HELP my photos are awful

[rtfoe]

Paul, I just noticed that most of your photos are back lit causing dark shadows to the forground. Try to avoid that.

Cheers,
Richard

[scottie3158]

Thank you all for the great responses I have a lot to think about.

[spanner570]

Paul, I hope the following doesn't come across as flippant but I know stuff all about camera settings and am a founder member of the 'Photographically Challenged Club'. My camera is always set on 'Auto', so it does all the thinking for me. I just press the button!
I never use a white background. That confuses the camera.

What I am passionate about is the composition of the picture. A little care makes all the difference to the presentation. So often I see the showing of superb models ruined by just plonking them on a table with either the garden furniture, the ironing board in the front room or something equally distracting in full view. Spare some thought to this aspect of your pictures too.
Once again, sorry I can't help re. actually taking pictures.

Yours.
Kodak Brownie

[wasdale32]

Paul

there has been a lot of talk about "white balance" - does that term actually mean anything to you?

If not - it basically means that the camera can adjust the way it exposes the images based on the kind of lighting.
If you use natural daylight it will look different to tungsten (old-fashioned filament bulbs) or LED lights.
Normally the "auto" setting will try to adjust the colour of the image based on what it thinks the light source is.

It gets complicated when you have two or more light sources - try not to mix tungsten/halogen/LED lights - especially if you have a
very light coloured background. You mention a light-box - does it have its own lights?

If you use a pale blue background and "auto" white balance the camera can get confused and try to treat the background as white so
everything gets a slightly brown cast.

Have a read of the camera manual about "White Balance"

But as others have said - put the camera on a good support (e.g a tripod / gorillapod or similar) and use the self timer to avoid camera-shake.

Make sure it has focussed on the subject before taking the shot.

Mark

[scottie3158]

Paul, I hope the following doesn't come across as flippant but I know stuff all about camera settings and am a founder member of the 'Photographically Challenged Club'. My camera is always set on 'Auto', so it does all the thinking for me. I just press the button!
I never use a white background. That confuses the camera.

What I am passionate about is the composition of the picture. A little care makes all the difference to the presentation. So often I see the showing of superb models ruined by just plonking them on a table with either the garden furniture, the ironing board in the front room or something equally distracting in full view. Spare some thought to this aspect of your pictures too.
Once again, sorry I can't help re. actually taking pictures.

Yours.
Kodak Brownie

Cheers Kodak, and your right on both counts I just set to auto and don't give much imagination to the pictures when they are taken. I need to look at both in the future although I doubt I will ever have the flair you have for excellent pictures.

[scottie3158]

Paul

there has been a lot of talk about "white balance" - does that term actually mean anything to you?

If not - it basically means that the camera can adjust the way it exposes the images based on the kind of lighting.
If you use natural daylight it will look different to tungsten (old-fashioned filament bulbs) or LED lights.
Normally the "auto" setting will try to adjust the colour of the image based on what it thinks the light source is.

It gets complicated when you have two or more light sources - try not to mix tungsten/halogen/LED lights - especially if you have a
very light coloured background. You mention a light-box - does it have its own lights?

If you use a pale blue background and "auto" white balance the camera can get confused and try to treat the background as white so
everything gets a slightly brown cast.

Have a read of the camera manual about "White Balance"

But as others have said - put the camera on a good support (e.g a tripod / gorillapod or similar) and use the self timer to avoid camera-shake.

Make sure it has focussed on the subject before taking the shot.

Mark

Mark,
thanks mate I didn't have a clue but did have a read in the manual after everyones wise words. I do have a little light box with a strip of LED's along the top front edge.

After reading the book I took 2 new photos using the Scene recognition setting on the camera the pictures are a lot better well brighter anyway. I guess i need to just keep practicing

[Steve Jones]

Well you and I have long struggled with our photos and tried most things. The three issues I have had are where to take the photos, lighting and depth of field

I have tried taking photos outside, inside, by the window, bits of paper behind, in a lighting box, white background, black background, blue background ets etc. So now I have put a large piece of blue card on the dressing table in the side room. Blue seems to be the one that creates the best lighting background. Also the curvature of the card means I dont have those ugly paper edges or "box look" style pictures



Next was the lighting issue. As I work all day I have to model at night so the majority of photos are taken in the night time. This means using the light from the ceiling light and a couple of lamps strategically positioned to get the best coverage. This is the result



When I do manage to position the light correcty the model then goes back into shadow when I move the camera close to take the photo



However I have recently invested in two "natural light" lamps off the internet HERE. They are fantasic! Fully adjustable so you can have vertical or horizontal light. They come with a heavy stand so no fear of them toppeling over. I have had them for a couple of weeks now and they have made my modeling life so much better. For example the exact same shot as above at the same distance with the same camera but with these two lamps used instead of the bedroom light and lamps and this is what you get.



