Not bad Highsider,your surname sounds italian
One thing:i don't like the arms to be reflected in the mirror,you can try to point it outwards next time so there will be some landscape inside.

Two random shots of my friend's DJ bike

Went down to London town at the weekend, to see the NFL game, got a couple of London it's self, but most need some quick tidy up's and little touches.

But managed to get 3 from the game which need only minor adjustments,

im glad to see the boys from back homeare raising some spirit over there too

im from masachusetts and so are they

More autumn randomness from the K-M.

First one is gorgeous, Taavi. You still using the kit lens?

So, through no fault of my own, I've agreed to do some product photography for a client. Since I have no experience, talent or equipment nor money to buy experience, talent or equipment I'm completely out of my depth and thought I'd ask you lot for some advice.

So far I've built myself a light box out of spit and duct-tape:


...and taken a few test-shots (see attachment). They come out semi-all-right, but since the camera (a FinePix S7000) is just about pre-WW2, they are very grainy. The photos will apparently be used for print, so I'm worried they may be too grainy?

Is there anything obvious I can do to get a better result that doesn't involve spending a fortune on a proper camera? Is there something you see I'm doin' rong?

Please be gentle.

I'd try to rent a dSLR and prime lens (probably a 50mm f/1.4) and charge it to the client. You won't get much better out of the FinePix if that's base ISO.

Quote from wien :

So, through no fault of my own, I've agreed to do some product photography for a client. Since I have no experience, talent or equipment nor money to buy experience, talent or equipment I'm completely out of my depth and thought I'd ask you lot for some advice.

So far I've built myself a light box out of spit and duct-tape:

...and taken a few test-shots (see attachment). They come out semi-all-right, but since the camera (a FinePix S7000) is just about pre-WW2, they are very grainy. The photos will apparently be used for print, so I'm worried they may be too grainy?

Is there anything obvious I can do to get a better result that doesn't involve spending a fortune on a proper camera? Is there something you see I'm doin' rong?

Please be gentle.

That lightbox is awesome! I just have to try making one

Buy a proper camera, if a pic comes so noisy as that with ISO200, you don't do nothing with a camera like that!

You can use photoshop though, search a plugin called noise ninja. It's quite good.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

I'd try to rent a dSLR and prime lens (probably a 50mm f/1.4) and charge it to the client. You won't get much better out of the FinePix if that's base ISO.

Yeah, I can' get it lower than ISO200. Renting is a good idea, but my quick search revealed no place that does that around here (fairly small town, at least by American standards). I may give Oslo a try if I'm desperate, but we'll see.

Quote from Tomba(FIN) :

That lightbox is awesome! I just have to try making one

Thanks. It's was dead simple to build and took me all of an hour to do. You just need a cardboard box and some stationary. Cut out three sides and cover the rest of the inside with some glossy white paper/cardboard. Then drape some white cloth or tracing paper over the holes, point some light at it and you're done.

Quote from Tomba(FIN) :

Buy a proper camera, if a pic comes so noisy as that with ISO200, you don't do nothing with a camera like that!

You can use photoshop though, search a plugin called noise ninja. It's quite good.

I'd love to buy a camera, but I can't afford one right now. Thanks for the tip about the plug-in though. That stuff is magic! Kinda pricey though, but I guess it's worth it.

Quote from wien :

Yeah, I can' get it lower than ISO200. Renting is a good idea, but my quick search revealed no place that does that around here (fairly small town, at least by American standards). I may give Oslo a try if I'm desperate, but we'll see.

Thanks. It's was dead simple to build and took me all of an hour to do. You just need a cardboard box and some stationary. Cut out three sides and cover the rest of the inside with some glossy white paper/cardboard. Then drape some white cloth or tracing paper over the holes, point some light at it and you're done.

I'd love to buy a camera, but I can't afford one right now. Thanks for the tip about the plug-in though. That stuff is magic! Kinda pricey though, but I guess it's worth it.

Small suggestion that will make your lightbox shots much, much better if you're into that.

