photographing work

abbeypipes · Post by **abbeypipes** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:28 pm

hallo all
this is is a subject that frustates me,sometimes pictures are fine sometimes yuk! A computer expert told me my- camera 2 pixels is fine for quality,he said it is all about the maximum of light on the subject ,how do folks consistantly take good photos? any advice welcome regards abbey pipes

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:51 pm

I have a light diffusion tent setup in a corner of my weight room, and I use a couple 100w spotlights. That's a *lot* of light, but the light has a yellowish cast to it, which bothers me sometimes. Sometime soon I'll be moving to either LED or halogen lights for a clean, clear, white light.

A pic of my setup is here:
http://www.pipecrafter.com/images/lightbox.jpg

It's not perfect, but it's much better than what I used to use - which was the kitchen table....

Like I said though, either halogen or LED lights will give a cleaner color. I use those shop lamps because they're inexpensive and I can use 'em in the shop if I need extra light somewhere.

Also, having only two lights can create odd shadows. What I really need is 4 (or more) lamps of lower wattage to remove all the shadows and give a better overall color/white balance.

abbeypipes · Post by **abbeypipes** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:55 pm

kurt
many thanks for your reply,it will give me something to work on
regards

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:45 pm

As another "computer guy" I'd just like to throw in my 2 cents... 2 megapixels is NOT enough. Well, let me take that back and re-phrase it: It's not great. It'll take something like what a disposable will, more or less. See, what a greater megapixel count will do isn't just provide a larger photo (which for digital use IS useless) it's that it provides GREAT quality when condensed and reduced in size to something that we'd use on our websites.

Lighting and all that is SUPER important too! Take a look at my pictures on my website and you can see the difference between when I went from taking my pictures indoors with no special lighting to doing it outside in the daylight!

Yup, I'm gonna say it... here goes...

The difference is like day and night!

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:07 am

Daylight works really for some subjects, unfortunately, the light is directional and results in shadows - which is why there's always people holding reflectors towards models in outdoor photoshoots. Don't get me wrong, it's better than a lot of things, but it's not perfect. For pipes as the subject, I think it's probably better to have a good diffusion environment and quality lighting.

Not that I currently have such a setup, mine is lacking in one particular area - quality lighting.

Also, while I agree to an extent that bigger pictures will condense and sometimes produce a better image, if you have a good 2 MP camera, it isn't necessary.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 12:14 pm

The most important factor in a good digital camera (imo as an amateur) is dynamic range (which means, basically, color depth). If you can find a digital camera that will catch detail in a photo that includes normal lighting and deep shadow, then you *really* have something you can work with.

See that *IS* the thing. With a higher pixel count each pixel captures more detail. And when you shrink down the picture your detail is condensed into a finer picture.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:28 am

Oh yeah... I wasn't saying that in disagreement with your post on color... that's right on. I was just stating that the more pixels to capture the color the better it will look when condensed... and all that is IF your camera captures the color

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:16 pm

I haven't noticed that much lately. I use mostly Imagemagick and iPhoto to do resizing. It seems the algorithms they use are pretty stable, and I tend to get good color - though, when your thumbnail is only 100x75, it really matters little I suppose.

Now, the reduction from 1600x1200 to 640x480, that's different. iPhoto has never failed me here, so I suppose it's doing The Right Thing.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:37 pm

I use MSPaint

I really do. The version that they released with Win2k and into XP is VERY different from what we've all been used to. I've not noticed any skewed resizes for as long as I've been working with it. I don't do dimensions with pixel count tho. I have the camera set taking a fixed size and when I copy off the CF card onto the PC, I reduce using 4 fixed percentages. This gives me a good thumbnail, a good advertizing one that's twice the size of the thumbnail, a large one for really looking at the pipe (that's what I post these forums), and a super large one for serious shoppers (of which I've had none so far).