Photography Thread

Anything else you'd like to know in the meantime?

Yes. Can you come over and take some pics of my helmets for me? :lol:

Seriously, all this info is tremendously appreciated. I have downloaded a digital
version of my camera's manual. Much more convenient to have it on my laptop than
go digging for the camera box in the closet every time I want to know how to do something!
 
Do we get college credit for reading this lol? This is like taking a free photo class, it's awesome.
 
This is going to be a great thread. Thanks to deathproof for doing it. I know almost nothing about taking pics so I will find all this information very useful. Now I just have to get a real camera, any suggestions for a complete noob?

The type of camera you get all depends on what you aim to get out of it. What do you want to do with it (aside from the obvious of taking pictures). Do you want it to be easy to travel with? Do you want interchangeable lenses? Do you want to be able to blow up prints really big? Do you want to be able to shoot in lower light? ...

The more questions you ask yourself, the better of a filter you start creating for what type of camera would suit you best. ....all of this of course has to fit within whatever budget you create for yourself.

Brand has nothing to do with it, but I'm a Nikon guy. My father was a Nikon guy, and because of the 'passing of gear' I became one as well. But I'd rather stay clear of the Canon Vs. Nikon debate because really...they both do well. I also personally prefer the Nikon menu systems to the Canon cameras. That's another thing - it may seem a bit trivial at first, but a camera really has to fit right in your hands. The hobbyist/amateur cameras are made of a cheaper material to keep the cost down, and thus weigh less. I need a heavier camera - I find it steadies my hands.

So, saying that, if you're just starting off, take a look at the Canon or Nikon websites. The Nikon lines are divided up as follows:

Nikon-DSLR-camera-lineup-after-the-DF.jpg


Check out the D3200 (should be updated to D3300 soon) or D5300. These are entry level cameras that sport good video and megapixels. They feel very small in the hands, but can use different lenses. When it comes to these 'consumer' cameras, there are limitations like I mentioned in the first post. The limitations for these more affordable cameras compared to professional or advanced cameras is that they typically have less features. You need to go into the menu to change your ISO, you only have one dial, and have to push/hold a button first before changing Aperture or Shutter and generally aren't very good in low light situations without a flash. Go into your local camera dealer, talk up the representative and ask to hold these cameras and play around with them before you make ANY purchases.

Hope this helps :)


Yes. Can you come over and take some pics of my helmets for me? :lol:

Seriously, all this info is tremendously appreciated. I have downloaded a digital
version of my camera's manual. Much more convenient to have it on my laptop than
go digging for the camera box in the closet every time I want to know how to do something!

Good idea!!

Do we get college credit for reading this lol? This is like taking a free photo class, it's awesome.

Glad you like it, man!!!


***

I think before the 'studio shoot' of Dakota's pieces, I'll do a quick lesson on colour temperature. Lots of us photograph our items in door, and then do a comparison shot outside and notice a huge difference. I'll touch on why :)
 
Great lessons Deathproof! You hit on the most important lesson, Manual setting is your friend! Learn it!

I've been practicinging photography in one way or another for coming close to twenty years. I'm currently shooting digital with a Nikon D3200. I currently only have one lens for it, due to a home burguraly a few years back that saw all my digital camera equipment stolen (it was out on a table after a shoot), along with a big screen tv, xbox, and assorted other things. Due not having renters insurance at the time (I own now) I ended up replacing the stolen Canon with the D3200. It gets an awful rap because of it's megapixels (24.2) not really living up to their potential, but is a solid camera, although a little quirky. I've done portrait work, landscape, street, promotional, and all other kinds of photography with it.

And I noticed you talk about making sure it fits your hand, THAT is actually pretty important. When I hold the D3200 in my pinkie finger curls under the base (haven't got an external battery grip for it), but it isn't to the point that I have real issues with it.

