Photography tips and tricks - help!

[jabba2003]

For the past few years I've been taking  photos of my turned items for inclusion on my website. Now whilst I have reasonably good kit, and a small amount of technical knowledge, I believe I could improve my photos to better show off my products. Can anyone suggest anything helpful in relation to lighting, set up, focal length etc? Or index anything else. All comments welcome.

[Rlewisrlou666]

I did a bit of Green Screen work while in Uni and the way we used lighting was to have 2 defused lights on the background and 1 defused light on the subject.

Set the piece at middle ground and set the focus up so that any object placed both behind and in front of the piece are out of focus.

We had good results with Daylight bulbs too.

[Les Symonds]

Hi....I've got an old table with side-screen diffusers set up, with 'daylight' lights set outside each of the diffusers. For the backdrop, I have 2 uprights with broomsticks going across at different heights, so that I can drape different backdrops down behind and beneath the subject. I'm away from home for a few days, but will send a pic of the set-up when I get back.

Les

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Have a search on here as there was a whole thread about it a while back.

[Derwent Woodturning club]

Hi Jabba,

You may already have one, but if not, I highly recommend a 'light cube' with daylight bulbs setup outside.

If you haven't come across them they are self supporting cubes made from semi-transparent material which diffuses the light around the object you are shooting. Most of them come with coloured backgrounds which you suspend on the back wall, so you can have a colour that best shows your work. They come in various sizes but all pack flat for easy transport. There are numerous sellers on the net. I seem to recall I paid about £15 for my 32" cube.

My lights are compact fluorescent bulbs with colour temperature of 6400k, which are now widely available. I also use them to illuminate my workshop.

My other recommendation is to always use the camera on a tripod, but if you are already a keen photographer, you will know that already.

Hope that helps.

[Les Symonds]

...I highly recommend a 'light cube' with daylight bulbs setup outside.

That's how I started, but my cube was too small, so I cut it up and used the sides of the cube as my diffuser panels for my existing set-up.

One tip that I picked up from the WU forum in the US, was not to attempt to zoom right in and effectively crop your pictures in the camera, but to leave a good margin around the subject in your shots, then use a photo-editing software to do the cropping. They also recommend having the free-space around the picture to follow the proportions of 1 unit to the sides, 1.25 units above and 1.5 units below the subject. this gives the subject a decent 'floor' to sit on.

Les

[Graham]

One tip that I picked up from the WU forum in the US, was not to attempt to zoom right in and effectively crop your pictures in the camera, but to leave a good margin around the subject in your shots, then use a photo-editing software to do the cropping.
Les

The point of that being to increase the apparent depth of field I assume ?

[woodndesign]

Have a search on here as there was a whole thread about it a while back.

Maybe the one ... http://www.awgb.co.uk/awgbforum/index.php/topic,1898.0.html ....

[Rlewisrlou666]

http://www.lynda.com/articles/photography-diy-light-box/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook-earned&utm_campaign=post-pht
I'll just leave this here.

[Graham]

There are many ready made light cubes complete with lights and backgrounds for silly cheap prices on Amazon,
Must get myself one  

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

following the thread that Dave has highlighted, thanks Dave, I ordered a light cube off of the internet. Actually that is a bit grand... I got my son to order it for me. However I have to say that it does work rather well, I have also been presented with a new digital camera which I am slowly coming to terms with. All in all my pictures have improved on what they once were its just the eyes that let me down now 

[Graham]

Which one did you get John ?

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Graham it was a cheap one similar to the many that you see on ebay.