My photo setup

[FrankC]

Hi folks,

several people have asked me what/how my photo setup works. Here is a quick and dirty

pseudo article on how I shoot photos.

The key to my setup is that I own a digital camera (this makes life much easier).

I have a nikkon coolpix 995 (it's about three or four years old) that I use.

My setup is as follows..

I have a spare table that I put a colored foam board. The foam boards can be purchased at art and craft stores and come in many colors I have one of every color. You don't need to buy white - the back of every color is white!

I have three cheap clip lamps that have standard 100 watt incandesent bulbs in them that I attach to a shelf above the table - also attached to the bottom of the shelf is a flourecent stick light (this space doubles as modeling/craft area for my family).

Additionally I have two 100 watt incandesent lights in those swivel magnifier things. One came with the craft table, and the other I bought at office depot. They aren't mandatory, but they are useful because I can postion them and they stay! I use these lights to light the foreground - basically they move behind the camera and shoot light at the same level the lens is at (if that makes any sense).

Along the top I wrapped a piece of carboard with aluminum foil and placed it over the three clip lights attached to the shelf to act as a reflector, I also added foil covered board on the ends - this causes the light to bounce around somewhat evening out shadows - makes the photos look much better.

Here is the setup in photo

The model sits in the middle of all this - the camera attaches to the tripod (wow - now hows that for a trick ;-) )..

The camera works best if you calibrate the white ballance rather than pick one. Basically this means that you give the camera something you say is "white" and it will set something somewhere to try to make that color "white" . This removes the excessive redness that happens when you shoot with incandesent lights.

You must use the manual mode to get the best quality shots and have an external power source - the batteries can't take it, get a plug in adaptor for shooting photos indoors..

The first thing I do when photographing is to take a white piece of board and point my camera at it, go into the menu and go to the "White Ballance" and select "white ballance preset", and choose "sample".. This sets the preset and now I can take

photos that won't look yellow right out of the camera.

(This is the magic thing that has made photos EASY since learning this trick.. If you have a medium end digicam - see if it can do this - it probably can. )

This is my screen - the bars tell me where the focus and metering are. This is important when you wish to move around and not have the camera focus on the closest object . I use the normal size for my inital photos (it is pretty dang big ).

The rose tells me the camera is in macro mode (the mode for taking close shots), the fstop is set as high as it can go. This allows for the greatest depth of field, and makes the whole model more clearly visible rather than just parts of it, while others are "fuzzy".. But this requires the most light (hence all the lights!).

I now set the shutter speed so that the meter indicates as close to the middle as possible. I take a photo - I then move the shutter speed down until the light meter indicator turns yellow. I take a photo , and if I feel like it - I take photos at other shutter settings as well.

Because I don't want to screw up my carefully calibrated photo session - I then pop the media card out of my camera and run over to my computer , (I use an external card reader) and open the photos. I then use Adobe photoshop to adjust the photos to where I like them. If I really like them - I save them on the HD, otherwise I go back and reshoot the model (making adjustments as necessary).

Photoshop is a very cool tool, but you absolutely don't need it. Any photo software will work (even the stuff that comes with windows XP) to get the photos looking good though (photoshop has some really nice features that I like) - but no sofware can help you much if your intial photos aren't any good.

The purpose of this mini-article is to help get the inital photos better.

Here is a photo of that model to show the final results - looks OK

I hope you find this useful - give me your tips and we can improve it, and send it to Steve for future reference if ya'all want.

Regards,

--Frank

[Kasatka]

Thanks, Frank for sharing you tips with us!

[Ken Middleton]

excellent Frank! I will pin this at the top so people can see it easily.

Regards

Ken

[Steve Filak]

Very nice article, Frank. Funny you mention this, as it is almost exactly the same as my photo setup, and, aside from stopping in the middle of the photo session to upload images from the computer, it's the same way I do it. Thanks for posting this up!

One quick question: where did you manage to find an AC adaptor for your Nikon? I can't seem to find one anywhere, and I'd really like to have one to save on my battery drain. Like you, I also use a Coolpix 995, and while it's a great camera, the battery doesn't hold up for very long.........

Edit: Scratch my last - I just found one on eBay for $15.....sweet :D

[I.Illes]

Thanks! I was taking pics time and time again and all I got were lousy results that looked good on the LCD, but on my computer, they were blurry, dark etc.. I was experimenting a lot with lighting during the last weeks though and hope to have finally found a way to take some decent pictures of my kits so I can share some of my works with you folks. If anyone can tell me how to handle the macromode of my Kodak DX3900...

