How to do Build Pictures

[Stephen Jones]

How to do Build Pictures ,

So just which is the best way to take photos of you're build indoors , no studio , no conservatory , No idea ! ,

Looking for hints tips , and how too ,

The camera i have is a Fujifilm finepix S 14 mega pixels bridge camera , takes great pictures but what is needed to take Pictures good enough to go to print ?

 

Cheers Steve

 

 

Edited By Stephen Jones on 26/09/2013 20:35:57

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

No good asking me Steve - I am a one man disaster area with a camera in my hand! I persevere because I suppose I'm very easily pleased where photographs are concerned - as long as I can see "the point" of the picture (in build terms) I'm happy!

BEB

[Lindsay Todd]

I think you just nailed it on the head there Beb, I don't have space for a studio when building so what you see is the reality of a messy work bench, If its shots for publication then more though needs to go into it but I keep the build blog real. The down side is I end up with two sets of shots sometimes, one real and one staged. Linds

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Steve, this is a tough one, as Linds says two sets is the reality, my pics on the forum tend to be the "real" mcCoy I still try and keep them nice, with an uncluttered back drop, but the content is much more important. However for the magazine everything has to be right. I have a roll of backdrop paper/card hanging on the wall behind one of my building benches, I pull down enough to form a curve to the front edge of the bench. I then do my building on that. I often place an A4 cutting mat on this area for the messy stuff, and when something interesting happens I quickly move things aside and shoot a shot then and there. The editor invariably wants several shots from different angles etc and some with your hand in shot helps too to give scale. You will always see my left hand cos I am right handed and need to hold the camera. I don't use a tripod for the camera though I possibly should

The other important thing to watch for are dark/sharp shadows they do not print well. The only way to avoid this was to either shoot using daylight (a conservatory perhaps?) or the way I do and that is to have a slave flash head on a stand with a reflective brolly. I use the cameras flash to give front fill, and the remote flash to give the main light, but bounced of the brolly to diffuse the light. Its all battery powered so is very easy to open the brolly and pop the stand to the side of a shot.

Cheers

Danny

[WolstonFlyer]

I think it depends what sort of quality you are aiming for. To put on a build blog then even a camera phone can get quite reasonable shots.

Your bridge camera will be perfect but you will probably have to scale the pictures down in size if you are uploading them to your album on here, I don't know if there is a quota on the number of pictures you can upload or the amount of storage space allowed per account but pictures from a 14mpx camera will be big.

To get a more professional looking background you could use a coloured cloth and smooth it out to get rid of the wrinkles, or even splash out on a roll of photography background paper, there are lots of colours and widths of paper rolls from 1.35m wide to big 3.55m wide.

There is quite an art to good lighting, free natural sunlight from a window can be very good, you can put thin paper over the window to diffuse the light but you are limited to taking pictures in the day time. The built in flash on the camera is probably the worst thing to use but you can get reasonably priced constant lighting kits that are easy to use. I own this kit (I have no link to the company other than being a happy customer) and have lit some very professional looking product and portrait pictures over the last couple of years. The lights are very bright with good colour temperature and are much easier to use than flash units.

I hope this helps, I am not a professional but "dabble" in photography with a Sony DSLR.

[Stephen Jones]

Thanks for the tips guys ,

I would like to be ale to archive the same quality as Danny has My best efforts , 3 bulbs and a stand i have scaled the pic down to 800x600 .

[WolstonFlyer]

You will find that normal bulbs are just not bright enough and ideally you need light with a high colour temperature of around 5000 kelvin in order to simulate sunlight. This is why your photo above has a yellow hue to it, the light is not "hot" enough to give white light. You can compensate for this with the white balance settings in the camera to some extent but it is easier to use different lighting.

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 27/09/2013 07:20:21

[Ernie]

Hi Steve, If you follow a few simple rules, it's easy enough

Go outside, & wait for good light.....ie lots of it, but not too much direct sun...that way you will avoid strong shadows

Avoid any clutter......lawnmowers, the cat, juniors rattle etc. Best of all, lay down a sheet of plain heavy paper as a background.

Having said all that, Most of my own workshop shots are taken with flash on the building board, 'cos I like the details, and the tools etc. lying around for a bit of added interest

ernie

[Greybeard]

Midday sunlight is closer to 6500K in England at least. Lighting hues brought about by shhoting under other lighting can be easily be corrected by the most basic of photomanipulation software that probably came with your digital camera.

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

What I've learnt as an art director...

1) Remove everything from the photo area, except anything that is absolutely required for the narrative you want to show.

2) Set up a large sheet of flexible white stuff as a base that curves gently into a background. I've used an a1 sheet of 0.5mm plastic on my desk and against the wall very successfully.

3) Set up 2 - 3 ordinary angle poise lamps (or any directional lamps you have) at angles to each other to counter shadows - clip on some thick tracing paper to diffuse the light a bit.

