[How do I?] Taking Good Photos of Projects....

HMF

HMF

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We have asked people to show us their projects, but....there is a problem...how to take good, instructive photos of the projects.

So my question is, how do you guys take good, clear photos of your projects, i.e., what you make?

Thanks!


:tiphat:Nelson
 
Since many machined parts have shiny surfaces I turn off the flash and try to place the part somewhere there will be no glare from the lighting. Many times the parts are placed on the seat of my bench chair so I can roll or spin it to get a good shot.
 
OldMachinist said:
Since many machined parts have shiny surfaces I turn off the flash and try to place the part somewhere there will be no glare from the lighting. Many times the parts are placed on the seat of my bench chair so I can roll or spin it to get a good shot.
Click to expand...

If you shut the flash though, don't you need light to maintain clarity?

:worthless:



:tiphat:Nelson
 
I do the same thing. The light from the flash is normal to the surface and tends to wash out all the features. If you use a work light and arrange it to shine at an oblique angle you will pick up the features.

Some times the work light gives an overly warm cast. If so I correct it in Photoshop.
I shoot at full resolution so every picture I take goes into photoshop where it is, croped, reduced to 800 by 600 (more or less), color corrected and, if necessary I play with the lighting at that point.

You also need a camera with a good Macro function.
 
I actually do use flash, but am using external flash that is aimed at the ceiling/walls and not directly at the project itself, this bounces the light on the white walls and illuminates the entire room/area for the photo and does not reflect off of the metal surfaces of the project directly.
 
Large aperture, slow shutter, no flash and a tripod. Or macro mode with good indirect lighting. All depends on hoe much detail is wanted. In general, direct flash is undesirable for any highly reflective or brightly colored objects.
 
Nelson said:
We have asked people to show us their projects, but....there is a problem...how to take good, instructive photos of the projects.

So my question is, how do you guys take good, clear photos of your projects, i.e., what you make?

Thanks!

I rarely post but here goes. I have attached three photos of a center finder I made a couple of nights ago. These were taken with available light. The camera is an old Mavica F93 using floppy disks. Although I have new cameras I use this for jpegs. It focuses as close as 1 inch and though the resolution is is only about 1.5 megs the photos are suitable for web use. Focusing should be done with a magnifier. Often I just move back farther and use telephoto. Photos can be vastly improved with most any photo editing software. Please notice that I used a mechanical drawing as a backdrop. This is to give the illusion I know something about machining. Remember to believe nothing what you hear and be suspect of what you see. :>)

Regards, Les

MVC-060L.JPG MVC-061L.JPG MVC-063L.JPG
Click to expand...
 
I agree - NO FLASH. Unless handled with skill I certainly don't have, flash destroys the dimensionality and life of photos. Flash reflections? Fuggetaboudit.

I use a tripod and as slow an exposure and as small an aperture as I think I can get away with to get the best depth of field. I hardly ever crop a photo - I try to do that when setting up the shot, so I don't lose resolution. And, I jockey camera and lights around to achieve a bit better definition, highlights, shadows, etc. I never adjust anything in Photoshop except cropping for size, compressing appropriately. I just don't have time or energy to do much else, and I haven't suffered the learning curve to handle it anyway. I keep my camera set to bracket 2/3 F-stop up and down, so each shot has three exposure choices, and I do every shot with the self-timer to avoid shake. I fire rapidly and often, so for each project I'll have lots of photos to look at.

Over the years I've taken probably 100,000 shots of my work, and I've gotten really fast with setups, so I'm not wasting time.

Here's an important secret I learned decades ago when I first started writing magazine articles: Whenever possible, get your hand in the photo. It immediately gives a sense of life and scale to the picture. Now, I try not to do that if I want a "studio" or "product" shot. For anything on my Web site, blog, and other articles, my hand gets in there. My first editor made it quite clear, "Show your hands in the photo. No hands, we no print photo, is that plain enough?" With guitar repair, it's always easy to shoot that way, but machines are a different deal for obvious reasons, so hands don't show as often.

I have one camera mounted above the lathe on a Manfrotto Magic Arm (like the Noga style indicator arm), and another that lives on the tripod full time. When I get a new camera, I toss the lens cap and replace it with a clear UV filter for protection. You can't even take a BAD photo with the cap on, you know. (Learned that from a press photog.) I'm always ready to shoot - neither camera leaves the shop for long!
 
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