Here's three shots of an item I am taking pictures of. All were on a Canon G10 with macro mode taken in a white box lit by three fluorescent bulbs. Canon G10 is on fluorescent setting. The F2.8 has the correct amount of white out in the background I want, especially the floor. However, with F2.8 the image is soft and color is off. F3.2 has the better image I think, but I included F3.5 too. F3.5 seems to have a bit more contrast but is too dark. What I hate is the shadow at the bottom. (red line) 1. Would more powerful light help remove the shadows, but still let me have the definition of F3.2 or 3.5? 2. Suggestions on lights? Cannot be incandescent as I don't want to worry about a fire or anything with that much heat. Any other advice is appreciated.
I have it set to 1/80. I'm still learning. I'll mess with it more. I've been compensating by increasing F/stop instead of exposure time. Now I know why pros get paid so much. It's the aperture / shutter / iso magic that's so damn hard to get. Turns out I have the iso set to auto, and have been thinking shutter was iso. At least I got the F/stop right. I'll try setting iso manually and increase shutter time when I wake up.
Get along to B&H or Calumet (or look on eBay) and get some proper photographic lights. It's the only way to go. They have the correct colour temperature, and they are cool touch bulbs so nothing will be going up in flames. Two should do you fine. *EDIT* Calumet do kits that look pretty good: http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/SV3565/ http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/SV3562/ http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/SV3560/ Get along to your local store and ask about them.... tell them you want cool lamps to avoid fire. They do reflectors, too: http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/RM5030K/
Yeah it's all about the lighting. If you can flood it with 360 light you can do whatever you want with the aperture and then just increment the shutter speed to trap the right amount of light and prevent over exposure whilst picking up no shadow. Also play with the white balance settings and make sure that your white balance is configured, factory default is not the way to go. Not sure how it's done on a Canon but usually involves pointing the camera at a pure white depthless-ish shadowless surface (a wall for example) after selecting something in the menu. Photography is a pain in the arse, I have shot about 20,000 photos on my DSLR in 4 different countries with 3 different lenses over the last 12 months I have owned it and there are maybe only 5 photos max. that I am happy with. It always seems as if there is some big secret only the pro's know about. Even with the perfect set up and conditions 99% of the time editing will be required. Have you considered taking and combining multiple exposures?
To get rid of the shadow you can try to let the object stand on something transparent with light coming from underneath. Also the higher number Aperture you use the sharper photo you get, but only to a certain limit at aperture 16 i think? Then there is diffraction problem http://www.aguntherphotography.com/tutorial/diffraction-limits-of-resolution.html
f11 is generally a sweet spot but I would go no higher than 18. Google your camera and lens along with 'sweet spot' and see what comes up. A lower aperture will give you a shallow depth of field and make it difficult to get the whole thing in focus. This also might sound a little obsurd. But try a fast flash...i.e set your flash to go off a second or so before the shutter it might take away that forward shadow without producing any reflection or shine on the product itself. I would use more exact terms but I have no experience with Canon cameras only Nikons, they're a world apart.
As stated by Ly-Colizer, you'd have to provide additional light from underneath the object to completely remove the shadows. Best way to do this is use your imagination. Anything might work, put the lightbox on legs of some kind shine light up from underneath. The lower the Aperture F#, the shallower the depth of field. F2.8 has a very shallow depth of field and therefore the image will be softer. The higher the number, the more will be in focus. Find the "sweet spot" as has been recommended. It also looks like your camera is in auto white-balance. FOr this type of shooting, you'll want to set a custom white-balance. You set a custom white-balance based on one of the images taken in this light (done through the camera menus - your manual will have more information). This will ensure that every photo that you take with your white box will have the same colour. Good luck! - Don
You can also just delete the background, as long as the contrast between the edge of the subject and the background is strong enough, you can just smart select the background and delete it. Here's a photo I took of my Tachikoma model using the setup I mentioned before when we talked about this sort of thing.
I have persoanlly found that people bid less on auctions with a 100% artificial photoshop background. People like a little contrast under the item to know it's real and not a catalog snap.
Could be useful to have the pics double up as auction pics too, just incase times are hard and money needs to be made.
BTW kev, if you are using a tripod you can shot at 1/25th or less with no problem, or EVEN with 1/2 if you use autoshot
