Camera Labs

Hi, my name is steve, I make heavily embossed ceramic tiles and want to photgraph them for my new website. I have a huge range of colours all in gloss, matt and satin. I have an eos 1000d with the 18-55 (non is) kit lens used on a tripod and have been playing for a whole two weeks now. I photograph the pieces individually on small aisles against black or white paper in a light box.
A problem I have is with sunlight through trees etc which hits my studio all day and changes the light inside all the time. I have white venetian blinds on all windows and a blackout blind on the main suset window. The room is lit with 12 x 50 watt tungsten downlights set into the ceiling and I have a variety of daylight and tungsten lamps and bulbs.

If you were asked to photograph these tiles for a website what lens would you prefer to use and how would you light the shots.

I'm struggling to get consistancy, help!

Hi Steve. Welcome to the CL forum.

Although you seem to be able to block a lot of the outside light you apparently still feel it causes a problem. You didn't specify what the nature of the problem is. Some shots too light? Too dark? Unwanted shadows? Off-colour? We only know what you tell us. Since the camera should be able to meter for and adapt to quite a broad range of light intensities (what mode are you shooting in?) I'm guessing your problem might be mostly variations in colour accuracy. This could most likely be compensated for by using a custom white balance.

Any zoom lens usually gives the best result around the middle of its focal length range. Around 35mm should be a good focal length with good sharpness and little distortion. A prime might be marginally better but since you can use most of the frame to fill the subject with I don't really expect any significant problems with insufficient detail particularly if you'll only be showing them at website resolutions.

It would help if you could post some of your photos here in order to be able to give you the best advice.

Ben
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When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

I'd say you got your equipment set right, the 1000D + 18-55 should be enough for what you do, but if lighting is giving you problems....I'd go for a cheap set of (studio) flashes.

You might ask "why not normal bulbs?". Well, normal bulbs get quite hot, which isn't nice to work with and can be a danger to your lightbox (it might catch fire). But hotlights (as we call them) are also not very intense, and may not be able to overpower the daylight, which means you'll get weird color shifts.

However, if you want to work with the stuff you have, read up on setting a custom whitebalance on your 1000D using a greycard (you can use a white piece of paper for this) and try again

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Hi citruspurs amd Cam i am, sorry I have not posted,back, I don't really remember this post.

[i]This is where I am now, as copied from my second post a few days ago..


Thanks Bob, I've found my first post don't remember that

I've been like a bluebottle round a turd since then,scouring the net for info regards the camera, lighting, colour management not to mention photoshop. ! This is where I am now...

Settled for tungsten lighting, just simple work lamps fixed in position for consistency, aimed at a white ceiling, then various smaller tungsten lamps to fiddle with.

Studio completely blacked out, no daylight at all.

Studio walls painted a light grey matt, plus as little colour as possible everywhere else.

Got rid of light tent as I found it too creatively restrictive and a lighting dead end.

I bought a Spyder 3 pro and calibrate my monitor (brilliant)a Spyder cube and a colour checker Passport to play with white balance etc.

I so completely fell out of love with photoshop, that I think all things adobe are just too irritatingly obscure and unintuitive for me at the mo.

Is it just me or dose anyone else think elements is like a kids comp game, lots of hidden cheats and secret stuff???.

I now use the blessed DPP software for all editing, I love it to bits and I'm currently playing with the picture style editor.

Still using the kit lens but did buy a cheap canon nifty fifty which, up to date, was a waste of money for what I'm doing, but it loves my grandson

Camera used tethered, in manual mode (mostly) on a tripod, against mainly matt black or white backgrounds although I am playing with other stuff.

My problem is remembering what I have read up on. I have digested the bits I actually think I need, but I get embarrassed not knowing about focal lengths and stuff that must seem obvious to others, but just wont stay in my cranium.


I will post some pics later tonight for some feed back,

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steve.[i][/i][/i]

Hi Steve,

Sorry, but having two threads on the same subject and/or double posting potentially wastes member's time, not to mention breaking forum rules.

If you have trouble finding your posts in future click on any of your post's profile buttons (bottom left) and then click the "Find all posts by steve44" link.

This thread is locked - please continue here.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.