Hi Tomoko:
Photographing photo equipment can follow the same principles as portraits,
albeit at a macro scale. Set up your flashes (I prefer photofloods) so that
the key light is up, slightly in front of and to one side of the equipment.
A second flash should be used to fill in the shadows and placed close to the
taking camera. The fill light should have about half the light intensity of
the key light. That dictates using the flashes on manual.
Grey table tops are very pleasing and don't intrude on the subject matter. If
close to 18% reflectance, you can meter without a grey card using this setup.
Brown wood is classy, but intrusive. Bracket on the overexposure side if
metering OTF or TTL. I'm forced to use the brown tabletop for most of my
shots. It will likely cause you to have to do some color correcting of the
scans - mostly for removal of red.
A full frame shot of a camera head on will typically require a f/22 aperture
on a 50mm macro or a f/45 setting with the 135mm macro. However, since the
enlargement size and resolution of pictures intended for the web is not very
rigorous, you can get by with f/16 on the 50mm. Just be sure to use the depth
of field indicators to focus at the midpoint between the front of the lens and
the edge of the camera back.
I've used both the 135 and the 50 macros. The former is a bit more pleasing
as the perspective is flatter. But the 50 shots are perfectly servicable.
Take care not to apply too much Unsharp Masking to the image scans. This will
cause specular highlights on black leatherette and rubber grips to intensify
and look like they are very worn.
When photographing multiple objects, care should be exercised to place those
objects in about the same plane of focus. If something has to extend beyond
the depth of focus, make it the end of a lens barrel, for instance. The eye
expects that as an symbol of depth.
I have not tried it, but photographing equipment while having a mirror within
the frame can offer multiple views of the object, esp. the back side.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|