Thread: pen photos

Terry, I know that a good camera that allows you to take close ups is a must, I think they call it "macro", Good lighting on a plain background or contrasting background, sometimes sunlight is the best. Some pens seem to defy the camera ( or camera operator), no matter what you seem to do ,the actual beauty of the pen doesn't come through as you would like it. I'm sure some others with more expertise or experience will give us all some good hints, Amos

Does your camera have a macro setting? It's a flower shaped symbol.

I use the highest Pixel setting and take the picture from about a 300mm to 500mm away. I then crop the photo using what ever editing progam you have.

The macro setting allows the camera to focus properly at a close distance. In a normal mode a camera cannot not focus up close therfore you end up with a blurry photo.

If you don't have a macro setting, take the picture from a further distance and then crop. You will need to play around with different distances to find the best distance for your camera.

Oh and natural light is normally best.

Otherwise set up two lights from each side with a fine cloth to diffused the light.

Just reading this post and realised I never knew until now that my el cheapo HP camera had a "macro" setting.
Just tried it and the results are 100% on what I have been getting.
I suppose had I read the instructions I may have found out sooner, but who reads instructions.

Macca

Read the instructions???? That's a code violation.

Nice pens by the way.

Originally Posted by djstimber

I use the highest Pixel setting and take the picture from about a 300mm to 500mm away. I then crop the photo using what ever editing progam you have.

I don't have a macro, but instead do as DJ has suggested. I do have an optical zoom however and use that. Natural light is better for sure in my opinion, unless you have a mini studio set up. A cloudy day is usually best to limit shadows, but sometimes I like that sparkle you can only get with bright sunlight.

Cheers

Thanks Guys,
The camera is a kodak dx7630 and have found the macro button,I suppose I did not know what macro did.
The camera dose not come with a user manual,you have to go to kodak web site to download the manual or read it online.
Terry

Will post another pic to see how it goes.

You guys are going to get sick of me asking questions.last one.
Checking through the menu on this camera,should the compression be set at standard or fine,not sure what that means,but the camera gives you the option.
Terry

Well done Terry . We will make a photographer out of ya yet. That photo is nice and crisp. You seem to have got the hang of it pretty quick.

As for the compression, I am not to sure on this one :confused: but I would leave it at standard. I think :confused: it compresses the size of the file as to not take up to much space on the drive.

Might have to break a code and look up the manual :eek: .

G'day Terry

When you are posting photos to a website, the idea is to keep them small in terms of the number of data "bytes" they contain - the official size limit for this forum is 100 kilobytes. If your camera is set to take high resolution photos, they will contain more data and be electronically large. So for posting, it's best to take photos at low resolution (usually 72 pixels per inch). But this means that the photos have to be as good as you can make them, because you don't have much to work with. So photos should be as sharp as you can get them, and the image should be restricted to the pen alone, if possible, or at least to the pen and a simple, non-obtrusive stand, with minimal background.

The idea is not to give the camera too much detail to try and cope with. Most basic cameras - film or digital -are designed to average out their light measurements and focussing distances over the whole image, so background extras just confuse the issue. For this reason, the best background is not something white, or of high contrast to the object being photographed. The professionals use material or paper which is a light matte grey - 13% grey to be precise - as a backdrop, because this colour is seen as neutral by the camera, and it will concentrate on adjusting to the best colour range for the subject - your pen.

As to how close you get to the subject - this depends on the type and quality of your camera's lens. Again, most basic cameras are designed to capture images at an average distance - the sort of distance you would stand from a group of people gathered for a "happy snap". They are not really designed to take true close-up photos, and even if they have a "macro" button, this may simply activate a software-based adjustment to the image, rather than bring a different lens arrangement into play. A true macro lens is quite an expensive piece of kit.

So I guess the best advice is to experiment with your camera to find the best distance from your subject which will confine the image to the subject, while giving as sharp and as detailed a photo as possible. Of course, lighting is pretty important, but neither full daylight or flash are likely to give you the optimum result - the former will probably be too strong for such a small subject as a pen; and the latter will tend to "wash out" the colours of your pen. As someone has suggested above, two floodlamps shining from about 45 degrees on each side onto the subject, with something in front of the lamps to diffuse the light and minimize shadows, will give you suitable light for idoors without need of a flash. Again, you have to experiment with the placement of the lamps to arrive at the best light level for your camera. Mounting the camera on a tripod, or siting it on a stable surface, will also help keep the image sharp.

I hope this helps - I realize I have glossed over many of the finer points of photography, but the KISS principle is pretty relevant here, because we don't want to take up too much time (or money!) which could be spent turning pens!

See if this thread helps any.

Soon I will have made a simple set up to use on my kitchen table.I have fitted a small tripod to the bottom of the camera made 4 exposures viewing through the rear screen of one pen using the macro and the cameras flash for simplicity. My latest pic is the Tiger one. At this time I used my grandaughters dollhouse wood bath on its side the tap one side and a pin on the other end.No need for any background at all.The wood is great when cropped.I use Picassa2 that enables me to crop tune etc and transfer to the message. KISS keep it simple stupid[thats for me] The aim is to record the pen,fancy backgrounds,special effects can come in time. So I will have a simple 24 hr a day set up,foolproof,10 mins from start to finish pic on the computer at any one time.The first time I picked up a digital camera was when I joined the group.I am a professional photographer for ever it seems,stopped taking a while back. I am blown away with the capabilities of the digital process but like pens simple and clean lines,grain to please wins the day. All the previous advice is good mine works for me. Regards Peter

Image Formats

Some formats are called "lossy" which means if you make them smaller, the formatting removes data and detail but they still look ok. If you then try to make them larger, the image pixellates (you can see the little squares of the pixel shapes). As well as saving bandwidth, this is one of the reasons that when you download a pic you like but when you enlarge it to see it better it becomes terrible to look at. PNG is becoming more popular now. It also saves having to have a small image and a large image on the server (Remember the "click to see larger picture" label).

.JPG is a LOSSY format even though lots of folks save that.

.PNG is NOT a lossy format and makes good file sizes.

.TIF format is NOT lossy but makes huge file sizes.

Not all older programs read the .png format or even the .tif, so you might need to upgrade from version 2 to 5 or something like that.

There are a lot more formats, some are purpose built, others are because companies tried to lock customers into only buying their software.

Oh, if you come across the word "interpolate" in relation to images and scanners that means you are asking the computer to guess at what colour to fill in a space. The result is NOT always the best.