4) WHITE BALANCE THE CAMERA TO THE BACKGROUND. If you do nothing else, remember to WHITE BALANCE THE CAMERA. Okay? WHITE BALANCE THE CAMERA.

5) WHITE BALANCE THE CAMERA.

6) Use a tripod and the timer function on the camera to avoid any shake.

7) Place tha camera far enough away to show everything, but close enough to show the detail you want to support the text. Adjust as required.

8) WHITE BALANCE THE CAMERA.

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

I have to disagree with Greybeard, though. I wouldn't photomanipulate unless you really know what youre doing. It can look rather pony.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

"White balance the camera" - my camera has two buttons; one turns it on and off, the other means you're taking a picture! I like simplicity!

BEB

[Greybeard]

Posted by Lima Hotel Foxtrot on 27/09/2013 12:08:41:

I have to disagree with Greybeard, though. I wouldn't photomanipulate unless you really know what youre doing. It can look rather pony.

Deagree as you will, but learning these simple actions is just that - simple.

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

It's not how simple they are, my point is about how well a person can use them. There are lots of tools in various photomanipulation packages, but they may not always be the best choice for what the user wants to do. Besides, if it's a rubbish picture in the first place it is very hard to make it good in on the computer.

[David Tweddle]

I used to have a guaranteed to last one hour also a white brolly that me Mum used for my son in the garden one summer .>>

The bulb needed to be started with a rheostat, or else...>>

David>>

[Stephen Jones]

Wow , this is the kind of help and advice i was hoping for Cheers Guys ,

I would agree or should i say i understand the point that a bad picture is a bad picture and that photo manipulation can only go so far . As with Data or sound waves you can only clean it up so far .

I am after taking good pictures to start with and the most practical way of doing it , in the comfort of my loft i don't like the idea of taking parts out side ever time i need to take a picture .

Cheers Steve ,

[Stephen Jones]

i Haven't got a light box yet or made one , but i have draped some paper over the workbench , then white balanced the camera . so i think these are now better , but i don't think i will be able to do anything much larger than 20" .

This is held by hand so shadow is not in shot .

And these are on top of a box with two lights in on top of which is clear plastic and paper over the top of that .

What do you think? .

Cheers Steve

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

Nice pics. Exactly what I was getting at. A complicated frame at that sort of angle you will always have shadows unless you have some serious kit or many light sources of varying power and colour temperature.

[Stephen Jones]

Hi again ,

Thanks LHF i have been playing a bit more with my camera and have come to the conclusion that i can not avoid dark shadows or patches .

So i have decided to take as good a picture as i can then use software to edit the picture .

Ok so this is ok but can i improve with software the two below are take from the picture above .

And i did the same on one i made earlier so this is the before software alteration .

And this is after working with software .

So what do you think now , it is better but would it likely be accepted to print or as readers would you prefer to see it without modification .

Cheers Steve .

[Stephen Jones]

Just had another thought , not tried it yet but the idea is set the camera on a tripod take a picture of the surface you are going to put you're intended item on .

Then take another picture with the item on .

Ok so now we have a mask .

use software to extract you picture ( item ) i use , gimp cos it`s free ,

Now you can past you item back onto you're 1st blank picture and cos it`s on the tripod and nothing has move you should get a natural image without the shadow .

This was not done that way , just a blank bacground .

[Danny Fenton]

I thought I would post this pic to give an idea of how I do a build and photograph it at the same time.

I have to squeese in between that lot and silver solder this elevator joiner. I also have to do it with a remote control in my hand So now you know why my builds take so long

Cheers

Danny

[Gary Manuel]

As technically superb as these images are, there is still a lot to be said for just snapping away at models on the workbench.

I like to see the environment that models are built in - along with the tools and photos of granny in the background.

I agree that pure - uncluttered images are needed for magazines, to focus on the subject matter. I don't think that the same images are best suited to a build thread. A half decent camera and plenty of light is all that's needed in my opinion.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I just snap away and I like to see others workplace a mess, makes me feel less guilty

But Danny do's a good blog, very informative and clear I enjoy em.

John

[Tony Bennett]

i have been trying to do better pictures, the problem i have is that my models are a bit big to fit in a light box.

[Mark Kettle 1]

Danny your getting some nice results there. Mind your the pictures with a little shadow going on, I feel give the picture relieve and depth, and helps the eye understand what's going on.

I've just used a mobile phone for picture's I've been doing, and to save on memory space most time have the setting on 640 x 480 - of course the quality isn't in that kind of resolution, but it makes it quick to load up, and doesn't make my cloud storage sink.

Your Picture's Danny are fantastic. Here's my set-up, very simple.

this shot taken with the camera on the laptop lid. 

The smaller tripod is used for close up shots and often take the picture's via self timer so I can hold the work.

I've had the large tripod since 1984, taken it to many a wedding's. 

Edited By Mark Kettle 1 on 27/09/2014 23:04:46

Edited By Mark Kettle 1 on 27/09/2014 23:07:17