Get a cheap IKEA glass table, tape a table sized paper under the glass. Build your lightbox without a floor on top of it and add one extra light under the table shooting upwards through the table. It makes all transparent stuff (bottles, liquid) look really great.

Also when shooting product images, shoot it with a bit cooler white balance and linger on just the edge of burning highlights.

The background should not burn out in any case and if you're going for the blown white it should be only about half a stop above the subject exposure or you'll lose the detail in the edges.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

First one is gorgeous, Taavi. You still using the kit lens?

Yes, i'm still using the kit lens (18-55). Maybe getting a Sigma 70-300 APO Macro in the near future. Since i'm on a very low budget, i can't afford anything faster.

If I were you I'd look around for a SMC Pentax-M or -A 50mm f/1.7 on eBay or a local buy/sell/trade site. These generally go for <$50 and are an incredible value if you don't mind manually focusing.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Small suggestion that will make your lightbox shots much, much better if you're into that.

The glass is a really good idea. I thought about it to get the reflective "Apple" look, but it didn't occur to me to put a light underneath it. How would you handle the glass to background transition then? Just straight-line it, or maybe try to shop it away? Guess I'll just have to try and see how it turns out.

Thanks for your other advise as well. Slightly over my head, but I think I understand the theory at least. Time to crack open the camera manual again I think.

Quote from spankmeyer :

The background should not burn out in any case...

Does the backround burn out in my first picture? I think I only bounced the flash from the top of the box at that time. Halogen lights tend to produce yello glow as the second picture shows.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Also when shooting product images, shoot it with a bit cooler white balance and linger on just the edge of burning highlights.

I twiddled the levels of the JPG a bit to experiment, and I think I like this a lot better. The blue tint to the background certainly helps. It's just miles from what actually came out of the camera and I was a bit afraid of pushing it too far.

Quote from wien :

I twiddled the levels of the JPG a bit to experiment, and I think I like this a lot better. The blue tint to the background certainly helps. It's just miles from what actually came out of the camera and I was a bit afraid of pushing it too far.

You can see in the histogram when you are starting to blow channels. Quick dabble with LR.



Oh and if you're shooting tallish objects like the bottle, try making make a long strip light (Google) to cast a smooth highlight following the curves of the bottle.

I actually knew about the histogram, I just didn't realise how far you meant I should push it. Hmm, I really like the background actually looking white instead of blue, but at the same time I wanted to avoid the heavy contrast look on the bottle itself (the label is actually charcoal grey.) I'm sure that can be fixed though.

Meh, it's way too easy to see yourself blind on this stuff. Going back to my earlier attempts that I was totally happy with at the time I'm left wondering WTF I was thinking.

As for the highlights, I realise they look a bit silly. The strip lights look like a really good idea, but I don't think my two, totally awesome, 11W low-energy light bulbs can light through one of those. Next time (if I'm not chased out of Dodge thanks to these photos.)

Thanks for all your help. Really useful as a reality check.

Ok here's something different. I was asked to do a theme-based promo shoot for a local band. The new tunes were somewhat gangster and mob inspired so from there we took off.

Shot at the end of September but couldn't release them before they finished the album. The whole shoot lasted about about 8 hours on three locations.

We were going for a cinematic feel and sequence of images from the initial heist or robbery to the after party.

The full sequence including band member portraits is about 10 images long so here's some of the picks in between. Hope you enjoy!

What are those halos,Mikko?
Apart from that,superb work

Those are amazing :O

Quote from spankmeyer :

Ok here's something different. I was asked to do a theme-based promo shoot for a local band. The new tunes were somewhat gangster and mob inspired so from there we took off.

Shot at the end of September but couldn't release them before they finished the album. The whole shoot lasted about about 8 hours on three locations.

We were going for a cinematic feel and sequence of images from the initial heist or robbery to the after party.

The full sequence including band member portraits is about 10 images long so here's some of the picks in between. Hope you enjoy

Freaking awesome!

This is a gallery from a good photographer
http://www.photo4u.it/album_personal.php?user_id=24974