Help!! Good looking pens, terrible pics

[tbrock]

I have just started trying to take pics of my pens. I thought this would be a 5 minute job and move on. Boy was I wrong. Anyone that has any ideas on this subject, please spread your wealth of knowledge. I tried taking them all different ways and never got a good picture. Usually the problem was with the light, reflecting off the metal parts but sometimes it was a focus problem. Can you get too close with todays digital cameras? Give me your thoughts and ideas.

 

[Steve Busey]

Hi Tody,

Start with the "Pen Photography" article listed on the right side of the IAP home page. Then you might consider posting some of your problem photos here to get some specific feedback. What kind of camera are you working with? I struggled a long time with my point-and-shoot, then finally broke down and bought a digital SLR off craigslist - made a world of difference!

 

[Mack C.]

I have just started trying to take pics of my pens. I thought this would be a 5 minute job and move on. Boy was I wrong. Anyone that has any ideas on this subject, please spread your wealth of knowledge. I tried taking them all different ways and never got a good picture. Usually the problem was with the light, reflecting off the metal parts but sometimes it was a focus problem. Can you get too close with todays digital cameras? Give me your thoughts and ideas.

What camera do you have?

 

[islandturner]

I'm also struggling to get good pen photos. Even though I have an digital SLR, and do pretty well with many other types of photography, getting a high quality pen shot is proving more difficult than I thought.

Outdoors, you generally get a better shot on an overcast day than in bright sun. The clouds diffuse the sunlight so it is coming from every direction – there are no harsh shadows. So we need to create a 'cloudy' situation indoors, to shoot our pens. I suppose you could simply go outdoors on a cloudy day, but who wants to be shooting in the rain or in freezing weather …

So a box like this one is the way to go.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

The light enters one or more of the white panels and gets reflected around inside so that it is coming from many different directions – the white panels become our clouds. Now, we just have to set up our cameras to the correct exposure.

But there is another enemy of pen photography – depth of field. That's the area that's actually in focus, in front of our lens. And because we're usually trying to work in close-up or macro mode, the depth of field tends to be narrower. Many shots posted here are completely or partially out of focus.

Have a look at this excellent photo from 'Manny':

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z271/epimeniolara/pens/IMG_1100.jpg

Note the fabric at the base of the photo. Under the pen it is in focus – forward and aft of this area is out of focus. It shows perfectly, the camera's depth of field at this particular exposure. If part of this pen had been outside that area, it would have been out of focus, too. This is a great photo…

The key to maximum depth of field is the aperture setting. The bigger the aperture number (which equates to a physically smaller 'hole' through which the light will pass), the greater the depth of field. Conversely, the smaller the aperture number, the narrower the depth of field.

This means working in manual mode is important. You can set your aperture to a high number, and then adjust the exposure time and ISO to compensate. The bigger the aperture number, the longer the exposure time is required. If you're working with a flash, this can be a problem in that the flash happens in a millisecond, so a long exposure won't help. You may need to increase the ISO value of your digital camera, essentially make it more sensitive.

Using the above box, having constant (non-flash) lighting is considerably easier. You might even set the box in a window so it is getting lots of constant light from outside.

Another issue with this box is white balance. Probably none of the light sources you're going to use are pure white. Your camera can adjust the white balance if it knows what kind of light it is – incandescent, neon, flash, etc. The best way is to shoot one shot of a pure white object or piece of paper. In post processing, you can then 'tell' your software that this object is white. It'll then adjust all shots in this light, to white. You'll be shocked at the difference it'll make – you'll see the true colors of your pen.

So after all that, my photos are still partially out of focus, blown out in areas, and very disappointing. I'm going to keep trying – maybe I can figure out how Manny did it in the shot mentioned above …. J

 

[toddlajoie]

Guys, If you post a couple shots showing what you're issues are and explain how you're doing things (if you have a second camera, set everything up, then take a shot of the whole setup including the camera/lights/room, etc), I'd be happy to give you some pointers, I've got a bag of tricks ranging from big $$$ to using stuff from your neighbors trash can to get you better photos, but I could spend all day explaining things you either don't care about or can't do anything about.

Island, If you've got an SLR and depth of field is your issue:

What aperture are you usually using?
What's your lens's focal length? (mm)
How how far away are you usually from your subject?
What Shutter Speed? ISO? Using a Tripod? Flash?
Where are you focusing?

I haven't put a whole lot of time into taking my photos, as I'm just getting started making pens, and right now it's all about just documenting them before I give them away, but here's a couple of examples of what can be done in about 2 minutes with nothing more than a DSLR and 2 flashes (no tent, reflectors complicated setups, or anything:

Generally, for shiny subject it is a bit more critical. This photo is the same setup, and if you look at the reflections in the green pen, you see a square black shape in the highlight reflection near the fat part of the barrel, that is the camera, and it shows up because it is between light and the pen, so it breaks up the highlight. That would be where a tent or other diffusion, closer to the pen would work better than bouncing the flash off the white drop ceiling tiles.