Generally, I just leave my cameras set to auto and drive on, as since I
shoot raw, it doesn't matter. I will set WB to a preset if I'm under quartz
or using electornic flash.
Bill Pearce
-----Original Message-----
From: Olaf Greve [mailto:ogreve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 6:07 AM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)
Hi all,
For some research work in the line of Japanese ordnance, I'm currently
taking pictures of my collection. I use a combination of the regular
lens-kit lens (from the top of my head that is the 14-45 F3.5-F5.6) whenever
the object is big enough, and a manually focussed OM Zuiko
50/3.5 macro for the small stuff.
Back in the film days, for this I had printed some A3 sized papers with an
18% grey tone, so as to be able to take a spot reading on that grey
background, focus the object in question and then take the picture.
Now, with this digital stuff I have come across some issues with all of
this, and I would like to know what the best way is to get good pictures.
What I have learnt already, is that the WB setting doesn't always work as
expected. A while ago I had an eye-opener as to just how the 'Auto'
setting is interpreted. Ever since, tweaks have been made, and results have
improved dramatically, yet, I think they could be better still.
Here's what I do, and where I have doubts:
As the objects in question (i.e. mainly shell casings and projectiles) are
often made of (shiny) brass, I do not use a flash. Instead, I take pictures
outside, on an overcast day, without a flash.
I have my camera (E-500) forced to not use the flash, and the WB is set to
the 'cloud' icon (6000K, I think), which I guess means 'overcast day'. The
picture quality is set to the highest JPEG quality (i.e. not the 'raw'
format). As a backdrop (and here I think the main difference between film
and digital may be rearing it's head!), I use the same A3 18% grey papers.
With AF lenses, I just directly focus on the object in question and take the
light reading averaged metered (with the pattern that measures all over the
place), as I find spot readings don't work easily with the AF mode. I
post-process the lot using Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. The actions I almost
always take are first the "one step photo fix" (which most often tends to
give a better colour balance, but sometimes seems to be off), followd by an
"unsharp mask". For most of the pictures (say 90-05%), this gives very
pleasing, tack sharp (sometimes overly sharp) results. However, on some
shots the colour seems to be off. For some reason some of the shiniest brass
casings tend to turn really darkish (black, almost) particularly after the
"one step photo fix" edit.
My theory is that either perhaps in digital cameras, the averaged reading
throws colours off, or that the backdrop used should be (full) white,
instead of grey (at least, if the WB is set to overcast, it may interpret
the 18% grey as white, hence throwing the colours off)....
But then, these are just my theories....
I have uploaded some examples of this phenomenon, and I hope someone can
look at them and give me some suggestions for improving my strategy, such,
that I can do so without manually having to tweak levels per picture, and
such that I don't have to use the 'raw'
format. The reasons for the desired speedy process are purely time
based: lots of stuff to photograph, and little spare time, so I need to be
able to do it almost at bulk speeds and hence a few quick digital processing
steps are all I'd like to do on the pictures...
The pictures in question (full size, so as to not mingle them any further by
down-sizing them):
1: http://www.millennics.com/test/1_raw.jpg : casing 1, as it came out of
the camera (no edits)
2: http://www.millennics.com/test/1_edit.jpg : casing 1, "one step photo
fix", "unsharp mask", "cropped", exported with "JPEG optimiser", compression
set to 15%.
3: http://www.millennics.com/test/2_raw.jpg : casing 2, as it came out of
the camera (no edits)
4: http://www.millennics.com/test/2_edit.jpg : casing 2, "one step photo
fix", "unsharp mask", "cropped", exported with "JPEG optimiser", compression
set to 15%.
In both cases you will see that the end results are far more pleasing than
the unedited version, in terms of sharpness, but also, in both cases a
considerable darkening can be seen. Particularly the bottom part of casing 1
has gone much darker, blackish almost....
Are these about the best results achievable, or can anyone give me some
pointers for improvement?
Thanks in advance, and cheers!
Olafo
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