Snap Happy......

[woodbloke]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this one or not but it does relate to workshop pics, please move if it's not in the correct forum. I'm a fairly 'happy snapper' when it comes to photography in the workshop but I'm not sure that my techniques or results are as good as they might be so I was wondering if anyone has any tips or techniques that could be shared. I'm thinking about things like cameras and camera technique(s), lighting, setting up shots, editing photos (never done that :?) and anything else that may help me (and everyone else) to take better pics for the forum - Rob

 

[davy_owen_88]

I'll be watching this thread with great interest. I can't seem to get a decent photograph to save my life.

 

[Philly]

A tip that has transformed my photography is this - use a tripod!!
Flash ruins the natural look of a photo so a tripod allows you to go "flash-less" without camera shake ruining the picture.
You can pick them up for about £15. Go for it - you'll never look back!
Philly

 

[andys wood shed]

You could also ask Steve Maskery about his cardboard cutout man he uses to setup his shots :lol: :lol: :lol:


Andy

 

[Paul Chapman]

I thought your pics were among the better ones, Rob

Having done photography (conventional, film-based) for about 40 years and been quite good at it, I'm really struggling with digital cameras. I use two at the moment. One has only a screen and no viewfinder and I think it's rubbish. I have to upload the pictures onto my computer before I can see whether the results are any good. The other one is better but not much.

I think you need a proper viewfinder and the ability to focus on the bit you want sharp as a minimum requirement. My next one will have to be an SLR with proper focusing. A decent viewfinder which shows you what you are going to get is half the battle. You can then play around with the lighting and bounce it off reflectors and stuff like that and see through the viewfinder exactly what the result will look like.

Not much help, Rob - bit of a rant really :lol: Sorry :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[mailee]

Steve Maskery...cardboard cut out man! Is that who I was talking to at his bash? :lol: He seemed to hold a good conversation for a cardboard man though. :lol:

 

[Chris Knight]

Bugbear did a tutorial sometime ago - sure to be somewhere under the search button..

Ah, here we are https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... 1822#81822

 

[inventor]

(1) Tripod - you photograph more slowly and take more time to assess the shots, and easily repeat the same shot with small changes

(2) Diffuse lighting. Best is natural light from a cloudy sky. Indoors, use lots of lights spread about, but incandescent or strip lamps give red or green colour casts. Modern high efficiency flourescent bulbs can give reasonable colour. The colour cast can be corrected in a photo editor.

If you do want to use flash, DON'T POINT IT AT THE SUBJECT! You need a flash that can point in a direction other than straight down the lens. Some cameras with built in flash can do this, or use a separate flash unit. Cheap digital cameras often have no method to trigger an off-camera flash, which is a pain. Use ambient light instead. If you can use flash, point it at a big, white diffuser, like a ceiling. If it's coloured, it'll create a colour cast.

Good Luck!
(I once bought a lens worth more than my wife's car. She bought a bigger car.)

 

[Mike.C]

Paul,

I think you need a proper viewfinder and the ability to focus on the bit you want sharp as a minimum requirement. My next one will have to be an SLR with proper focusing. A decent viewfinder which shows you what you are going to get is half the battle. You can then play around with the lighting and bounce it off reflectors and stuff like that and see through the viewfinder exactly what the result will look like.

Paul, like with most things techno I am a complete novice when it comes to cameras, but if you want a digital camera with a view finder you may want to take a look at the Fuji S9600.
http://www.cameras2u.com/Store/s54403/0 ... tails.aspx

It is not a SLR, but its not far off. I think they call it a bridge camera (I may be wrong) and IMHO for the money it is an excellent buy.
I had another Fuji before this one which did not have a view finder and like you I could not get on with it.

HTH

Cheers

Mike

 

[bjm]

If you have the time DPReview is perhaps the best online source of photography information/discussion. They recently added a 'Beginners Questions' forum.

