next »

[Canuck]

Okay folks, I'd like to hear from you on the topic of camera models, prices, etc...in regards to taking still pics of our puzzles(pens! ).  I'd like to upgrade my camera but as you're all aware the choices are downright confusing.  Let's hear your input!
Here's a pic of both the set-up I use for both pens and puzzles and a pic of a pen using it!

[Peter Wiltshire]

I really won't be of too much help here , as most of my knowledge is with video and motion picture cameras, but if you need lighting tips I can help you out

[Johan Heyns]

Hi Boet

It's a question of budget.  What can you invest(spend is lost)on a camera and associated equipment?  What exactly do you want to photograph?  Once you've got that, then go for the thingamagic with the highest pixels and nicest features you can afford.  All my photos are taken with a point and shoot Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 which was what I could afford at the time.  5.1 megapixel, but you get the newer model now with more.  Unless you want to go the whole hog and invest a whole lot of money and buy a Cannon or Pentax superstabalized whatchamacallit and ^*&^()*& expensive lenses for every single type of photo.

Obviously you want to take close-ups, so a ringflash would be nice!

My bit of input for what its worth!

[Johan Heyns]

John, it is a flash like a ring that fits around the lens in order to be able to take serious closeups with a flash.  Thus it prevents the halfshadow that occur when the flash goes off. In fact, there are some ringflash plans on the web if you've a mind to make one.  It is rather expensive from what I understand and it is not necessarily availaable with all makes of cameras.   

More megapixels does give you the ability to take a photo from o little distance and then crop the part you want.  I wouldn't go less than 8 MP if I can afford it. 

Now that I think of it, go to Facebook and speak to Riaan van den Berg.  He's a photo nut and will give you all the dope you need. I think I introduced you to him on Facebook?

[Canuck]

Peter, what are your thoughts on improving my pic from the example in the first post, from a lighting perspective?

[Peter Wiltshire]

Hi John,

When I first saw this post your photos didn't pop up    But now I see them.  In regards to how to improve your photography in the above setup I can make two suggestions.  First thing is you need more horse power in your lighting fixtures.   Although they are working, they are just barely providing enough light to get a decent depth of field.  Notice the top of your pen near the clip your camera and depth of field is struggling to keep this area sharp.  If you don't have access to larger lighting fixtures then you can always use the sun.  Just take your photo tent outside, or set it up near a window with hard sunlight.  Make sure the direct sun doesn't hit the object your shooting but lights up one wall of your tent. Of course this does mean on overcast days you will still need some larger light fixtures.

The second suggestion would be to position your larger light fixtures so that they light the entire side of you photo tent.  If you notice your small fixtures are lighting a little round spot on either side of the tent.  This works but is causing a very faint shadow under your pen,  With the full wall of the tent being lit you will have a larger light surface area which will minimize the shadows even more.  So the smaller the light area on the tent the harder the shadow, the larger the light area the softer the shadow.  Now you can use this to your advantage, when there are times that you want to bring out depth in an object you might want extra shadow, so your could only light a small portion of the wall, and vice versa.

Hope some of this helps Lighting like puzzle making is an art, and there is never one specific way to do it, some of the most beautiful lighting I have ever done is by breaking all the lighting rules that I have learned 

[Canuck]

Thanks for all that Peter!!  When I first started using this set-up, I thought maybe larger lights would be better but continued on and never did think about the lighting again   I've got a couple of quartz halogen shop lights that I'll give a go and take it from there...

[Canuck]

Here's a couple more pics of the same pen, what are you're thoughts Peter?
First pic is with the standard lighting and secon is with my shop quartz halogen spotlights...

[Peter Wiltshire]

O.k. John  Are you testing me?  Or did you accidentally load the same image twice?  Even in a locked off camera position the highlight in the pen would change slightly, but your two photos are identical even down to file size...interesting

[Canuck]

Nope not trying to 'test' you...those two pics have vastly different lighting set-ups, unfortunately I had to downsize the file to be able to post as the limit is 256kb!
Have a look at this one, taken outside in natural sunlight, I really like the exposure of it but of course it's not practical most of the time here in 'Halifax'
I'm starting to think the photo tent I'm using is way too large for such small items such as pens, maybe I'll have to make a custom tent set-up...

[Canuck]

Okay here's those two that you didn't think were different, I posted them larger so you can get a better look at them!

[Peter Wiltshire]

Hello John,  O.k. these photos are definitely different, you may want to check your other double photo post, I believe you posted the normal lighting setup twice.  I notice the photo's are label differently but check the shadow falling from the leather case it's identical in both shots, but in these photo's it's dramatically different.

It's interesting to note that the horsepower photo has harder shadows?  I honestly like the softer look of you regular lighting, maybe the smaller lighting is enough to carry the depth of field of the pens.  I do notice though that in both shots the camera has placed the focus just slightly behind the pen.  If you look at the rear side of the leather case it appears sharper than the pen itself.  If your using an auto focus system your camera maybe having trouble focusing on the pen because it is such a small object, you may get better results by focusing manually if your camera allows you to.

Although your sun photo is an excellent example of what I was talking about when it comes to horsepower.  Ignoring the way the lighting falls on your pen and take a look at the overall sharpness of the sun photo.  It is much sharper than your other two lighting setups.  The pen appears nice and defined and everything has good detail.  You can also get a good idea on how much larger your depth of field is by looking at the pattern in your fabric background.  The sun photo has a larger area that is defined by the little ridges in the fabric.

These are all great examples of three different lighting setups producing three different results, it almost comes down to what your personal preference is.  My favorite is the sun photo because of the extra detail, but I would experiment with the direction the sun hit your tent to see if I could get the color and wood grain in the pen to pop out like in your other lighting setups.  I think then your would have the best of all worlds.

In regards to the size of your tent, I really don't think it's too big.  You could try experimenting with blacking the back half of the tent off to make for a smaller light area, but I have often found that the larger the area the more pleasing and softer the light.  For shooting faces I have created 4 foot by 4 foot frames of diffusion material and punched light through them.  I often place the frame only a few feet from the face, and it produces a beautiful quality of light.

What your doing is working well, but through experimentation I am sure you will be able to push your cameras limits to produce better photos.

[Canuck]

Hey, thanks for all that Peter!  You're going to have to charge me a fee for all the 'professional advice'   It really helps to understand what I'm looking for in a pic, sometimes hard to put in words.  I knew right away that the natural sunlight was a superior pic, and yet was the easiest to get, go figure!  Can't beat mother nature I guess!  I think I'll post the 'natural sunlight pic' on the 'pen forum' and see what the 'critics' say, should be interesting   Thanks again buddy!

[Peter Wiltshire]

Glad I'm able to help.  The sun light picture does have a lot more detail, and I think you may be able to bring out more grain and color in the pen by having the sun hit the tent a little more to the front.  You could try turning the tent so that the hard shadow from the sun hitting the front wall of the tent falls just out of the bottom of the frame.  In other words letting the sun wrap around to the front, but not letting any hard sun light actually fall on the pen or in the frame.  I think this will cause the color and grain to pop out more.  I also wonder if trying a different material under the pen (like silk) and allowing it to have small rolls instead of laying flat might make for a neat background.  That's the fun of photography,  all the experimenting!!!