Photo studio setup

I recently bought this portable photo studio:
http://www.digitalfotoclub.com/product-featuresb.asp?id=964703159&rf=dt

I have a 4 megapixel sony digital camera. Nothing fancy.
I am still not able to take good quality pictures like Steve Schlumpf or Vaughn. I think that the lights that came with the studio kit are not powerful enough.

Do you guys take shots in the Macro mode?

Any ideas??

Could anyone post pictures of their photo studio setup and provide specs on the lights etc.

Mohammad, what model is your Sony camera? I'd like to look up the info on it to see what options you might have available.

For lights, I'm using three 5500K compact fluorescent bulbs (I think they're about 30 watts) in cheap clamp-on aluminum reflectors. I'm also shooting with my camera on a tripod, and I use the controls on the camera to take a long exposure through a small hole (higher f-stop numbers). I'll post pics of my setup later tonight when I get home.

As far as I know, macro mode will help if you're holding the camera real close to the subject of the picture, but I think you'll get better results with the camera a bit farther away.

If you'd like, feel free to post a sample picture or two, and maybe among us all we can come up with some ideas to help.

My Photo Setup

Mohammad,

Just for your info - I am using a Canon A70 3.2 meg camera. The photo of my setup shows the tent I am using: http://cgi.ebay.com/PRO-PHOTO-TENT-...hZ010QQcategoryZ79006QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

and I am using this for a graduated backdrop: http://www.phototechinc.com/graduate.htm There are a number of different backdrops at this site - I am using #39 as per Neal's recommendation. #9 looks great but is very dramatic and you have to be very selective when you use it as it will absorb the light and color of most pieces.



I use 40 watt Daylight flourescent bulbs that are 5700K temp rating. They are mounted in cheap reflectors - one located subject height and to the left and the other is ceiling level and to the right of the item being photographed. I have the white-balance set for flourescent bulbs, daylight or hot setting.

Normally I shoot all photos in the macro mode - mainly because my camera will not go smaller than F8 -which in turn prevents me from backing up and using the telephoto to increase the focal length.

My camera has a couple of manual options to allow for user control. I shoot everything in AV mode - allows me to select the F stop and the camera selects the shutter speed.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions. If there is something else I can help with... please ask.

Oh, in case you were wondering... the green level in the foreground is actually used to make sure the subject is level before I take any photos.

here's a pdf file from bob hawks on the subject:
http://www.woodturner.org/products/aw/howto/hawks_article.pdf

also he has a video on the woodworking channel site. go there and click on aaw, then on bob hawks:
http://www.woodworkingchannel.com/dolphin/vidego_video_library.php

he has 40 years as a professional photographer and is a juried woodturner so he's directing his instructions on how to photograph woodturnings.

Thank you both for replying. I got some nice tips from your replies.

Vaughn, I have a Sony DSC-P92 camera and it is actually 5 megapixels. I take shots at full resolution. I just use the autofocus to take the shots.

Here are a couple of tries:

Clark, thanks for the links.

Clark has posted some good links. As promised, here's my setup...



For the light stands, I'm using a boom microphone stand leftover from my rock and roll days, and a cheap camera tripod with a boom arm on it. (Something left behind by LOML's dad.) I still often do final lighting and contrast adjustments with Photoshop after taking the pics.

Mohammad, with a few tweaks, you pic looks not bad at all...



The monitor I'm working on, is a little dark (it is OLD) so I might have lightened you pic too much, but I think you can see that with a few tweaks in a photo editing program, your pics are fairly good, not that mine are any better

Keep at it!

Mohammad, I'll second Stu's comments. You're already pretty darned close. The pics are not bad at all. The focus is a bit soft, but that's fairly common in digital cameras, and most photo editing software has some type of "Sharpen" adjustment. A little goes a long way, but it can help. You can also lighten the pics just a little bit with photo editing software.

Here's my "before and after" attempt...



I lightened the shadows, bumped up the midtone contrast, rotated it 2º to the left, and increased the sharpness just a little bit. Then I cropped it a bit to center it and clean up the edges after rotating it. Some people might consider it to be cheating, but it's nothing a photographer wouldn't be doing in the darkroom. I do similar treatment to most of the pics I've shown here.

Also, I looked at the specs on your camera, and here are a few things you might try (if you haven't already)...

• Set the light meter to "spot" instead of "miulti-segment".
• Increase the exposure compensation a bit. Try a series of pics starting at zero and working your way up to 1 or 2 (in 1/3 increments) and see which one gives you the best results.
• If you are using a tripod, try also using the camera's self-timer. That'll get rid of any camera movement from pressing the shutter button.
• Disable your flash. (I think you're already doing that, looking at the pics.)

I hope this helps -

BTW, very nice goblet, too.

Well, I might as well toss my latest attempts at picture taking in here.........




Pics taken with the new camera, I was playing with the settings, but I really need to read up on this stuff, so I can know what I'm doing, and how to do it on my camera.

And this is my set up.........




Two lights, both compact fluorescents, 5000K lights. I bought one more today, it is a 6000K compact fluorescent, so we shall see how that works.

Stu and Vaughn, Thank you so much for editing the photos for comparison. I never thought about using a software to enhance photos. Now I will though.

Vaughn, I do use a tripod stand but now I know that you cannot avoid shaking the camera if you press the shutter button manually. I will try using the timer now.

Yes, I keep the flash disabled.

I am also considering buying better lights.

I will also try some of your other suggestions but for that I am going to have to read the manual, something I have avoided so far.

Thanks for appreciating the goblet. It was something I made last fall to meet the class requirement at Cerritos college.

If you do not have any other photo editing software try picasa from google.

While this is NOT photoshop you can do some very amazing things with it for FREE. Always try I'm feeling lucky 1st... then try auto contrast.. you can reverse any edit so you can back to the original photo.

Also check out the web albums. Also free.

I do have photoshop but will generally try picasa 1st.

I am going to buy a couple of these:

http://www.handhelditems.com/5500k-color-corrected-light-fluorescent-lamp-photo-bulb-p-5711.html

Steve & Vaughn, where can I get the Clamp-on aluminum reflectors?

Mohammad

I'll throw in a couple of ideas.

To me it looks as if your subjects have too much backlighting. Either from the reflections off your tent or from diffused light through your tent. And as some one mentioned the focus looks soft. This may well be cause by your automatic camera focusing and taking its light reading from the back of the tent rather than the subject. You could verify this by placing a small item in the frame with what you have taken and re take the same picture. Use a smaller item clear to the rear of the tent. It the focus sharpens up you will know that is what is happening. To help with the back lighting you can use a background like someone else showed or just compensate for it by changing the equivalent ISO speed or if you camera has bracketing step down a little.

If you want to see what I am talking about place a subject in front of a window when its very bright out and you will get an excellent picture of the window but you subject will look like a silhouette

Garry