Brian

 

[woodbloke]

I use a little Pentax camera with a fairly large viewing screen at the back so I can see what the pic's going to look like. My 'shop is quite well lit (as those that have visited will testify) with plenty of natural daylight as well as lighting by double strip tubes. I tend now not to use any flash at all tho' the camera has a 'soft flash' setting (don't know how effective this is). I seem to have some trouble tho' in taking really close pics which sometimes are out of focus and at other times seem much better :? So, should the Macro setting be used or do I keep the camera on the normal Auto setting and then use the zoom to bring it closer? :?

Paul - SWIMBO bought a very posh Olympus SLR (entry level one) with a decent viewfinder for her trip to the wild and windy bits, so may well try that later on.....if I'm allowed :wink: .

Phill - a tripod is an excellent idea. I have a mini tripod which is good 'cos then I can mount the camera on it and stick it somewhere on the 'Tool Wall' and take pics using the self-timer.....bit difficult with a bigger camera and full sized tripod. Can you give us details of that natty fold down cube thingie that you showed me....I also thought that was a really good idea for shooting smaller stuff - Rob

 

[Harbo]

Rob I think that's too big a question to answer on this Forum and another slippery slope :lol:
I have been interested in Photography for about 50 years and still learning.
There's not only the problems with taking photos but what you do with them and how to manipulate the outcome with programmes like Photoshop etc - Colour Management is another slippery slope!
Your photos always seemed fine by me.
There are lots of books on the subject and perhaps best to start there?
If you want the flexibility then go down the SLR route - my choice would be a Canon 400D at about £400 - but SLR's are heavy and bulky.
My current main camera is a Canon 20D (2 yrs old and already extinct!) and a Canon IXUS 750 for portability (it has a view finder as well as a big screen).
Taking photos in RAW has the advantage of being a lossless format and can be used to great effect with the right software.
It goes on and on ............

Rod

 

[Paul Chapman]

I seem to have some trouble tho' in taking really close pics which sometimes are out of focus and at other times seem much better :?

This is one of the things I struggle with on mine. It's sometimes quite difficult using the screen to tell whether it's sharper on the normal or close-up setting. Then when you take the next set of photos and upload them on to the computer, you find that the switch was still set on close-up (because it looked OK on the screen and you'd forgotten to switch it back ) and all the pictures are out of focus :roll: You just don't have these problems with a good SLR. It doesn't matter how many mega-whatsits it has, if it isn't sharp, it isn't sharp

Yes, definitely a tripod is the single, most important accessory, preferably with a ball and socket head. I use a second hand, antique one (all brass and a superb leather case 8) 8) ) that I bought at a jumble sale for a couple of quid. I have a table tripod as well which can be very useful but you often can't find anything the right height to stand it on. One dodge you can do with a table tripod, if it has a ball and socket head, is to use it against your chest when taking hand-held shots. Using it like this, I found that I could get away with really slow shutter speeds and long lenses when I used to do a lot of available light stuff in the old days.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Harbo]

Sorry Rob I think our posts crossed - if you are talking about taking close ups of your goodies then Macro settings do not always work as they limit the "Depth of Field" (ie the depth of shot in focus). The aperture setting also effects this - wider the aperture the smaller depth of field. So the stronger the light, the smaller the aperture and greater the DoF. Moving away from the object and zooming in will help.
Speeds less than 1/30 will require some form of camera support though you can buy lenses with built in stabilizers.
The advice about tripods is good and auxiliary lighting to balance it out will help. The type of lighting will effect the colour temperature (tones etc) but this can generally be corrected with software.
The size of image is important depending what you are going to do with it. An 8 Megapixel will print out an A3 but for archive photographic standard a 16MP is required! If it's just for the web then much lower resolution is fine.

Rod

 

[RobertMP]

As said above it is a huge subject for a single forum thread.

I moderate on a photography forum which has people of all abilities sharing and learning how to improve their shots.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk

Lots of things come in to play with getting a good product shot many of which have been covered above.

Other things I'd mention

Focusing - a camera focuses by finding the best contrast. Have a contrast (edge maybe) near the middle of the shot and it will focus on it. Point it at a plain surface and it can't focus.

