WOW! A use for my 350D SLR!

jamoor · 24 May 2006 at 19:51

OK my dad has around 3000 items that need photographing.

this is the kinda stuff that needs photos taken of.

What can we do to do this? I was thinking of a light tent with those lights that you get on ebay for around £80

Any other reccomendations, the potential flaw I have noticed with a tent is that I need to take photos from directly above the item, how is that achieved using a light tent?

Thanks for your help!!

morgan · 24 May 2006 at 19:53

shoot raw, light tent would be beneficial. tripod. low iso would be my tips

jamoor · 24 May 2006 at 20:03

morgan said:
shoot raw, light tent would be beneficial. tripod. low iso would be my tips

how do you get a tripod into a light tent exactly?

AdWright · 24 May 2006 at 20:17

jamoor said:
how do you get a tripod into a light tent exactly?

A tripod with a centre column that can be mounted horizontally could be helpful in this case, allowing you to have the camera to be positioned easily over the tent.

eg:

mrgubby · 24 May 2006 at 20:29

Get one of these from a high street electronics/hobby shop.

They give pretty good results

m3csl2004 · 24 May 2006 at 21:01

3000 different items OoOoOoOoOo

how many photos are you gonna be taking man :eek:

i would say shoot jpeg, at least 3000 raw files are gonna take some shifting

aztechnology · 25 May 2006 at 16:21

mrgubby said:
Get one of these from a high street electronics/hobby shop.

They give pretty good results

or make your own from a few bit of white card, and some old grey/blue cloth. Mind you if those little cages are cheap, then buy one.

If I had around 3000 similar shots to take, I would definately use a tripod, pre-focus with enough DoF to capture it all and use a cable release. Using studio equipment or a tent I think would be overkill, just arrange some white card to give a nice walled box, and bounce a flash into the box from above. Take test shots to get exposure sorted, and Bobs your uncle.

I wouldn't fancy taking all those shots mind, I once did about 100 shots it took far longer than I wanted it too, and you have 3000. Jpeg will be fine, processing 3000 RAW's will take soe time, even if you use a load of batch actions.

Oh most importantly, get some rechargable batteries for your flashgun...

mrgubby · 25 May 2006 at 16:33

aztechnology said:
or make your own from a few bit of white card, and some old grey/blue cloth. Mind you if those little cages are cheap, then buy one.

Its made from cloth so light shines through the sides for that nice soft glow/low shadow effect

^^Gord^^ · 25 May 2006 at 19:02

mrgubby said:
Its made from cloth so light shines through the sides for that nice soft glow/low shadow effect

That looks pretty neat, what's called? Who makes it?

mrgubby · 25 May 2006 at 19:35

^^Gord^^ said:
That looks pretty neat, what's called? Who makes it?

google for 'Portable Soft Lighting Studio'

AndyBorzi · 25 May 2006 at 19:49

mrgubby said:
google for 'Portable Soft Lighting Studio'

I just googled it and will probably get one.

From the same place, you can buy Mobile Phone camera tripods!! :eek:

(just kinda tickled me!)

^^Gord^^ · 25 May 2006 at 19:53

mrgubby said:
google for 'Portable Soft Lighting Studio'

Got it, cheers!

MarcLister · 25 May 2006 at 20:12

AdWright said:
A tripod with a centre column that can be mounted horizontally could be helpful in this case, allowing you to have the camera to be positioned easily over the tent.

eg:

Which Manfrotto tripod is that AdWright? That looks pretty cool and I would probably love to get one and experiment when I get my 350D. How much are we talking in general for this?

Spoonman · 26 May 2006 at 18:49

Yeah, at work I've got a £25ish one from eBay (they've gone down a lot recently it seems). Defuses the light apparantly, certainly better than shooting on a table or something.

I'm still trying to convince them to buy some daylight flash bulbs (£180 ish for two, shop around) as lighting conditions can be a pain. I generally use the custom white balance feature and/or tweak the colour temperature in software.

AdWright · 29 May 2006 at 18:17

MarcLister said:
Which Manfrotto tripod is that AdWright? That looks pretty cool and I would probably love to get one and experiment when I get my 350D. How much are we talking in general for this?

Not sure, just googled for Manfrotto. However, I have the 190ProB, which is very versatile (removable centre column that can be mounted sideways as well, really low minimum height etc) which cost £89 for the legs. Then you'll need to add a head appropriate to your use. I have a ball head (484RC2) which has a useful quick release plate. The head cost about £39

MarcLister · 29 May 2006 at 18:21

AdWright said:
Not sure, just googled for Manfrotto. However, I have the 190ProB, which is very versatile (removable centre column that can be mounted sideways as well, really low minimum height etc) which cost £89 for the legs. Then you'll need to add a head appropriate to your use. I have a ball head (484RC2) which has a useful quick release plate. The head cost about £39

Thanks for that AdWright, just had a quick look at one photography site and think I've found it. Will check out some other sites later on.