Beginner Bauble help

omens

omens

Messages
2,080
Edit My Images
Yes
We got given a bauble as a gift. On closer inspection, it had a photo of my wife and I from our wedding earlier this year. I'm struggling to take a good enough photo of it. Don't do much macro stuff. Just nifty fifty with extension tube. Tried a tripod but couldn't get close enough, so used handheld. I tried manipulating the LEDs on the tree but it didn't really help. The front of the lens was almost right up against the bauble.

IMG_7431 by Stealth Wolf, on Flickr

IMG_7420 by Stealth Wolf, on Flickr

Any ideas on what I could do to improve it?
 
•
I would recommend that with the tripod and the extension tubes, double
(or more) the focal length used. This will allow more light in as you step
back from the subject.
 
Pick up the tree and take it to daylight, then crop maybe? Should be easier to set up a tripod too but probably not needed
 
Ditch the extension tubes, you dont need them with something that size. Not sure what the minimum focus distance is with the nifty fifty, but if you have the 18-55mm kit lens, that will certainly get you close enough.
Live view and manual focus on the tripod will probably give you the best results.
 
Last edited:
Why can't you get close enough with the tripod, can't you push it into the tree a bit?
 
Seems to me this is more about understanding of lighting rather than lenses etc.

To do this well needs at the very least a bounce flash and preferably some good off camera flash.
 
Nawty said:
Seems to me this is more about understanding of lighting rather than lenses etc.

To do this well needs at the very least a bounce flash and preferably some good off camera flash.
Click to expand...
I disagree, you'd lose the natural look if you did this, to me it works best being lit by the fairy lights. For me it needs sharper focussing and should be shot on a tripod at low ISO, 100-200 preferably.
 
I'll post up pics hopefully tomorrow. Daylight made it better though lost a little of the yellow glow.

I tried to manipulate the LEDs to hell illuminate the bauble more clearly but sometimes the glow was strong enough to interfere with the image.

On camera flash just reflected the outer surface of the bauble so you couldn't see the photo inside. Will experiment with OCF.

I had the tripod up against the tree and the front of the lens mere millimetres away from the bauble at times to get the focussing. Sometimes i'd nudge the tree or the bauble and send it rocking. I found it far easier to handhold.
 
Last edited:
snerkler said:
I disagree, you'd lose the natural look if you did this, to me it works best being lit by the fairy lights. For me it needs sharper focussing and should be shot on a tripod at low ISO, 100-200 preferably.
Click to expand...

Maybe, if done well but the dynamic range of that shot will play silly buggers if just left to the LEDs, it needs some fill IMO.

However, what it really really really needs is to be a real tree if it is going to feature in the shot...
 
Should probably say, I rather like the second shot in the OP, has the right kind of ethereal-ness to it. That could be done better with a tripod and low ISO.
 
omens said:
I'll post up pics hopefully tomorrow. Daylight made it better though lost a little of the yellow glow.

I tried to manipulate the LEDs to hell illuminate the bauble more clearly but sometimes the glow was strong enough to interfere with the image.

On camera flash just reflected the outer surface of the bauble so you couldn't see the photo inside. Will experiment with OCF.
Click to expand...
You'll lose the glow, like you did manipulating the LEDs, but worse. For me you need to persevere with the tripod and try and get it closer. I've just checked some shots I did last year and at f2, ISO 200 shutter speed was 0.8.
 
Nawty said:
Maybe, if done well but the dynamic range of that shot will play silly buggers if just left to the LEDs, it needs some fill IMO.
.
Click to expand...

Why will it, dynamic range looks pretty low in that second pic to me so shouldn't be an issue? If the LEDs were in shot then it would be difficult not to clip the highlights, but he's only got a couple of small reflections which don't seem overly bright.
 
Last edited:
omens said:
We got given a bauble as a gift. On closer inspection, it had a photo of my wife and I from our wedding earlier this year
Click to expand...
Step 1, take the bauble off the tree - suspend the bauble somewhere where you can get decent access with your tripod and where you can control the lighting better, rather than letting the ambient light control you.

Ultimately the shot is going to be limited by the weak link in the light path from the photo to the sensor, in this case the bauble itself. Don't expect perfect colour and sharpness because the bauble itself is introducing flaws. By getting the bauble off the tree you can use your tripod and extend the shutter duration without worrying about blur (if you can also keep the bauble steady. Lighting will be tricky because anything falling across the face of the bauble will flare and reduce the contrast. You may need to flag the light from the sides to such an extent that you're almost shooting through a tube. Did you have the lens hood on? - if not try again with it, if you did see if you can find a tube (postal tube, plastic pipe, rolled up piece of cardboard, etc.) that will extend it.
 
