My first photo attempt, small objects - could use your help

[Robb]

Hey all,
Thanks for taking the time to view this post. I'm using a Nikon D70 I recently got and am starting to take pictures of some of things I'll be building in my woodworking shop. How come I have to learn photography as a hobby to take pictures of woodworking, my hobby!

Anyway I got a light tent set up to try and get good shots of some small objects like this wooden pen. I've tried it on a couple of the auto settings and I think this one was the close up (flower icon) setting. I'd like to move off the auto settings but am not sure how to venture there yet.

Can someone take a minute and provide any feedback that can help me improve the shot? I'm shooting on a white background which I thought would be nice and white and not in focus. But it looks a bit gray, though the pen is a pretty good representation of it's actual color.

I'm looking for advice on how I can improve the out of camera shot before going into production (which I haven't done before).

Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: 18-70mm lens from about 15 inches away
Lights: 2 30watt 5400K bulbs
Flash: Speedlight SB 600

Any help appreciated!

[Heuristx]

The camera is seeing a lot of white areas and it is trying to average the overall light to something like an 18% gray.

Remedy: See the manual how you can apply exposure compensation. Try +1 EV, to lighten everything. If you don't like the result, try from +0.3, going up in small increments till you get what you want.

[Robb]

Thanks Heuristix, that worked well. I didn't know anything about that before. Had to read up on it but it appears to have done well. And I took the picture using the timer so I didn't shake the camera which helped put this into focus.

This better?..

[Samanax]

The second pen image seems noisy (grainy)...what ISO setting are you using?

And do you know what aperture setting the camera was using?

For this kind of situation, I would put the camera in full manual to take control of the exposure. I'd use ISO 100 and since the camera is on a tripod just use a slow shutter speed. Take a bunch of pictures using different settings (aperture and shutter speeds) and see how they come out.

Are you shooting in JPEG or RAW? If JPEG, what resolution are you using? Are you using the highest setting? You should be.

And what kind of material is the pen lying on? Is it a solid color or is there a small pattern to it?

How much post processing work are you doing to these images? Are they straight from the camera or are you editing them a bit?

I can see some spots in the images...looks like dust on the sensor. Your camera needs a sensor cleaning.

[arlon]

A small simple light box can be helpful. Light them up anyway you can. Change the background to what ever color works best. I use thin craft foam because it's cheap and available in a lot of colors. I like to use a few old obsolete flashes trigger with $8 IR remotes or a trouble light for light..

All of my lenses in my lens collection HERE where shot in this light box..

[Robb]

I'm not sure what ISO setting that was as it's blank in my image data from photoshop. I did touch the picture a bit out of camera by applying default sharpening once, and adjusting the curves for brightness and shadow.

The background is a non-texture white silk cloth so I don't understand the noise that's in it. Maybe from when I sharpened it, it picked up the shadow on the silk and did that?

Looks like it was at F4.5 and 1/200 sec exposure with a +1.3 exposure bias.

I shot in JPEG at the "Fine" resolution which I assume is the highest and used the smallest pixel size of the image since I didn't think I needed it big. Should I be shooting all my photos large and high-rez then shrinking them to the size I need?

And despite my lens cleaning it looks like I do have something on my sensor, guess I have to take it in. Probably not a good idea to blast away with air inside the camera body eh?

[Samanax]

Originally Posted by Robb

I'm not sure what ISO setting that was as it's blank in my image data from photoshop.

Try to use the lowest ISO setting possible to help keep the image quality high. Higher ISO settings are okay for some things, but product type shots (like you pens images) should be shot with low ISO settings to help keep the image clean.

Originally Posted by Robb

I did touch the picture a bit out of camera by applying default sharpening once, and adjusting the curves for brightness and shadow.

Noise is exaggerated by sharpening and contrast adjustments. So a noisy image will become more noisy once you start to sharpen and adjust contrast. A low ISO would help prevent/lessen this problem.

Originally Posted by Robb

The background is a non-texture white silk cloth so I don't understand the noise that's in it. Maybe from when I sharpened it, it picked up the shadow on the silk and did that?

I think the problem is actually related to the resolution used for the shot. Lower resolution images have less information to work with and if you increase the size of the image it can start to get artifacts and pixelation. I don't shoot in JPEG anymore but I do remember seeing low resolution images and being pretty disappointed in how they looked after editing. I only shoot in RAW now.

Originally Posted by Robb

Looks like it was at F4.5 and 1/200 sec exposure with a +1.3 exposure bias.

If the camera is on a tripod you can use slower shutter speeds to let more light in. What mode was the camera in? You might want to experiment shooting in manual and just play with the settings to get the right exposure for your setup.

Originally Posted by Robb

I shot in JPEG at the "Fine" resolution which I assume is the highest and used the smallest pixel size of the image since I didn't think I needed it big. Should I be shooting all my photos large and high-rez then shrinking them to the size I need??

That would be my suggestion if you don't want to shoot in RAW. If image quality is important, shoot in the highest rez your camera is capable of.

Originally Posted by Robb

Probably not a good idea to blast away with air inside the camera body eh?

It's okay to use a bulb blower (like the Giottos Rocket Blower) but don't use canned compressed air or air from a compressor.

[Robb]

O.K. I've tried some of the suggestions I've read here including:

• Shooting at ISO 200 the lowest setting I've got to limit the grain of the picture
• adjusting VL to +1.3 since I'm using the white background and to keep the camera from turning it gray, though it still looks a bit gray to me.
• Shooting in Aperture priority mode using F18, a higher F-stop to keep only the pen in focus and help the background blur out
• Using the highest quality and size settings in the camera (D70s)
• And shooting this with a speed light 600 in auto and inside of a light tent

This picture is straight out of the camera with nothing adjusted other than size. Please give me feedback on what you think can be improved for a better out of camera shot. Also, what should I do to for production on this image (web only use) other than simply adjusting the levels for shadow and highlights.

Your thoughts welcome and appreciated.

[Samanax]

Originally Posted by Robb

O.K. I've tried some of the suggestions I've read here including:

Shooting at ISO 200 the lowest setting I've got to limit the grain of the picture

Make sure you also have a good light source to illuminate the object.

Originally Posted by Robb

adjusting VL to +1.3 since I'm using the white background and to keep the camera from turning it gray, though it still looks a bit gray to me.

"VL"? Do you mean the Exposure Compensation setting?

Originally Posted by Robb

Shooting in Aperture priority mode using F18, a higher F-stop to keep only the pen in focus and help the background blur out

If you're trying to limit the DOF (Depth Of Field) you want to use a lower f/stop to open up the aperture more...a wider aperture gives you a shallow DOF. Using a higher f/stop will reduce the size of the aperture and this increases the DOF so that more of the image will be in focus.

Originally Posted by Robb

And shooting this with a speed light 600 in auto and inside of a light tent

You might want to put the Speedlite outside the light tent to help diffuse the light, but manually set the power of the flash instead of using the AUTO setting.

Originally Posted by Robb

This picture is straight out of the camera with nothing adjusted other than size. Please give me feedback on what you think can be improved for a better out of camera shot.

I don't see a picture here. And when I go to the ImageShack I get a "this page cannot be displayed" error message.

[Robb]

link still works for me...
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/175/testpenuf3.jpg