bulbs. Also set up some bounce boards (flat white, not mirrors) to softly fill any darkish spots. The color of shaded sunlight behaves more like sunlight than cloudy or overcast setting, but try both anyway. In the motion picture business, they say "The cheapest thing we've got is film." Even more so with digital "film."

Joe

[sascha gast]

http://i.pbase.com/o6/55/652955/1/86039712.5aFNwXqF.100_1669copy.jpg

and here my version. still need to work on the shadow a bit, but with a bit of photoshop................

that should show up
http://www.pbase.com/saschagast/image/86039712.jpg