Taking pics!

[Canuck]

Well, why don't we open this up to Mr. Papparazzi....give us a little primer in photography if you would

[Roby]

Verry well, but I have not been called Mr. Papparazzi in a while.  OK, you push the button on the top of the camera until you hear a click but, (and this is very important) you point the little circle thing on the front towards what you want to take a picture of.

[Canuck]

Yeah, that pretty much sums up your 'magnificent' photos

Oh and I should add I'm looking for input from our other 'Canuck' member, aka 'Houdini'

[Arc Light]

I'm a  little tight for time today, so I borrowed this from the "other forum"  most of my work is with moving pictures, so this tutorial is more about lighting than shooting still pictures, but I feel a good photo whether moving or still has to start with good lighting.

To take puzzle photos that will assist in selling puzzles, you want to have soft shadow less light that will show off the puzzle and not have any dark shadows.  I find shooting puzzles on white paper a great way to get nice reflections and show off the finish.  I use one piece of paper to place the puzzle on, and a second piece of paper behind with a bit of a curve up to create a background to shoot against.

A great way to get a soft shadow less light source is by using a silk frame.  This can be made out of plastic plumbing pipe with plastic elbows to create a frame around 3.5 feet by 3.5 feet square.  The larger the frame the softer the light source.  So even if your puzzle is small you should still use a large frame.  I find 3.5 foot square to be a good size and not be too unmanageable. Over this frame you want to stretch a white material (I would recommend  purchasing some white rip stop nylon from a fabric store.  You can get fancy and sew elastic cord to the corners to attach it, or just stretch it and tape it to the frame. Next you will need to come up with a method of suspending this frame over top of the puzzle your photographing.  It could be propped up on two boxes on either side of your puzzle.  I would mount this as low as possible, but just off the top of your photo frame. You then require a light source.

I normally use a 400Watt film light projected from the top onto the frame to fill it with light (If you don't have any strong lights, you could possibly use one or two bright flood bulbs in reflectors,  they sell these at hardware stores as work lights)  The brighter the amount of light the better off you will be when shooting smaller objects, because shooting smaller objects require you to use tighter lenses to get it full frame.  This means your depth of field (amount of focus) can be quite small.  With the larger amount of light you can iris the camera down which gains you more depth of field, that way it will insure the puzzle will be in focus from the front edge to the rear edge.

*Added note.  Because on my work the lighting I use is "always on" vs a flash which is only momentarily on.  If you have a remote flash you could use that in place of my type of light.  Some experimentation maybe require to figure out how far from the frame to mount your flash.  But either way the frame will create a shadow less light whether flash lite or always on lite*

A quick word on color temperature.  The film lights I normally use have a color temperature (measured in Kelvin) around 3200 degrees Kelvin.  They are tungsten based lamps, and are warmer than daylight which would have a color temperature of around 5600 degrees Kelvin depending on how overcast the day is.  Color temperature gets bluer the higher you get, and warmer the lower you get.  A home incandescent lamp would be around 2300 degrees Kelvin.  For puzzle photos it really doesn't matter about the color temperature, most cameras have an auto white balance feature which will correct the color temperature.  The only thing you don't want to do is mix color temperatures, i.e. the cameras flash (5600k) and an incandescent bulb (2300k), in this case I would recommend shutting off the camera's flash.  If your main source of light is 3200 degrees kelvin even a window in the room can put a blue reflection in the puzzle if its not closed. If all else fails there's always Photoshop that is great tool for helping color correction.

Added note - As well as the methods above a great way of taking pictures of small puzzles is with a photo tent or a cheaper method is to build a photo box, attached is a box I made using translucent material on the side to light through.  Also is included an example of what can be achieved in a photo box type set up.

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[Canuck]

Thanks Peter!!

[rolly_wood]

Thanks Peter very interesting
If someone is interested I would add few words about stereo photographs. I am not an expert at all, just I did some tests first by taking two photos at a distance equal to the mean distance between the eyes (about 6 cm). I realized soon that the results are dependent also on focal length and distance camera-subject.
A rule of thumb that I found on the net tells that the distance between the two photographs should be chosen equal to 1/10 of that camera-to puzzle. Then I adopt this rule and, for a range of focal lenght typical of compact camera, it appears working well.
No support, tripod or particular trick are requested, just care in framing about the same scene and that the shift movement between the two shots were as much "horizontal" as possible.
Next, take the photo taken by the left position and apply a "mirror" operation with a graphics program. Place the two photos (the mirrored left one and the right one as it was originally) side by side possibly shifting them vertically to obtain an optimal alignment.
Beware to not swap left and right picts otherwise you will obtain a pseudoscopic view that is an innatural image with inverse depths.
ciao

[Chinnomotto]

Cool,
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I'm like Robey, wheres the camera,  click and load, wheres the cord, woops the batteries, Dang , too many bytes, O  JD, where are you

You photo people must winche and your stomach turns when you see my photos

Well, at least you saw the photos. Anyway good points, thanks

[Roby]

My strategy is to take 100 pictures and cross my fingers that one turns out.  It is a simple law of probability.

[Canuck]

Let me know when you get one that turns out

[STP]

Roby - that is actually the law of large numbers you are referring to...  But then again, what is a large number?  If you're buying lottery tickets, 100 is pretty small!