Donnie's Camera / Photo Tip #1 "Lighting"

Last edited by Donnie on Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:40 am; edited 1 time in total

Donnie's Camera / Photo Tip #1
Taking a photo of your ship from bow to stern and keeping the entire shot in FOCUS.

I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth (for what ever it is worth) to anyone interested. I am calling this Donnie's Camera / Photo Tip #1

It seems that the market is flooded with all sorts of cameras, from very simple "point and shoot" to a full manual operated Digital SLR (DSLR) which stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex.

First on a personal note. I never held a camera in my hands until about the year 2000. It was an Olympus 1.3 Meg Pixel camera ( WOW !) I honestly do not even know what happened to it. I think my wife has it now. If my memory serves me, it used (a now obsolete) memory card that had a very low memory. I think around 512K. That is a ridiculous low memory compared to the now touted 8 gigabyte (8G). Things have really changed.

There are so many areas to cover in photography, there is no way I can touch all areas. I would like to make my attention to ship modeling photography.

As a disclaimer, I consider myself an amateur as I do not do photography as a business - it is only a hobby. I am sure that there are other ways and even better ways of doing things the way that I "suggest" as the tips that I outline are just that. It is only ideas to help the modeler get the most out of his or her photographs to post on this forum.

As I am writing this, now a multitude of things come to mind as what to start out with. It may seem the first tip may be for advanced users, and it very well be, but this tip (to me) is so important, I want to go ahead and dive right in and demonstrate this tip so that you can learn and use it to the best of your ability.

Actually this tip has three components:
1) light
2) depth of field
3) DO NOT use Flash

You may already be saying to yourself that you know nothing of what is already mentioned here. Hey, it has taken me years and I still do not understand everything about photography. I am only doing this to help others and teach others what I have learned the hard way by trial and error.

Ok, back to "Light". You really need A LOT OF LIGHT to take a picture of your ship in a way that will be great shot. Do not use flash. You need your OWN light.
I can see right now, I am digging a large tutorial here - but hang on and I will make it brief. Maybe I need to come back to lighting at another tip. But in order to demonstrate tip #1, I need to explain some things.

I use a shotbox that I built on my own. I went to a craft store and bought what is called "foam core" board. I made a 5 sided box with all sides being about 36 inches long on all sides. I then bought be some clamp on bell assembly lamp fixtures and outfitting the lamp fixtures with about 5500 Kelvin florescent bulbs. I used four of these assemblies. Two mounted on top of box, two mounted on side.

The depth of field situation gets into a lot of detail of which there is no need at this point. Besides, I have already wrote more than I thought I was Smile

What you want is a VERY long Depth of Field. You want to be able to take a picture of your ship with all details in focus.

The meat of the matter out of all of this writing is this. Instead of me explaining all about depth of field, why don't I just tell you what the magic numbers are. The GENERAL magic number is this: If you have a camera that has the ability to shoot in Manual Mode, most cameras will have the letter "M" on it. This is manual. Set your camera to "M" and see if you can adjust your setting to Fstop of f18 and the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second. This is a GENERAL setting and depending on your camera, it might now allow you to go as low as f18. Your camera may only allow you to go down as far as f11. If this is the case, then you will have to readjust your speed to around 1/60.
See, the thing is this: The lower the f number like f18, f20, f22 and even down to f32, your camera aperture is getting smaller and smaller to a tiny pin hole. The more tiny the opening of your camera, then your camera has the ability to take a picture of an object IN FOCUS from something every up close to the item far, far away.
I often see a lot of people taking pictures of their ship with the bow facing them, with the stern way in the back. This is desirable shot as well, but often times the bow is in perfect focus, while the stern is completely OUT OF FOCUS. This technique of adjusting your camera to the lower f number will allow for the ENTIRE part of the ship to be in focus.
Remember, use a LOT of light either natural or lighting, but stay away from Flash.

I hope this first tip has some meaning to someone. If everyone seems to enjoy the tips, then I will pursue writing some more.

PS - TRIPODS are a must - you gotta keep your camera still.

Enjoy
Donnie

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:53 pm • Post subject:

It might help to post a photo of your photo setup (cube and lights)

Good discussion

bob h

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:02 pm • Post subject:

Donnie-thanks for the information. Very useful and well written.

Semper Fi,

Geomac

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:42 pm • Post subject:

Just another point- if you want to go down to 1/15 sec, you should be using a tripod. The general standard I was taught and find useful is anything under 1/60sec shouldn't be handheld. I can get away with maybe 1 stop lower, 2 by leaning against something and holding my breath, but if you tend to be a "shaky" person, not a good idea. -Chad

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:53 pm • Post subject:

You are correct. I do have a tripod mounted camera. This is near a must.

Donnie

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:23 am • Post subject:

Hello all,

Just adding a little extra info on Chad's ideias.

I have always followed a slightly different rule regarding the 1/60 sec theory. On a "normal" (analog) 35mm SLR you can get away without "shaking" as long as you use a fraction of time that has a bigger number than the focal length you are using. For example, on a 50mm focal length lense, you could use 1/60 sec without "shaking" but 1/30 sec will most likely produce a "shaken" image without the tripod. Another example: on a 28mm lense, 1/30 sec would (should) not produce a shake even without a tripod. Still another example, on a 105mm focal length your minimum time value without shaking would be 1/125.

The farther away the two values are (focal length and time), the less chances there are for shaking.

This has always worked fine for me ... up until now that is. With the "new" digital cameras that everyone is now using, this rule has no effect because, for instance, on a Nikon Coolpix 5400, a focal length of 5.8 - 24 mm is equivalent to a 28 - 116 mm on an analog (normal) 35 mm. What this means basically is that you will have to go with trial and error, or else do a little math and convert your particular lenses to 35 mm and then use the general rule from there.

I hope this explanation makes sense. If not, please say so and I will try to clarify it more.

Best regards,
Paulo