[Ken Middleton]

Thanks! I was taking pics time and time again and all I got were lousy results that looked good on the LCD, but on my computer, they were blurry, dark etc.. I was experimenting a lot with lighting during the last weeks though and hope to have finally found a way to take some decent pictures of my kits so I can share some of my works with you folks. If anyone can tell me how to handle the macromode of my Kodak DX3900...

I have found that with macro, using a tripod (even a mini one) really helps, if not, even a necessity. Yeah they look OK on the LCD, until uploading. If you don't have a tripod, try a stack of books, etc.

I also use the timer feature so my clumsy fingers don't move the camera, even with the tripod.

Hope that helps

[I.Illes]

Fortunately, I DO have a tripod Timer? THIS could be the solution!

[Loitering with intent]

I have three cheap clip lamps that have standard 100 watt incandesent bulbs

Is a incandescent bulb the same as a regluar light bulb?

[FrankC]

I have three cheap clip lamps that have standard 100 watt incandesent bulbs

Is a incandescent bulb the same as a regluar light bulb?

Yep,

the regular bulbs.

Regards,

--Frank

[Chuck1945]

Interesting discussion, but the pictures are all red x's ...

[FrankC]

Interesting discussion, but the pictures are all red x's ...

Chuck,

it's my ISP - they are doing a major update. Hopefully they will finish up soon. But until then - no pics..

Regards,

--Frank

[MickeyThickey]

One quick question:  where did you manage to find an AC adaptor for your Nikon?  I can't seem to find one anywhere, and I'd really like to have one to save on my battery drain.  Like you, I also use a Coolpix 995, and while it's a great camera, the battery doesn't hold up for very long.........

Edit:  Scratch my last - I just found one on eBay for $15.....sweet :wacko:

If you're electronically inclined and can solder on the connectors, you can make a battery pack for Coolpix cameras (and any other camera with a AC/DC in jack that uses proprietary batteries) pretty easily. The big benefit being you can use AA NiMH cells, which have a MUCH higher capacity than proprietary batteries, so you'll get more life out of them. They're cheaper too, if you're going to be shooting lots of pics and need backup power.

You'll have to calculate the voltage your camera needs and get a battery holder for the appropriate number of AA cells. (the tricky bit; be conservative as you don't want to blow out your camera) Get an appropriately sized power jack to fit the camera's power plug, solder a cable to the jack, and to the battery holder, then cover it with heat-shrink tubing to make it nice and neat.

A thread on a similar subject can be found here, although it deals with cameras that DON'T have power in jacks, hence the "dummy" battery which is just a fancy substitute for a DC connection. It's actually easier with the Coolpix cameras.

[Guest Miro]

Hello everyone!

In an addition to FrankC's way of photographing the models I'd like to show you few photos of my own which I photograph in the following way... :o :D :D

...I take one sheet of selfadhesive color foil (blue,gloss), put the model onto it, and bend the foil until it reaches 90 degree angle behing the model.

I think it's very interesting way of doing airplane photos with sky-effect.

What do you think? :lol:

Greetings from Poland

--------------------

Miro

[el'TJ]

I think your pictures look great Miro, if you tried it with grass under the mustang would the 'sky' stilll look the same? (or would the film reflect the grass too much?)

[Grant in West Oz]

Try this software, Ifranview, http://www.irfanview.com/ it's free and very useful. There are tutorials on the site which will help you your quest.

To reduce images in kb or Mb , chose smaller pixel count. I generally crop the full sized image to take in all the image (e.g. less grubby cupboard) I wish to display, then make it 800px wide, changing the dpi to 72 at the same time.

G

[hawkhornet]

lets tr ths tehn

[blue_corsair]

Thx, I am soo new that this is my first post :( .Miro, Your pix with the color foil are AWESOME!!

FrankC.... I just got a Fujifilm Finepix S5100 digital, is this a good camera?? I cannot seem to find that "white balance" window on mine. Not that matters much, don't know how to use a camera very well anyway . Just tryin' to learn some neat pic taking skills, your Me-109 is unbelievable!

Thx, be good and have fun,

Bill

[Andy Mullen]

Thx, I am soo new that this is my first post .Miro, Your pix with the color foil are AWESOME!!