Alastair said:
Step 1, take the bauble off the tree - suspend the bauble somewhere where you can get decent access with your tripod and where you can control the lighting better, rather than letting the ambient light control you.
Click to expand...
I'll try and post pics tonight. I did at one point hold the bauble up and stood by the french windows for daylight. It helped illuminate the photo inside the bauble but I struggled with specular highlights.

Alastair said:
You may need to flag the light from the sides to such an extent that you're almost shooting through a tube. Did you have the lens hood on? - if not try again with it, if you did see if you can find a tube (postal tube, plastic pipe, rolled up piece of cardboard, etc.) that will extend it.
Click to expand...
I used my hand as a lens hood (don't have one for the 50mm 1.8) which helped with removing unwanted reflections.

Ultimately, I think you're right in that I need to photo the bauble off the tree and as a separate item as I might do with any stationary object.
 
Omens are you wanting a studio type shot good enough to feature in brochure or something, or a simple momento shot? If it's the latter then don't over complicate it. This was a simple 'grab shot' taken in ambient light only (fairy lights as the only light source). Yes it's far from the greatest picture you'll ever see, but that wasn't the point of it all I wanted was a picture of the bauble. Took me about 30s to set the tripod up and take the shot.




Obviously this isn't a close up, but the principle's the same. This was shot at f2 (hence the softness) ISO 200, 0.8s. I might try a macro shot this year when we put the tree up to see how much difference it makes being much closer to the subject. The only difference I can envisage is a longer shutter time, but as always happy to be proven wrong.
 
Last edited:
I don't want a pic of the bauble so much as a pic of the photo inside the bauble. I want to get it slightly sharper than I took it. The top photo was the show what the bauble itself looked like for everyone on here but I'm after a photo of the photo. I don't think I'd be able to achieve a photo showing both bauble and photo at the same time.
 
omens said:
I don't want a pic of the bauble so much as a pic of the photo inside the bauble. I want to get it slightly sharper than I took it. The top photo was the show what the bauble itself looked like for everyone on here but I'm after a photo of the photo. I don't think I'd be able to achieve a photo showing both bauble and photo at the same time.
Click to expand...
Yeah I got that, but I was just referring to the principle of lighting ;) Obviously, if you're not fussed about the 'Christmassy Glow' then you can of course then use bounced/off camera flash as mentioned by Nawty to save having to use a tripod. I personally think it'd be a shame to lose the glow, but it depends on what you want.

As for getting in closer then you should be able to do it with your 50mm prime and extension tubes. You can buy cheap adapters to reverse your lens to make it into a pseudo macro lens. However, the closer you get the more shallow the depth of field so you'll be needing small apertures of around f16 or so which dramatically reduces light and so you'd still be better off with a tripod even if using flash.
 
How opaque is the photo, will lighting it from behind work?
Unfortunately, using extension tubes, you are fighting a losing battle as you are going to be so close, you will block out light from the front.
 
omens said:
I don't want a pic of the bauble so much as a pic of the photo inside the bauble
Click to expand...
Unfortunately shooting through a hazy, slightly opaque bauble is never going to produce a razor sharp result.

But you could do a lot better, just getting a set-up that brings your ISO down to a more reasonable value would make a significant difference. Control the light diffusing through the bauble and add some post-processing magic to bring back the contrast the light transmission through the bauble is killing and you could get a decent result.
 
Steve B said:
How opaque is the photo, will lighting it from behind work?
Unfortunately, using extension tubes, you are fighting a losing battle as you are going to be so close, you will block out light from the front.
Click to expand...
The photo is on normal paper I think. The reverse has writing on it.

I've only got a single EF II 25mm extension tube ATM.
 
Okay so I had some time to experiment. Took photos around midday with sunlight coming in from the french windows next to the tree. It made the photo brighter but also cast shadows from the glitter on to the photo. I used live view and manual focus.

Using 18-135mm kit lens:

bauble kit lens by Stealth Wolf, on Flickr

Using 50mm f/1.8:

bauble 50mm by Stealth Wolf, on Flickr

Using 50mm + 25mm extension tube:

bauble macro by Stealth Wolf, on Flickr

Things I learnt:

Get a better tripod - my current one is a Manfrotto MKC3-H01. Great for my G12. Rubbish for the 70D. Kept sagging once I'd tightened the ballhead and let go.
Live view - great way to manually focus. I've never done this before.
Lighting - lots of light helps but strong sunlight can be a problem. I should have used curtain netting to diffuse the light.
Practicalities - sometimes you can't achieve the image you want. I have the original image on the computer. Trying to get something similar from a downsized printed photo through glass coated in glitter is not going to happen.

But I'm happy with my last image.
 
Yup shot in raw, converted to JPG in LR5. I wanted to keep some of that "dreamy" look so kept the brightness down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top