Due to being old and learning to shoot so long ago, I actually prefer shoot mostly with film and have a large collection of "vintage" cameras (including some Kodak Brownies that I had to mod slighly to take 120 film). I still think I shoot better with film than I do digitally! My go-to is an Olympus OM-1 that is a brick but I wouldn't trade for near anything! Love hearing the heavy *CLUNK* of the shutter! Still working on getting a small darkroom made up to develop. Sending stuff out for developing is getting more and more expensive.

But, enough rambling. This is a great resource. Looking forward to more installments!
 
Thanks for the kudos, Blue Milk Run!

I personally learned on film, and as a teacher, I think it's the best way. You are physically able to change your shutter and aperture via the knobs and understand what they actually do. It's a lot simpler and straight forward. It also forces you to take notes on your exposures to check your contact sheets after you develop, and lessens the 'spray and pray' method (hoping to get it right).

Saying that...

Nikon JUST release (like...seriously...November 5th)...a new camera called the Nikon Df. It's the body of a Nikon F camera (film), but it shoots digital (has the sensor of the Nikon D4). While it's a cool idea to have a retro style camera (doesn't shoot video either), the price point for it is ridiculous - $2700. My guess is that the novelty will wear off and this camera will come down in price fast. So keep an eye out for awesome discounts on what's sure to be a fun camera to travel with :)
 
Wow.. thank you so much for writing this. My wife has purchased a very expensive DSLR and isn't happy with the shots she has been getting form it. I am going to bring her here to review this thread. I am also going to read it a few times to understand it myself.
(y)
 
Wow.. thank you so much for writing this. My wife has purchased a very expensive DSLR and isn't happy with the shots she has been getting form it. I am going to bring her here to review this thread. I am also going to read it a few times to understand it myself.
(y)

Please also post what her issues are and samples of what she wants to improve as it's the best way for me to help! What camera does she have?
 
Love this thread DP! Great info, readable and thought out. I'll be posting some questions here in the future as I love to tinker with my Canon Rebel, also boo Nikon :)
 
Lesson 4 :: White Balance (Colour Temperature)

Untitled4.png


At it's simplest, adjusting your white balance gets you the most natural/accurate colours possible.

You may have noticed that when taking photos inside or outside, the colour represented in your photo isn't what you are seeing at the time of the exposure. When we take photos indoors, we are often confronted with darker areas, and thus need to turn on lights to allow more light. These lights are tungsten lights and usually end up causing our pictures to be a bit more yellow/orange than we would like. On the opposite end, when taking picture outside, daylight can make our pictures more blue than we would like. Fluorescents are the devil, and were very hard to compensate for as they cast a horrid green light that we can now adjust for ;) Let's take a look a scale of light in Kelvins to understand this better:

Untitled.png


I won't go too much into this scale, because white balance, as it is, can be a pretty 'stand-offish' topic. But when discussing colour temperature, we say that a photo is either warm or cool depending on the lighting.

So what is happening when what you are photographing is a different colour from what your eye is seeing? Generally, we don't see the difference in this temperature range because our eyes can automatically adjust for it. So unless the colour temperature difference was very extreme, a white sheet of paper will always look white to us. So, because cameras have computers that can't think for themselves, we sometimes have to tell the camera what kind of light we are in to make the proper adjustments to get the natural/accurate colour that we are seeing.

Untitled3.png

A warm photograph adjusted to accurate colouring by changing the white balance

Adjusting White Balance

If you are doing event work, and moving inside and outside every so often, it's a good idea to change your white balance every time your colour temperature changes. The old school way (and most accurate) is to do a white/gray card setting. To do this, you would take a sheet of white paper (or naturally white material), hold it in front of your camera (filling the entire frame/viewfinder), and manually set the white balance (see your manual for how to do this). This can be very tedious for people moving quickly (because the temperature is always changing), but beneficial if you're staying in one room.

There are some shortcuts thought! Yay presets! Depending on your camera (again), the terminology for this differs, as well as the pretty icons.

Untitled1.png


Admittedly, unless the lighting in the area is completely crazy I tend to keep my camera on AUTO white balance. The reason for this is that with my work, I change locations so much that changing the white balance would drive me nuts.

Things to watch out for

You will get the biggest headaches from rooms that have large windows if you are photographing with tungsten lights on. This is problematic because you are mixing blue daylight with warm tungsten lights - this is very hard to correct/meter for, and without post processing, will not be balanced completely.

Post Processing

Depending on interest, I can go into post processing at a later date, but adjusting colour temperature has gotten a lot easier in post processing, and almost eliminates the need for while balancing - but let's not be lazy!!! Having correct exposure and colour in camera saves lots of time later on.

More examples of colour temperature correction:

Interior (Tungsten Light)

whitebalance.jpg



Exterior (Daylight)

wb_sardmen-incorrect.jpg

Tungsten preset


wb_sardmen-correct.jpg

Daylight preset


I hope this helps in getting better colours out of your photos!!! In post processing, you can change not just the colour temp, but the overall tonality (green, magenta, cyan, etc.) as well.
 
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also boo Nikon :)

Pffft ;)

The Canons seriously don't fit in my hands right...and their menu systems aren't as straight forward. When I hold my Nikon, it's very intuitive to what I want to do. I don't even have to take my eye off the viewfinder most of the time. I also find the Nikon glass to be sharper, but that's getting really picky. The business of Nikon isn't doing so well though. Their stocks are falling - I don't think they are listening to what their customer needs are.
 
Whew! Finally have some time to play with my camera. :)
This is my first batch of tests. I decided to play with the shutter speed and
see what happened. Nothing exploded, so I guess that's a good thing!

My PP2 helmet kindly volunteered for these tests. This first pic is with the camera
set on AUTO with no flash.

Autonoflash_zps7ca0897d.jpg


This is AUTO with flash.

Autoflash_zps4dc1d9d8.jpg


I began with a 1/2 second shutter speed, and the pic came out very dark.

Shutterone-halfsecond_zpsefc9ecf9.jpg


I won't bore you with all the intermediate shots, but I took a series of pics with the shutter
set at 1 second, 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 8 seconds, and 13 seconds. The steps between shutter
speeds are preset and there was no 12 second setting. The pics began to get increasingly brighter,
and I feel like the 8 second shutter speed gave the best representation of the colors.

Shuttereightsec_zps1b715440.jpg


I should add that all of these pics were taken with a tripod set up 10 feet from the helmet. Didn't
really plan it that way, but that was the distance.

So, I've learned that opening the shutter for a longer period of time can almost get me the same look
as the camera's AUTO setting with flash, but without much of the harshness of a flash shot.
At full resolution, the 8 second shot is a bit fuzzier than the AUTO setting. But I hope to keep learning more
as I experiment. :)
 
Great set of pics, and it's awesome that you're seeing how settings affect the end product.

You should try to get as much space between the back of the helmet and that wall as you can. That way, there will be no shadows from the helmet on your background, and it will result in more pleasing pictures.

Also, what aperture are you shooting with?

And lastly, DAM is that a sweet helmet!!
 
Rubio, as I said in the beginning of the thread, I've pretty much always used my
camera on the AUTO setting. So this is really the first time I'm getting into things
like aperture and shutter speed and flux capacitors. :p

Thanks for the tip about shadows on the background. I'll keep that in mind.

As far as aperture goes. . . no idea. LOL. My camera has one dial position to
set shutter speed and another to set the aperture, and I just played with the shutter speed today.
I know there's a custom position as well where you can set everything manually, but I'm a
photo noob so I'm just trying to take it one step at a time.

And lastly, thanks! That's my GMH with Mojo/Keegan's metal ears painted up as PP2.

To anyone, the main thing I'd like to learn is how to get more color subtlety out of my
pictures. The auto setting does a fairly good job overall, but with the misting/overspray/
weathering that go into these paintjobs, I want the camera to capture more of that.
More experiments as I have time. :)
 
Rock on, brother! Keep posting up pics.

It'll be good practice, plus the better you get, the luckier we all will be getting to look at that eye candy!!
 
Nice stuff, SJ!

Couple of things :

I agree with Rubio - Definitely create distance between the subject and the background. this will eliminate shadow and also start to create a blurred background. to bring out the subject.

I'm curious as to why the shutter needed to be so low. How dark was the room?

Set your ISO to a higher number if you are working indoors.
Good that your camera was on a tripod.
The reason why your photos started to get soft, is because your aperture started to get what's called, "diffraction." The aperture is so small that the light spreads out too much, softening the image. My guess is that because your shutter was so low (1/2 second is an eternity :)) that your aperture was probably at its max.

All lenses have sweet spots. When working in photojournalism, because you rarely have a chance to set your settings, the saying goes, "F8 and you're great." Because F8 is an aperture level that has a decent amount of depth of field, you eliminate the chance of getting a blurry photo. Generally, the higher you go, the more risk you have of diffraction.

The image also may be soft depending on what you are focusing on. If you are auto focusing, and it's a dark room, your camera will not be able to focus as well. Make sure that the camera is focused in the centre.

So, to fix this:

1. You need to let more light in. If working indoors, try to have a shutter around 1/80 - 1/250.
2. Take note of your settings - this is the only way you will know the difference. When working in film, I wrote down everything on a notepad, and then compared my notes to the negatives afterward. You should be able to look at all the data on your screen.
3. Open your aperture to reduce diffraction


Your camera (Canon SX 50HS) has an ISO range of 6400 (how clean that is, I don't know). To change the ISO, check pg. 117 of your manual
To change your aperture in Manual mode, check out Pg. 152 of the manual.

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300008700/01/pssx50hs-cug-en.pdf

It seems to me, that it may be best if you try out Aperture Priority mode FIRST before manual - only because this is not a DSLR camera, and your camera functions are limited. It will be a few less headaches than diving into manual - only because you have a lot more buttons to push just to change a simple setting (as I mentioned before, cameras have these limitations). Aperture priority will let you set your desired aperture, and the camera selects the shutter. This will be fine since you are on a tripod. Just make sure you have enough light to work with!!!

Hope this helps!
 
Hey Everyone!!!

So this last weekend I had the opportunity to photograph a few of Dakota's stellar machined aluminum pieces from MachineCraft Replicas.

I'm currently showing him a few samples before posting here, but in the meantime, I thought I would show you the setup!

tabletop-12.jpg


As far as setups go, it was very basic.

1. Basic lightbox
2. Off camera flash with cable
3. DSLR
4. Macro lens
5. Solid surface
6. Daylight
7. Tripod



I got some photo assistants to help me prep :)

tabletop-7.jpg


tabletop-8.jpg




The tripod is necessary with any tabletop work. If you are looking to keep all of your images the same light and exposure, it's very easy to just change the position of the subject rather than move the camera every single shot. This also keeps things waaaay more consistent.

tabletop-11.jpg



The off camera flash is connected to the camera via a cable so that I can have it off center (wherever I choose, actually). In this case, the off camera flash is placed on the left side of the lightbox, so that it balances perfectly with the daylight coming in on the right side of the lightbox.

tabletop-9.jpg



Raised from the flash is a bounce card. This is used because without it, the light would go straight up. The bounce card 'bounces' the light in the direction of the lightbox.

tabletop-10.jpg



A lightbox diffuses all light entering it, making it way less harsh (much softer), so that it gently illuminates whatever is in it. The box that I have is good for SMALL props. You would need a much larger lightbox if you were to photograph a helmet or other medium-large sized prop.


Pound it ESB Boba. Pound it.

tabletop-13.jpg
 
Nice!!!!

I wish I had a reflective white base. The cloth really shows by the feet. Nice pose too! I was looking all over the place for the EE3 for this figure...couldn't find it.
 
Cool setup! A while back I had considered looking for a light box to use to shoot
my finished helmets, as well as some sci-fi model kits I've built. I may look into
that again.

Do you more experienced photographers recommend a pure white background?
Is that the best way to isolate/highlight the item being shot? Or is a light/neutral
color background OK?
 
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