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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
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    Mareeba Far Nth Qld
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    Default Photographing woodwork.

    A professional photographer saw some of my earlier woodwork photos and had a coronary. I had "props" in the photo to make them look good. Apparantly this detracts from the subject and needs a "nothing" background. He showed me how to set up a "studio". It consisted of two sheets of ply and a sheet of black card. The photo below shows how I set it up. He recommended setting up on the verandah with as bright a day as possible. When this photo was taken I was still using a SLR camera at 1/30th second with a shutter release cable. My recent photos use the same set up but with a digital camera. He went on to explain the use of filters and artificial lighting, but I am a woodworker not a photographer. The second photo was taken with the same setup but with the digital. I am not a pro photographer, maybe some more proficient photographers can fill us in on filters, lights etc.
    Jim
    Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important...

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Parkside - South Australia
    Age
    45
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    3,316

    Default

    Very good point Jim. Too often is a great item ruined by a bad photo. If the viewer doesn't get to handle the item in person then the photo needs to show the piece in the best light, otherwise all the hard work is in vain.

    I use a similar technique, a white length on material purchased from spotlight for a few dollars. This is draped so it hangs down and then spreads out in front. The item is placed in the middle and illuminated with three desk lamps. I also have black but there is too much texture in the cloth and the camera picks up the detail, I need another.

    The camera I use is an old 2mp Canon digital which I purchased for a huge price 6 or so years ago, still works a treat. I use a tripod where possible to reduce movement and the timer function also assists in this. I take 5-6 photos with lights in different positions and then crop and sometimes touch up with photoshop.

    The total cost was the material from spotlight, and the lights which are used throughout the house. Daylight also works but this time of year I don't get to see much natural light

    Here is one from yesterday as part of the mystery pen blank thread:


    Ohh I forgot to add ..... I use the "props" for the pens as it elevates them slightly and adds depth, if it were a larger item such as a box it would be by itself.
    Now proudly sponsored by Binford Tools. Be sure to check out the Binford 6100 - available now at any good tool retailer.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Victoria
    Posts
    5,215

    Default

    Great stuff Jim (and Stinky ) your bowl (and pens) looks fantastic and great tip. Its always been a curse of mine. You spend so long creating your aledged masterpeice and all thats left when its gone is crappy photos. It would be great if others could share their tips on taking 'woodwork" pics with both SLR and Digital. That last Sassafrass cab i done had masonite as a background with those cheap halogen lights from bunnies and a cloth over them to diffuse the light (nearly went up in flames:eek: ) but it turned out ok (great for my standards)

  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Pakenham, outer Melb SE suburb, Vic
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    54
    Posts
    4,158

    Default

    Er, Stinky, didja find that prop behind a bin at a certain secondhand shop...


    Cheers....................Sean


    The beatings will continue until morale improves.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Oberon, NSW
    Age
    63
    Posts
    13,354

    Default

    If my 20yo SLR was digital, instead of film, then I'd be more than happy to take my time creating photographic masterpieces.

    Instead, alas, I have to use a $^&*# bloody digital beast that refuses point-blank to give me any manual control and takes half-an-hour and several hundred keypresses to switch to macro mode. Paid an arm 'na leg for it and I hate the bloody thing with a passion. :mad:

    Be thankful ya get to see any pix from me at all...
    I may be weird, but I'm saving up to become eccentric.

    - Andy Mc

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Melbourne, Victoria
    Posts
    5,513

    Default

    That's why I love my little beastie, and my macro lens


    (although I nicked this photo from the web!)
    "Clear, Ease Springs"
    www.Stu's Shed.com


  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Stratford, New Zealand
    Age
    61
    Posts
    734

    Default

    If you got a spare 1/2 an hour and want to learn a bit of DIY studio photography try this page.

    http://www.dansdata.com/phototute.htm

    Goes into the hows and whys of lighting, using some 500w workshop floods directed off the ceiling to get that nice bright diffuse lighting.
    Dan photographs computer gadgets for his web page, but the theory works the same for woodwork projects as well.

    A cool camera will help, but it only records what it sees, so setting up the 'stage' and lighting is important no matter what camera you have. Even a cheapo digital will take much better pictures if it's on a tripod pointing at a well light and staged subject.

