Turning Pics Setup

Cody Colston

Member
Messages
336
Location
Tyler, Texas
I'm sure this has been asked before either here or on that other forum but I'd like to know how to achieve pics of my turnings like the ones I see posted here.

Travis Stinson, Mark Cothren, Jim Ketron and probably others post these great looking pics with a light foreground changing to a bluish background.

What sort of photo box setup do y'all use? Is the seamless paper blue? How much light is necessary and where positioned?

I know that's a lot of questions but I'd really like to improve my picture taking. I have a Nikon D50 digital camera so that shouldn't be the problem. Any advice is certainly appreciated.
 
This "inquiring mind" would like to know more, too! I've worked out that a low-cost solution can be set up as shown below ... but there must be more to the setup you "experts" use! Especially lighting-wise...

ShadowlessPhotography.gif
 
Cody, the backdrop you see is a gradient background.

Here are a bunch to look at. "Thunder Gray" is the dark one you see a lot of; I have "Studio Gray" myself.

The photo cube/tent I use came from eBay. I've bought one good one and one cheapie one there, so they do vary from vendor to vendor. (I don't recall who I bought my good one from.) For lights, I use three 5,000K fluorescent bulbs in the aluminum clamp-on fixtures available at the hardware store. Here's my setup. (You should recognize the camera):

Photo Tent - 01 800.jpg Photo Tent - 02 800.jpg Photo Tent - 06 800.jpg
 
Ah-ha! I suspected a gradient background of some kind, but I wasn't sure they even made such things.

Vaughn, what's the wattage on the bulbs you use for this particular setup? It looks like I have everything but the "right" bulbs.... :doh:
 
Ah-ha! I suspected a gradient background of some kind, but I wasn't sure they even made such things.

Vaughn, what's the wattage on the bulbs you use for this particular setup? It looks like I have everything but the "right" bulbs.... :doh:
I think mine are 40 watt, like Travis'. More important than the wattage is the color temp. I've hear that 5,000K was the right number to look for. (Perhaps someone who knows more can chime in with more info.)

The professional gradient backdrops that I linked to are pretty pricey. I know other guys have simply made a gradient background with a graphics program like Photoshop, saved the result as a JPG file, then taken the file to Kinko's and got it printed on large stock. For a few bucks, you can still get a pretty good backdrop. I'd suggest sticking with neutral colors, though. As tempting as a hot pink to blue gradient might seem, shades of gray tend to work with a bigger variety of pieces.
 
Thanks guys!

Yep, I caught the 5000 K color temperature reference, but I wondered just how many watts at that "temperature" it took to light:
* a turned piece
* through the surfaces of a light tent
* in an otherwise (mostly?) darkened space​
40 watts per bulb sounds like surprisingly few ... any idea what your average aperture and shutter speed are with that amount of light? If not, no big deal; just curious.

I appreciate the photos of your setups! :thumb:

PS - Travis, I only see one light (in use) in your "wide" shot. Is the one in the second shot kinda hanging from the ceiling? Are there other lights that don't show up in the first photo?
 
Kerry, I run my camera on aperture priority, and crank the f-stop down to F/25 (to get the maximum depth of field). My shutter speed ranges from about .75 to 2.0 seconds...whatever the camera thinks is right. The three lights are sufficient at that slow of speeds. And a tripod is a given. (I also use the self-timer set at 2 seconds, so there's no tripod wiggle.) ;) I shoot the pics in an otherwise darkened room.
 
Well, I've been using three VERY bright halogen worklight lamps, and my pics still are too dark :doh:

Maybe the darkened room would help or I can try some of them compact bulbs....:dunno:
 
Well, I've been using three VERY bright halogen worklight lamps, and my pics still are too dark :doh:

Maybe the darkened room would help or I can try some of them compact bulbs....:dunno:
Bright to us is not necessarily bright to the camera. Sort of, but not necessarily. I believe part of it is dependent on the color spectrum output by the lights.

Can you slow your shutter speed down any more? Or perhaps adjust the exposure compensation setting to lighten things up?
 
I think I can, I'll have to play with the camera.

Everything else I'm doing, self timer, tripod, background, but, the pics still need to be lightened up. I also use a homemade photo tent:dunno:

I'll try the "Darkened Room" as well (easy to do in the Dungeon :D)

Cheers!
 
...I'll try the "Darkened Room" as well (easy to do in the Dungeon :D)

Cheers!
Not sure that a dark room will help lighten the pics. I like to do it with no other lights to avoid getting stray spots of orange glare coming off the table lamps in the living room where I shoot my pics.

(My wife rocks. She lets me leave the photo tent set up in the middle of the living room for days at a time.)
 
Vaughn, Travis,

Thanks for the tips and the attached pics.

Kerry, Stu,

Thanks for asking the questions that I didn't know enough to ask.

Vaughn, this place rocks, too!
 
I'm using the same basic setup. Tent from eBay (Steve Kaeser), graduated backdrop (http://www.phototechinc.com/graduate.htm), Home Depot 8-1/2" reflectors and 5K compact fluorescent bulbs. Works great.

Stu, when I first set this tent up I tried two 100W bulbs and wasn't happy with my shots. Stepping down to 60W or even 40W produced a MUCH better pic. Like Vaughn said, it's not a matter of brightness. If you can match your camera's "white balance" setting to the lights you are using you'll get much better results than just flooding the tent with bright light. The daylight bulbs (5K temp) work really well with the "fluorescent" white balance setting on my camera.
 
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Photoshop is the other magic ingredient. Best invention since toilet paper and the Home Lobotomy Kit. ;)

Once you've got your camera set to the correct white balance setting for the lights you are using the software can take it from there. My pics are usually are on the dark side until I tweak the "Levels" settings. Between this and adjusting the brightness/contrast you can get a pretty good pic that is true to color and much brighter than the original. "Sharpen" is also useful.

If you don't have Photoshop there are several other packages out there that do the same thing. "The GIMP" is a good free one very similar to Photoshop. Paintshop Pro (commercial) is another.
 
Photoshop is the other magic ingredient. Best invention since toilet paper and the Home Lobotomy Kit. ;)

Once you've got your camera set to the correct white balance setting for the lights you are using the software can take it from there. My pics are usually are on the dark side until I tweak the "Levels" settings. Between this and adjusting the brightness/contrast you can get a pretty good pic that is true to color and much brighter than the original. "Sharpen" is also useful.

If you don't have Photoshop there are several other packages out there that do the same thing. "The GIMP" is a good free one very similar to Photoshop. Paintshop Pro (commercial) is another.
What Neal said. Truly the magic ingredient.

I see Photoshop as just another tool. I use it to clean up spots, scratches, and dog hairs on my backdrop, to adjust the lighting and contrast levels, and to straighten out crooked photos.

Here's a typical before and after pair:

DSC_3373 800.jpg HF033 - 06 800.jpg
 
Nice example, Vaughn. That's a huge difference!

I got to playing around with a pic I originally rejected. Here's what the software did for it. Still don't know how my camera got that off-kilter. Thank goodness for "Rotate".

Before: IMG_3953.jpg
After: IMG_3953b.jpg
 
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