My temporary photo setup

[John Spitters]

I thought that I would try something quick for now while I work on building something proper.

I think that what I have done here is a good start what I will add to it is a frame covered with a white sheet and lights on either side focused on the sides through the sheet to difuse and hot spots.
But at least for now the pics are some what better but I still need to work on the white balance and how to really use the camera properly, so I need to read up on just how to do that.

John

[Roger Chandler]

Nice pics! They are better than the ones before............Nice shop!

[John Keeton]

John, are you letting the SMC software resize your pics? They are about 999px × 749px (scaled to 623px × 467px) and compressed to 63% - but still pretty small digitally. 107KB is the limit on pics. I try to do mine at 1024x??? and compress them in FastStone to get them to the 107KB size.

While you are working on the white balance, try to back away from the piece some - the focus is off a little.

+1 on the shop - nice cabinetry!!

[Peter Blair]

Nice pieces! I too struggle with the production of the photographs. I was having a lot of success just using a south east facing window and natural light but of late have been having trouble getting my camera to focus properly so I built this tent. Problem is that like you I continue to get reflections from the lights even through the sheet I use to diffuse the light. I think I am getting closer to being able to take the photos any time of the day or year but am still fiddling with light. My next step is to try a box that is white inside and uses only reflected light.
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[Rick Markham]

John, if you have a camera that you can control the aperture, you can set it to a higher aperture setting (making the aperture smaller) say f20 or f22, it will make the shutter stay open longer (so a tripod is necessary) but will reveal more depth in the photo.

It's a bit of a struggle in the beginning to get things set just so. I use a tent, but there are others who don't.

[Richard Allen]

The reflection of the shop lights are distracting. You might try taking the pictures with the shop lights off. White balance is a lot easier to control when there is just one light source temperature. The blue or the florescence and the daylight from the windows compete for color control.

Try blocking the direct light from the window and instead reflect that window light of a white reflector. You want to have light from two directions and some shadow to add depth to the picture.

The high gloss finish is going to cause hot spots. You can add black spots to the reflector where the hot spots are coming from.

Hooking you camera up to a laptop or TV so you can see what small changes in the set-up do to the image can help make the adjustment go a LOT faster.

[John Spitters]

Thanks Rick
Yes I can control all settings on the camera that I have .... it's just that I really don't have a clue as to what I really need to do.
That's why I need to read up on what's what.

[Jamie Donaldson]

John, shiny surfaces are the worst to show every light source in the surroundings, so without an enclosure and a controllable single light source you will always be chasing multiple highlights. Have you read my tutorial on the Phrugal Photo Studio posted here on SMC or on my web site?

[John Spitters]

John
Thanks for the comments on the shop.
Actually you probably won't see to many turnings from me over the next while because I have decided to concentrate on finishing the cabinetry in my shop.
For two yrs now I've worked in there with no doors on the cabinets and quite frankly I'm getting tired of looking at the mess in them and also dealing with the dust that gets into everything.
So these past few days I've started making door panels from spalted Birch and just now got home from picking up the Alder that I will be using for the face frames and rails and stiles on the doors.
Eventually I will have all the cabinets matching the one I built for my Lathe Cabinet

[John Spitters]

Yes Jamie
I read your tutorial and I'm in the process of building a box out of the foam board and will be trying the single light source.
That's why I picked up the roller blind ($2.00 at the trift store) and mounted it to the wall in the shop.
I've started cutting the panel pieces but I'm also thinking that it's a lot of stuff to pack away and store each time.
So in hind sight I'm probably first going to try the sheet setup over a take down pvc frame. I already have a number of articulating arm lights that I can use for this as well.
Also because I'm setting this up in the shop the sheet will be easy to launder if it gets a bit dirty.

[John Spitters]

John, are you letting the SMC software resize your pics? They are about 999px × 749px (scaled to 623px × 467px) and compressed to 63% - but still pretty small digitally. 107KB is the limit on pics. I try to do mine at 1024x??? and compress them in FastStone to get them to the 107KB size.

While you are working on the white balance, try to back away from the piece some - the focus is off a little.

+1 on the shop - nice cabinetry!!

John

I really don't understand any of this stuff concerning digital cameras, software etc. etc. etc. and I really struggle with it.
I have a new Nikon P500 camera that is 12 mega pixel when I take pics they are far too large to upload so I need to resize them in order to upload to this site. Once I have resized them they show as 1000 x 750 but now when I look at the size on SMC I see that they are only 200 x 150 I really do not understand what is going on. Nor do I understand what different appetures etc are, this is all so confusing and the more I read up on this the more confused I get. I went to the camera store where I bought the camera and there they told me to set the f stop # as low as possible then here I read a post by Rick and he says set the number to f20 -f22

I'm using a tripod and am back at least 6 - 8' or more at times from the item..... I zoom in on the item .... is this wrong? should I not zoom in? then crop the pic ?
For us idiots that really do not understand I wish that I could find a simple 1-2-3 step of exactly what to do.
That's why I try to just use the camera in auto mode but even with that I still get bad pics.

John