Picture assist

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Ron Mc

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I have been playing with my new camera today for I believe too long.
I'm having a hard time figuring out which setting would help with showing the finish of the pen.
Please look at the picture and tell me what camera settings you would change.

100_0267o.jpg


Thanks for the assist!
 
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I'm not sure Ron. I have a new Canon Digital Rebel XT and I have tried different settings and I can get good pictures of the pen, but I can't get the shine of the finish to show up like it does in real life. Maybe someone can chime in and help us out here. The picture you took looks great, but it doesn't show a shiny finish that I assume the pen truly has? What if we try a darker background, but not too dark? I'm fishing now.
 
You might read through these threads.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20904
and
http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20973

Lots of good info. Also, I have a similar box and I have my daughter come over and give me some pointers. I added a light over the top and had one shine from the top directly on the pen from the right and the left one shining through the side up front. She's the artist and had many photo classes so I didn't question why. Unfortunatly she took the pics with her camera, so I don't have final verdict till she gives me the dvd.
 
Ron, what camera are you using[?], i suggest if it is able to shoot in the RAW format to use it (if you are not already). This enables you to adjust every setting on your PC afterwards. The picture looks to have a reddish hue to it, this can be easily rectified by adjust the white balance, i tend to use Auto or Daylight on my Canon 30D.
Was the picture was taken in a light tent of some form, i have found that it is quite hard to show off glossy finishes, due to the fact the the light hitting the pen is diffused.
I can have a play with the picture and see if i can get it somewhere near what i think is right. With your permission of course Ron.[:)]
 
I would change to a different background, like a light blue, light grey or something like this. With the white background it is really hard to find proper settings. Sometimes it is good to use a grey card (standard grey card with, I think, 18% reflection)just to find your settings.
This is a tip I got many years ago from an old photographer and it should be still valid in the days of digital photography.
 
Good info!
The bloodwood in this particular pen is a deep red but not a fire engine red. On my monitor it looks like the right red.
As far as camera I am using a Kodak EasyShare C875.

Andrew, If you would like to go ahead and grab the picture and play.[;)]
 
Hi Ron, i have had a play with your photo, it is very diificult to get the background a clear white, the pen hardware i have managed to get to a clearer silver colour. The wood has gone a bit deeper in colour, on my screen anyway. This im my mind is one of the biggest problems, everybody has got there monitors set to how they like them, causing the image to be displayed incorrectly, at least in the eyes of the maker.[:p]
For those intersted all the work was done with Photoshop CS, using the colour & shadow/highlight adjustments.

200712214116_100_0267ob.jpg
<br />
 
Ron,

I agree with the background. I use gray gradient background that I learned from James (Fangar). Helps a lot in getting better pics.

Awesome pen BTW.[^]
 
With Andrew's changes the Bloodwood is (at least on my monitor) closer to a natural color and the hardware is spot on.

Great looking pen Ron!
 
That's more like it - in the first posted picture it looked like Padauk (at least on my monitor), now I see it is Bloodwood.

Originally posted by UKpenmaker
<br />Hi Ron, i have had a play with your photo, it is very diificult to get the background a clear white, the pen hardware i have managed to get to a clearer silver colour. The wood has gone a bit deeper in colour, on my screen anyway. This im my mind is one of the biggest problems, everybody has got there monitors set to how they like them, causing the image to be displayed incorrectly, at least in the eyes of the maker.[:p]
For those intersted all the work was done with Photoshop CS, using the colour & shadow/highlight adjustments.

200712214116_100_0267ob.jpg
<br />
Click to expand...
 
Ron,
what lighting are you using. It might be casting an unwanted color on the pen. Some parts of your pen almost look like a satin finish. Nice looking shot either way.

Andy
 
Ron,
on my monitor, the first picture was closer to what I think Bloodwood looks like, the one with the tan/yellowish background is more Red .. more like the fire engine red mentioned earlier... I agree with the idea of a more neutral background.. light blue or grey.. In portrait studios, the photogs usually use a blue background...
 
Ron,

I just downloaded/read the manual for your C875. It does not have a manual white-balance mode. SO here's what you can do. Go back to your old way of shooting outside BUT drape a clean, white sheet over the pen to diffuse the light. If you need more lighting from the sides, use aluminum foil to reflect the light at the sides of the sheet; now you have good, even, proper-color lighting. Set your camera to "daylight" mode and shoot away.

Alternatively, go to your local home supply warehouse and buy three clamp-on shop lights with the unpainted aluminum reflectors and three day-light compact fluorescent bulbs. Drape the sheet over the pen and point one light at each side of the sheet and use the third from above the camera (not going through the tent) to get the highlight-reflections. Again, set your camera for daylight mode and shoot away.

Either of those should give you accurate color renditions.

If you have Photoshop I can walk you through the 2 minute color fix from Dave Cross that I used above. If you aren't using Photoshop and can describe the steps and maybe you can figure out how to do the same in your software. It is basically using the software tools to find the whitest white, blackest black and closest-to-perfect-grey spots in the picture and then using those to set your white/black/grey points for the picture. Works nicely and doesn't depend on you having the same eyes/monitor settings as your viewers do.

GK
 
Originally posted by Ron Mc
<br />Rudy,
Here is my latest:
testbackdropo.jpg

Better?[:eek:)]
Click to expand...

It comes over, at least on my monitor a bit yellowish and the wood again does look more like Padauk.
Here is a link to a place where I buy my photo lamps (1000Bulbs) and the link shows the ones I use:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=1086

They have 6500 Kelvin color temperature and this represents one of the best for daylight equivalent.
Here is a picture that I took with them:



200712522754_New%20Laminate%202.jpg



And another one:


200712522836_New%20Laminate%201.jpg


I use an old white lamp shade as my photobox and place three of the lamps outside the shade. I use some really heavy weight poster paper (that can be had in Crafts stores like Michaels, Joanne, AC Moore or else in a wide variety of colors, textures etc) as a background.

The colors of the pens in the photos are, on my monitor, as good as "life".
 
OK. I see the difference. I'll follow the link and see if they have florescent bulbs I can use.
 
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