Oak bowl-Piccy question.

[Paul.J]

I made this Oak bowl some time ago,Hegner period :lol: but i just couldn't get a decent piccy of it at the the time :roll:
So after seeing all the great looking piccys that are appearing now,by the use of light boxes etc i thought i would have a go at making me own,and tried it out with this Oak bowl,and i have to say that it is the best piccy so far,of it.
Just looks out of focus on the underside,so any suggestions on how to get the whole image sharp.If at all :?: Or am i been over fussy :roll:
I am using a Fuji Finepix-S6500 FD.Set on auto focus.

 

[greggy]

paul, i am no david bailey. but have you tried it on close up mode. it may be better. it worked for me.

 

[stevebuk]

hi paul
do a few practise shots from the same distance away, when i photograph my pens like this one:


i get about 3 feet from the pen, i use two spotlights, sometimes 3, and then zoom in and take the shot, i will also take several shots from closer but one thing to remember is, you need a small aperture to get it all in focus.
Start by getting the rim in focus and use the different setting on the camera and see what gives you the best results from a set distance. You will probably find that some will render the image as you see now, the centre in focus and the rim out of focus, but others will give you what you want.
Experiment, its fun..

 

[stevebuk]

paul, i am no david bailey. but have you tried it on close up mode. it may be better. it worked for me.

hahah colin, never seen a clear photo of yours yet :wink:

 

[Paul.J]

Thanks Steve/Greggy.
Steve i have tried doing what you have suggested,even in manual mode,but there is always a part of the piccy that is always a little blurry.
Even keep on reading the manual and doing it how others have suggested,some times it works and some times it doesn't,as with this bowl when i first tried taking a piccy of it.
Could it be the camera at fault :?:

 

[CHJ]

Paul, as Steve said you need to select/force a smaller aperture (bigger f-No.) to increase focus depth, speed will slow down to compensate but no problem with tripod.

Also try moving tripod further away and use more zoom to frame item, may give you more depth, might open aperture up though which you don't want, depends on lens.

What wattage and type of lights are you using?

Edit: Try setting your camera to a different focusing mode, spot, spread whatever and see what it gets best results with.

 

[stevebuk]

possible Paul but usually it can be camera shake. I always lean on something close by to stay rigid when taking the pic, what i have found in the past is, some folks tend to move their right hands slightly when taking the pic and because there is a slight pause between clicking the button and the actual photo being taken, and this millisecond is enough to send the picture blurred.

 

[wizer]

agreed, the problem is the DOF. You need to bring it back a bit.

 

[Dave H]

a small aperture and a steady tripod are the key.

also - if you can focus on a point just beyond the front rim of the object rather than on the front edge - this will maximise your depth of field.

 

[Hans]

As Steve said, small aperture. Use a tripod or even better flash.

Focus on a about 1/3rd from the nearest point of the bowl, keep the release button pressed halfway, (re)compose your shot and release.

I disagree with Chas in regard to zooming out. In general it will improve
the composition and will give a more realistic perspective but your depth of field will not improve, it is more likely it will decrease.

For an explanation of depth of field see Wikipedia

Hope this helps

Hans

 

[CHJ]

....I disagree with Chas in regard to zooming out. In general it will improve
the composition and will give a more realistic perspective but your depth of field will not improve, it is more likely it will decrease.

No argument from me on that Hans, just trying to see if whatever focusing method, spot/average etc. Paul is using made a better assumption from a different position.

 

[shedhead]

I have found that the problem i have is red tint to the picture or a blue tint. This i have found happens when using different type bulbs. Bulbs that are too bright or not bright enough. I think the best bulb to use for pictures indoors is a Daylight bulb. From memory it is about 5000k. On the out of focus problem, i find it best to use the timer, this will stop any camera shake created with holding the camera.
Then again i might be wrong!!!!!

