Help! An unusual photoshoot...

[flame_rose]

Hi all,
I am a hobbyist with around 5 paid photoshoots under my belt. A returning client has hired me for a job that is completely new to me and I need help. Here is the description of the needed images:

A real estate developer is hiring a company to do 3D rendered plots of the homes that will be selling. The 3D designer requesting that samples of flooring tiles be photographed so they can be used for the 3D work. I have around 8 different marble and ceramic tiles to shoot at the location. I intend to shoot in RAW using my D90 and a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor with two SB600s through a soft box. Honestly, I have no idea how much of a close up the images need to be. I will fill up the frame with the tile and then crop out in post production.

Has anybody done similar work? Am I using an appropriate lens? Any tips? I will be shooting in less than 24 hours

Thank you for any help that you can provide.

[digirebelva]

I would talk to the 3d designer and get specifics from them on what they need, maybe they have a sample they can show you..

[flame_rose]

I asked them for some details. I received the following:
1- RGB
2- High resolution (but they failed to mention needed DPI)
3- 500 pixels
4- JPG or TIFF format

At least some of the specifications are out of the way.

[Jim Bryant]

1. RGB is Red, Green, Blue. Got into your camera into color Matrix and set the setting to Adobe RGB and thing in Photoshop.
2. Same DPI at 300
3. 500 pixel is how wide they want the pictures. Go into CS or photoshop, click on image and then double click on image size. A box will appear and there'll be width and height. Set the pixels to 500 pixels depending on whether it's a vertical or hortizional picture.
4. Save pictures either JPG or Tiff format.
When you go to save a photo, File - save as either JPG or TIFF.

[flame_rose]

Thanks for the reply. The technical specifications are easy to nail. I was wondering about the photography aspect of things. Is a macro lens needed? Should I photograph the pattern within the tile or the whole tile?

I have decided to go ahead and provide the client with several images as follows:
1- 12 MP whole tile
2- 50% downsized
3- 25% downsized
4- 500 x 500 pixels "patch" of the large image

I'll repeat the process for each of the tiles and I hope that should cover all expectations that the graphic designer might have.

Regards...

[Biomech]

I'm assuming that he's just using them as textures so would only need like 1 shot of various floors which he (or you) can crop so they are all the same and line up when tiled. - By "tile" do you mean picture or like actual floor tile?

[flame_rose]

Originally Posted by Biomech

I'm assuming that he's just using them as textures so would only need like 1 shot of various floors which he (or you) can crop so they are all the same and line up when tiled. - By "tile" do you mean picture or like actual floor tile?

I understand that they will be used as textures. I do mean flooring tile when I use the word tile

[Kamal M]

From what i understand, an evenly lighted 500x500 (assuming the floor tiles are square) picture of a single floor tile is what they want. So when they use it as a texture, they can tile (computer tile) your photo and it will resemble the actual floor...

But thats just what i understand :P

[flame_rose]

I just came back from the shoot. Boy was that a challenge!

They had around 30 tiles to photograph. They were fixed to a sloping board in groups of 3 to 5 per board. Some were tiny, some were square. Some were very shiny and some were matte. I started off shooting with two SB600s with diffusers but when it came time to shoot the shiny/glossy tiles reflections killed me. I had to rely on ambient light, place the camera on a tripod and use long exposure via remote trigger.

I am going to provide the photographs as "virgin" as I can after post-processing and leave the cropping and resizing up to the graphic designer. The client was there during the shoot and he was rather happy with the images. Hope all goes well.

Regards...