    Cheers

    Ian

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Pambula
    Age
    58
    Posts
    12,779

    Default

    The current issue of Australian Woodworker has an article on building a mini-studio and photographing small items like these.
    "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    27,756

    Default

    My studio consists of a number of 1 x 1 m pieces of fabric (fake velvet, canvas, calico and even an old blanket) that SWMBO bought from spotlight as offcuts, and the kitchen table. I usually make a backing screen from whatever's handy eg cardboard boxes or my laptop and then drape the velvet on the table and across the backing.

    Although I am fortunate to have a sweet canon digital SLR (with lotsa noice manual controls) and a pro tripod, etc, photography has been a 30+ year passion/interest, including teaching, so I do not normally need all of this to take a reasonable photo. The one thing us older codgers have to get into the swing of, is to take a lot of photos and then pick the best ones. In the days of film this was expensive but we have no excuse with digital.

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Bundanoon, Southern Highlands
    Posts
    1,058

    Default Image Editing

    Hi
    If you are looking for a great imaging editing software package, try
    http://www.irfanview.com/ the good thing about it is it is free to download. I use it extensively to resize images for my web page. There are other programmes that are better at using filters and cropping, but this is great for re-sizing.
    Tony Ward
    Now a power carver and living the dream.

  12. #11
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Eden Hills, South Australia
    Age
    62
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    3,458

    Default

    I use an old roll from a window blind (neutral beige colour), and cut off a 600mm wide strip, leaving about a 2000mm strip (the original was quite wide). I use whichever of these is appropriate as the backdrop, depending on the size of the project, draped over a piece of ply held upright with a handscrew. I use a basic digital camera, sometimes macro mode, preferably with sunlight coming through the shed skylights. Tripod and delayed shutter to minimise camera shake. The only thing that bugs me about the basic camera I have is its lack of manual exposure control, but the convenience of digital overrides this. I feed the camera straight into iPhoto, which is great for cropping, basic 'enhancement', and saving at whatever size is needed. I use SmallImage to compress further for posting to the forum.
    Those are my principles, and if you don't like them . . . well, I have others.

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    431

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by stuart_lees
    That's why I love my little beastie, and my macro lens
    (although I nicked this photo from the web!)
    Pardon my ignorance, but is a "macro lens" wot used to be called a "wide angle lens" or are they two different animals?


    For everyone:
    Here is a link to a site that has some useful tips on lighting and photographing small objects including the construction of a Macro Studio.
    I wanted to become a brickie but my old man said "No son, learn a trade."

  14. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Adelaide
    Posts
    1,024

    Default

    Macro lens is a lens that allows close focussing. With the lens alone, you can get images on the film plane at 1:1 or 1:2 - ie lifesize on the negative. This allows large enlargements with extraordinary detail.

    Downside is: extraordinary shallow depth of field at high magnification.

    There's a fancy canon macro zoom that does up to 5x magnification, but it also costs more than most cameras...

    http://www.canon.com.au/products/cam...pe65mm15x.html

    woodbe.

  15. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Adelaide
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    1,024

    Default

    Oh, and the difference between a wide angle and macro lens...

    Wide angle lenses are just that - anything from a 35mm lens on a 35mm format camera at 54 degrees angle of view, and a 15mm fisheye at 180 degrees on the same format. A canon 35mm lens has a maximum magnification of 0.18

    Macro lenses are usually between 50 and 200mm focal length. This gives them flat planes of focus which is important given the shallow depth of field at high magnification. A canon 180mm Macro has a maximum magnification of 1, and an angle of view of about 11 degrees.

    woodbe.

  16. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    431

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by woodbe
    Oh, and the difference between a wide angle and macro lens...

    Wide angle lenses are just that - anything from a 35mm lens on a 35mm format camera at 54 degrees angle of view, and a fisheye at 180 degrees on the same format. A canon 35mm lens has a maximum magnification of 0.18

    Macro lenses are usually between 50 and 200mm focal length. This gives them flat planes of focus which is important given the shallow depth of fiels at high magnification. A canon 180mm Macro has a maximum magnification of 1, and an angle of view of about 11 degrees.

    woodbe.
    Many thanks for that explanation, woodbe. I'll squirrel it away for the future.
    I wanted to become a brickie but my old man said "No son, learn a trade."

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