 

[Paul.J]

Thanks for the suggestions
I will keep on trying but as isay i have tried most,which makes me think there is something wrong with the camera,but we'll see .
Chas
I only try to use daylight for lighting,no spots Could the lighting be causing the problem:?:

 

[wizer]

Paul I really don't think colour or light comes into it. It's focusing. Play around with your camera's manuals settings. You can see that the focus is on the back of the piece and blurs the front. But that's not the zoom, it's the way the camera is choosing to focus on the bowl. You need to take it out of auto to get the right results.

 

[duncanh]

Just looks out of focus on the underside,so any suggestions on how to get the whole image sharp.If at all :?: Or am i been over fussy :roll:
I am using a Fuji Finepix-S6500 FD.Set on auto focus.

As others have said - if you use fully automatic mode then you need to switch to either Program (P) or Aperture Priority (A) mode. This will let you increase the aperture. A quick search has revealed that the max for your camera is 11 so try that.
Mount the camera on a tripod.
If you have a cable release then use it, if not then set the camera to 2 second self timer.

You will need to experiment with focusing to see which mode works best - single point, multi point etc.
Personally I use single point, focus the camera on the point that I want in focus and then use focus lock to re-frame the shot. I see that your camera has focus lock so you could experiment with that.

Duncan

 

[Lightweeder]

Don't know about your photography skills, but that's a lovely bowl =D>

 

[Bob Chapman]

Hi Paul,

It's taken me a long time to learn how to take a reasonable picture with my digital camera. I'm certainly no expert but this is how I do it:

First use a plain uncluttered background somewhere reasonably well lit by natural light if possible. Put the camera on a tripod - absolutely essential. Set the white balance to a 'cloudy day' setting if you can. Arrange your object and look at it from different angles/heights to get the best perspective. Set the tripod so the camera lens is roughly where your eyes are.

Put the camera in manual mode and set the lens opening to f22. This will give you a good depth of field so that the whole thing is in focus. Put the camera on a timer so that it doesn't start until a second or two after you've pressed the button. This avoids camera shake. At f22, not much light is entering the camera so you need a long shutter speed. I start at about 1 second and take a series of shots, one after the other while making the shutter stay open longer each time, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 seconds etc up to about 4 seconds or so.

With the shots taken, leave everything set up while you go and have a look at the pictures on the computer. With luck one of them should be 'just right' and you can ditch the rest. Any problems and you can go back and take a few more.

Blue or orange casts are caused by lighting. Try changing the white balance setting and see what happens. Settle on the setting you think is best. Make a note of what lights are on, and what white balance you used - for next time.

Hope this helps.

Bob

 

[user 5053]

It is a nice oak bowl and a reasonable picture, good enough to sell the item online. The brightness and contrast could be adjusted a little and the foreground is a little out of focus. You need a good setup with lots of light. Also experiment with different ISO ratings, angles and consider layering in one or two closeups that show grain, edges different elevations and so on. You need to make sure you piece looks good in thumbnail size as people will be scanning through lots of items very quickly and soon the majority of of turned work will be sold online rather than at shows and through shops and galleries. We need to look at the whole business of turning and e commerce and how we can bring wood up to speed with other art and craft sectors.

 

[Bodrighy]

We need to look at the whole business of turning and e commerce and how we can bring wood up to speed with other art and craft sectors.

Tell me about it. Very few 'art galleries' sem to recognise woodeork of any sort as an art form at all.

Pete

 

[CHJ]

....Chas
I only try to use daylight for lighting,no spots Could the lighting be causing the problem:?:

Paul the only difference the light level will make as far as your focusing problem is concerned using auto settings is that the lower the light level, the wider the camera will open up the lens aperture and or slow the speed down to allow more light in.
Opening up the aperture (smaller f-No.) reduces the the distance spread that is in focus. The stronger the light level the smaller the aperture the camera will select in auto.

As the others have pointed out you may need to set the camera to aperture priority and select f-6.3/f-8 or even f-11 to get all the subject in focus.