Metering - scene or evaluative modes that average the light for the whole picture may not expose your dark item properly. Use spot metering or centre weighted average if possible.

Plenty more I could say but that would be a whole other forum

 

[dickm]

I agree with the post about Fuji bridge cameras being pretty good (I've got a Finepix 7000, and it does most of what my dear old Pentax SLR did). BUT, it gets limiting if you are in a situation where the autofocus can't cope because of low light levels, or is fooled by something. Even with reasonable workshop lighting, mine sometimes struggles. It supposedly has manual focus, but it's pretty much impossible to use. So if you are into serious use, it's probably worth saving up for that true digital SLR.
And there is terrible age discrimination in the digital cameras that only have a screen. No way can an oldie like me see what's on the screen without glasses, and if I put the glasses on, I can't see what the subject is doing....

 

[TonyW]

A tip that has transformed my photography is this - use a tripod!!
Flash ruins the natural look of a photo so a tripod allows you to go "flash-less" without camera shake ruining the picture.
You can pick them up for about £15. Go for it - you'll never look back!
Philly

As an ex pro photographer I am with Philly on this 100%. A tripod is a must and gives you some time to think about and compose the shot - after all the majority you will take are unlikely to be fast moving objects. Another important thing when using a tripod (and assuming that the camera has the facility) is a cable release. Just sticking a camera on a tripod alone and pressing the shutter release by hand is not good - you are still likely to transmit shake!! If you cannot attach a release then try using the self timer - any shake should be minimised before the shutter trips

Natural light is also usually more effective and you can also supplement this with light reflectors to add a little more if required (plain white board or aluminium foil are very good)

Edit If you cannot get the look with natural light and if the object is small enough you may get the desired effect using a couple of portable anglepoise lights and either judicious use of white light balance or post correction in your photo editing package. For larger objects you may want to invest in proper photo lighting - just depends how keen you get and how deep the pockets

Learn to use the tools in your graphics editing program. It is truly amazing what can be accomplished in comparison to the old film technology.

Be aware that once you start you will be on the photography Slope just as steep and possibly even more expensive than the current slope you find yourself on

And don't forget to have some fun and keep on practising - after all with digital it is costing next to nothing to make (and learn by) mistakes

Cheers
Tony

 

[matt]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, however, learn about depth of field (for which you will need a camera that allows you to adjust speed or aperture (or both)). You will also need a tripod.

Oh, and get this software for free: ExifPro. The best I've come across (and I've tested quite a few) for managing your digital library.

 

[Keith Smith]

As has been mentioned depth of field is a big problem with close up photography especially in low light conditions.

My tip is to take the picture further back than you would normally, then crop the image when you edit it on the computer. The quality will still be more than adequate for use on the forum and simply put the depth of field increases the further the camera is away from the subject.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I concur.

1 Tripod (although I'd recommend spending a bit more than £15 to be honest. My Hama was about £35 IIRC and my Manfrotto was £250.

2 I disagree about the ball head. A 3-way head is better for stills, a fluid (ball) head is best for video.

3 Learn about White Balance - I was a bit slow on this one, and it makes a huge difference.

4 Yes I have a Stand-in Steve! He makes it much easier to set up my shots. He's just the same height as I am, although a little slimmer.

5 Cable release. Yes you can use a self-timer, but it's pain, all that hanging around for 10 seconds every time. I wouldn't be so bad but on my camera (Fuji S6000) I have to set the timer for every single shot. Life's too short. Brill camera in every other respect though (the 9600 is the current equivalent, I believe - well recommended).

Megapixels is not the only issue. Indeed these days it's probably not even the main issue. The pics I take for GW are 3mpx for the WIP shots and 6mpx for the features, and they print out fine at 300 dpi. You need a good lens and configurable white balance. The ability to annotate your shots as you take them (record a voice memo) is also useful, especially if you are photographing something a bit obscure or not quite obvious, or if you are taking lots of similar, but not identical shots, showing subtle differences.

My 2p.
S