Also this was taken at night time. I am still playing around to try and get rid of all shadows but it ceratinly is an improvement.

In my bench room I work off the room light and a small lamp



Now with one of the lamps by my side this is what I have



So not only better photos but better working environment as well.

Now the depth of field issue. This has plagued me for many a year and still does. Front on pictures not too bad but the equipment at the back is still out of focus.



But as soon as you do the length of vehicle, notice how the the shield and telescopic sights are all out of focus on the L/H side



What I want is everything in focus. I have three cameras and I have tried all the things needed about ISO, shutter speed etc etc but my cameras are just not up to it. I have had some improvement by taking a shot further away when everything is in focus and then using the picture editor on the computer to zoom in and cut and crop the picture. However the picture then looks rather "grainy".

Saying all that close ups are the worst. Notice how the mug is clear but everything is blurred. What I want is a sharp image of everything



I am now looking to get a magnification lens camera which will do 1:1 if not better but they aint cheap. Low end lenses are £2 -£300 with top end spec £1,000+. So I am busy saving up and hopefully one day I can get photos that others seem to get at close range. The mistake I made was buying cameras with high zoom features and not high magnification features. My only fear is once I get the lens it will show up all my mistakes! :smiling5: :smiling2:

Saying all that your latest photos of your finished truck are a vast improvement and its great to see more of your fantastic detailing mate.

Hope this helps

Steve

[Guest]

Now the depth of field issue. This has plagued me for many a year and still does. Front on pictures not too bad but the equipment at the back is still out of focus.

I'm still fumbling around trying to get my pictures better, but one thing I'm looking into for the DOF issue is Focus stacking. Put very simply you take several snaps focussed on different areas, then blend them with "software". I'm still wading through the minefield but in theory it sounds like it would be what I'm looking for.

My phone has a pretty unique feature where I can take a picture then vary the focal point and DOF afterwards. I haven't figured that out either lol but might be another option for me, rather than buying expensive equipment.

[Tim Marlow]

To maximise depth of field use the highest F number available. Further, the depth of field extends one third in front of the focus point and two thirds behind it, so focus one third of the way into the scene you want in focus. Lastly, the closer you are the shallower the depth of field, so shooting from a little further away and cropping in will improve DOF Up to a point, but too much cropping highlights the lack of resolution of the image. Focus stacking is a good idea as well, but will probably add artefacts from the post processing. Macro lenses are not necessarily the answer either. They usually need you to get really close to the subject, trading off depth of field against resolution. I have a 100mm one and don’t tend to use it much. They are great for extreme close ups, but the shots above would work better with a decent prime lens.

[Guest]

What I want is everything in focus.

I already mentioned it above, but what about taking the photo from further away and cropping the image to what you need? This probably doesn’t work if you want a large photograph suitable for high-quality printing, but for posting on a forum it’s fine because you don’t need 4000-pixel-wide photos — the forum here resizes them to about 1000 pixels wide anyway.

[Guest]

Jakko, did you not read the rest of the paragraph you quoted? Sounds like he's already tried that approach :smiling3:

[Guest]

Had a quick n dirty play with an online stacking page. Not perfect by any means but more of the shot is more in focus, so I think with a bit of practice it might do the trick for posting on t'internet

One of the four pictures, focussed on the roundel.

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"Stacked" image

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[scottie3158]

Thanks All,
It's good to know I'm not the only one who struggles but following the great advice I have seen a marked improvement in my pictures.

[Guest]

Jakko, did you not read the rest of the paragraph you quoted? Sounds like he's already tried that approach :smiling3:

Crap, I’m doing it again, aren’t I? I read the first part, then begin to reply and forget to read on

Still, the method works for me, so I’m wondering what the pixel dimensions are of the photos Paul takes — could be that the problem is they’re too small to really zoom in on?

[Gern]

I need help from those of you that can take a decent picture. I normally just leave my camera in auto. Even when I use my light box they are still terrible. If

Just finished reading through this entire thread. Everything after the sentence above looks like Sanskrit to me. I'm just going to have to suffer with poor pictures :upside: :sleeping2: