Digital Photography

Squintz

Squintz

Senior Member
I need some tips. I have a decent camera, its a Canon PowerShot 5M pix. I have attempted to take photos of objects at close range in the past but I always end up getting shadows or bright spots on the object. Also I can never find a pure background to set the object against.

So...

Where should I place the object when taking a picture?
-Outside or Inside?
-On what type of solid color material for a Background?

How do I avoid glare?
-I tried moving back and using the zoom and that works some but not always. Especially when i am photographing something like electronics with silver traces and solder joints.
 
Here's a great Digital photo blog that i refer to all the time.
http://www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/tips/
They have a newsletter that you can subscribe to for new tips every week.

That said. I also have the Canonon Powershot (S700 I think) and it's an awesome camera. I have had the best luck taking pictures of oblects in the following conditions:
- Natural light - inside or out shouldn't matter - with an artificial light source (aka lamp) behind the camera
- Neutral background - I try to use my grey desk or ivory kitchen counter
- How large do you need the pic? I ask because I try to take the pic from 5-6 ft. away without the zoom and then use Photoshop to zoom into it. Wit 5MP you can do some serious cropping without having to worry about resolution

Finally... if you have the latest Adobe Photoshop CS 2 there is a new feature called "High Dynamic Range (HDR)." Briefly, this feature allows you to mount your camera on a tripod, take 3 pics of the same object at different exposures and then use PS to combine them into one image for the most dynamic range (deep shadows & bright highlights). This is a pro tool... so using it correctly and getting good results takes time.
 
Squintz said:
I need some tips. I have a decent camera, its a Canon PowerShot 5M pix. I have attempted to take photos of objects at close range in the past but I always end up getting shadows or bright spots on the object. Also I can never find a pure background to set the object against.

So...

Where should I place the object when taking a picture?
-Outside or Inside?
-On what type of solid color material for a Background?

How do I avoid glare?
-I tried moving back and using the zoom and that works some but not always. Especially when i am photographing something like electronics with silver traces and solder joints.
Click to expand...
The answer is lighting. Photographing some of this stuff is actually quite difficult to do well. In traditional photography fields, there are photographers who specialize in things like jewelry - it's difficult enough to do well that they can make a living at it (hard for others to do it).

I personally have plenty of bad photos of circuit boards - most of which I do not share.

As far as backgrounds go, I usually use one of two.
1) a large sheet of white poster board
2) a sheet of black "velvet-like" material that is made to absorb light (inside cameras or optical instruments, etc.)

For lighting, you may need multiple sources to adequately light your subject. On camera flash is almost always bad. Even off camera flash can be much too bright and, since circuit boards typically reflect from multiple angles (due to the 3D nature of the solder joints), even off camera flash can give bright reflections.

The easiest solution is just to try and use multiple lights from different angles and no flash at all. Reflected or diffused light (off a white surface or through something like a white plastic diffuser) usually helps reduce bright spots and shadows. If you get really fancy, you can start looking into using polarized film in front of the light sources and lens.

I'd suggest using a tripod, too. That allows you to shoot with a slower shutter speed (reducing your lighting requirements).
 
I'm no photographer but here is my $0.02 worth.

It you want the viewer to be focused on the object in the photo then shoot it against a neutral background (I always shoot my product shots against a white piece of paper). Indoors or out doesnt completely matter except that you don't want harsh shadows.

I find circuit boards (and their traces) very hard to get a good photo of. One thing I do that helps you won't be able to do with the built-in flash. I have an older digital SLR with an external flash that mounts to the hot shoe. I can rotate the head of my flash to bounce it off the ceiling, that gives a nice even indirect light that works most of the time but I still get "shiners" on some of the brighter components. My solution to that is to keep taking shots until I get the one I'm looking for (one of the nice things about digital).

Hopefully this will help a bit.

Eric
 
Thanks guys. Some very good tips in this thread. So it seems like my problem is that I use a bright flash built into the camera instead of alternative more natural light sources.

Thanks again
 
I always avoid using the flash if at all possible. I find that you get the best light when you can go outside on a slightly overcast day. You get natural color and little or no shadows. If you must take inside pictures, then it is best to get fairly strong lighting that is not too close to what you're photographing, to get a strong but diffused lighting of the object. I've also used things like white sheets of paper to get a good neutral background. I agree with the others about circuit boards; they're hard to photograph without overly shiny spots!
 
Sorry, jumping in a little late here....

The best advice I can give is what has been said in many of the posts... Flash is bad. The camera you are using I beleive has a built in flash, therefore it can be tricky. If there is a way to disable the flash on the camera, do so. Next, as mentioned before, is to use natural light. Incadecent & flourcent lights are just not good enough.

I would bet that your camera is fully auto, so if there is enough light, then the flash will not fire. There is probably a "poitrait mode" (Usually a symbol of a person's sillouette close up). That is your best bet, as it will set the appature and shutter settins accordingly for the best exposure for a close up shot. It's possible that there is a macro setting on the camera as well, if this is the case, this is even better to use.

I have been dabbling in photography for about 6 years, both 35mm and now totally digital. The one thing stressed in any of the books, video's and classes that I have taken is: Lighting, Lighting, Lighting!

On this topic, a little side tracked, is a photo I just took last weekend. I was in Niagara Falls and this is one of the better shots I have taken in a long time, and just had to share it with you guys :blink: I ordered a poster sized print of it, and am gonna frame it for in my office. I am using a Canon Digital Rebel, with a Eprom Hack that turns it into a Canon 10D. (About another $1000 if I were to actually purchase the 10D)
 

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Wait a minute, you were in NY, and you didn't visit CocoonTech.com HQ? :blink:

I love that camera, someday, I'll get my hands on one ;) I currently have a C2100UZ (aka UZI), which is a really nice cam, but the resolution is a little low (at the time, you could not find any better camera which offered SLR features for an affordable price).
 
JohnWPB, Nice Pic!
My Canon S100 elph is probably the first camera I have owned that I actually use. It's small size is what I think is the difference. The quality is pretty good (not as good as what your camera does), but good enough for what I use it for (trade shows, pics of my 15 month old, pics for work).
 
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