FrankC.... I just got a Fujifilm Finepix S5100 digital, is this a good camera?? I cannot seem to find that "white balance" window on mine. Not that matters much, don't know how to use a camera very well anyway . Just tryin' to learn some neat pic taking skills, your Me-109 is unbelievable!

Thx, be good and have fun,

Bill

Bill according to the DP Review web it is a very good camera

If you look at page 3 of the review under display and menus, 4 pics down it shows you a menu where the White balance can be found

[D_IcarUS_]

Thx, I am soo new that this is my first post :( .Miro, Your pix with the color foil are AWESOME!!

FrankC.... I just got a Fujifilm Finepix S5100 digital, is this a good camera?? I cannot seem to find that "white balance" window on mine. Not that matters much, don't know how to use a camera very well anyway . Just tryin' to learn some neat pic taking skills, your Me-109 is unbelievable! :wacko:

Thx, be good and have fun,

Bill

It's a fine Camera, I've one, know in Europe as S5500, don't ask me why.... merchandise they say, and it's a real very nice camera.

;)

[robotski]

Try this

place model on a sheet of glass, place your light so that it is below the glass, pointing at a slight downward angle onto your backdrop, photograph from above the glass, you kit will apear to be in mid air.

regards

Mike.

[Greg Cochran]

going to take the plunge in a digital type SLR Im looking at the pentax Im a nikon film shooter but cant afford there digital Slr what do ya think http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/prod...on--digital_slr

[Rampage55]

going to take the plunge in a digital type SLR Im looking at the pentax Im a nikon film shooter but cant afford there digital Slr what do ya think http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/prod...on--digital_slr

Hi Greg, Have you looked at the Canon DSLRs. Thier Digital Rebel series are in my opinion the best cameras for the money. I do not know about the Pentex products but I have tested the Nikon D70 vs Canon Rebel and both were similar in function and usabilty although I found the Canon features more intuitive to to use. The big difference is image quality. I found the Nikon images if shot at ISOs higher than 200 had significantly more digital noise in the dark values of the image. The Canon did not show a noticable increase in noise untill I moved up to 800 ISO and even then it still looked better then the Nikon at 200 ISO. I have also found the Canon customer service to be second to none. I make a living with my camera equipment and have used Nikon and Canon cameras for years and found both to be outstanding. But in the DSLR arena I have to give the Canon products my vote for best camera. You can find them on ebay(new with warrenty) for about what you would pay for the Pentex ($800). Just a side note. Canon will honour the full warrenty even on grey market items if you have proof that it was bought in the US. Thats my two cents anyway.

Good luck, Mark

[Greg Cochran]

The thing I looked at was the pentax and cannon and even Nikon I am a Old Nikon shooter Love em but the price is way out of my range anyway the pentax 110d can be had for under 500.00 and is backward compatible with the lenses so for my money Im going with the pentax even though I would rather have a Nikon D90 (not enough money in the bank) I also piced up a pentax K100 print film camera at a yard sale a few weeks ago with the body and 5 lenses and a decent TriPod for $50.00 so Im set for leneses for awhile now all I need are studio lights and Im back from the past

[T-Tango]

Just to add my two cents worth, using digital cameras I ALWAYS set the camera to its largest picture size, on mine thats 2048 x 1536, then using a photo editor you can reduce the image size to what you want and in fact it becomes sharper and clearer, because you are reducing the pixel size. But if you only set the camera to 640 x 480, to get more pics, if you try to enlarge the image size this is when it becomes blurred because you are stretching the pixels.

[Big Kev]

Just to add my two cents worth, using digital cameras I ALWAYS set the camera to its largest picture size, on mine thats 2048 x 1536, then using a photo editor you can reduce the image size to what you want and in fact it becomes sharper and clearer, because you are reducing the pixel size. But if you only set the camera to 640 x 480, to get more pics, if you try to enlarge the image size this is when it becomes blurred because you are stretching the pixels.

Well, you're not stretching the pixels, you're actually asking your image editing software to fill in the missing pixels by interpolating from the actual pixels around it. So, if you enlarge your image from 640x480 to 1280x960, this is effectively 4 times as many pixels as your original image, which the software has to insert. Since it is really only making an educated guess about what colours those pixels should be, the net effect is loss of detail, blurriness, and blockiness after compression. The bigger the enlargement factor, the more inaccurate the process becomes, and you'll eventually end up with a mosaic look.