Need some help with top down pictures, white background

T

[TGA3DX] Tim

Messages
5
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi, I'm new to the forum, and still very new to photography.

I need some help on how to improve my pictures of my collection.

I've got a Panasonic DMC-FZ28, and the setup can be seen in the third picture.

The goal is to shoot about 180 cards to showcase on my website, so they kind of need to be of good quality. I would like the background to be white so they fit in nicely with the site's background.

I've got one of those portable light tent setups, with 4 desklamps with 6400K lamps in them, bought on eBay.

Some more settings

Sensitivity : 100
White balance (set to 6400K)
Metering Mode (.)
Aperture : F5.6
Shutter speed (depending on which card) 1/13-1/15

This seems the best I can do, the background isn't 100% white, and looking at the screen from an angle, the picture seems to have lighting issues. I have no idea how that is properly called.

I've zoomed in till about 3x, somebody told me to use zoom, otherwise a straight lines can be concave, or pincushion. Don't know if that is correct.





I've seen some really good pictures like these :

http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=tseng_et6000_4mb_01buxll.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=trident_blade3d_01b7bzq.jpg

How he does it, German :

http://tdfx.de/ger/pictures.shtml

And his setup :

img_2418mediumumcm.jpg


From my rusty German it looks like he edits the background in Paint.net. Any ideas on that?



Thanks in advance for helping. :)
 
If your whites are coming out grey, maybe you are under exposing slightly. Alternatively, despite your lamps being rated at 6400K, maybe they are not quite on spec. The way around this would be to set a custom WB for the setup you are using.
 
ki_user said:
Bit of grey mopping is in order I think, had a bit of a go on it.

snip
Click to expand...


That looks excellent! May I ask what grey mopping is, and how to do it?


Scarecrow said:
If your whites are coming out grey, maybe you are under exposing slightly. Alternatively, despite your lamps being rated at 6400K, maybe they are not quite on spec. The way around this would be to set a custom WB for the setup you are using.
Click to expand...

Okay, that's a good point. They were cheap bulbs, so you might be right. I used quite a high exposure, I think it was +1 on the scale. When I took the picture, a number of areas were blinking black on the viewer. When I turned down the exposure, the pictures looked a lot more grey.

Is there anything else that can be improved?
 
[TGA3DX] Tim;2417455 said:
That looks excellent! May I ask what grey mopping is, and how to do it?
Click to expand...

It's a technique used through photoshop. Take your image and sample some of the shadow with the eye dropper, in this case it is a blue'ish colour. Then go to select>colour range, move the slider so all the shadow is selected, click OK then press delete. Doesn't always work, but on the ones you have it is pretty successful.

Here is the other one.

p1050617moca.jpg
 
ki_user said:
It's a technique used through photoshop. Take your image and sample some of the shadow with the eye dropper, in this case it is a blue'ish colour. Then go to select>colour range, move the slider so all the shadow is selected, click OK then press delete. Doesn't always work, but on the ones you have it is pretty successful.

Here is the other one.

snip img
Click to expand...

That looks great too! Thank you for that. :)

That doesn't sound too bad. Unfortunately I do not have photoshop. Is there a similar way to do this via Paint.net?
 
Hmm, I need to find out how to do it via Paint.net, because I don't have any money left for Elements.

Any other tips, like on setup, anyone? :)
 
You need to light the background separately from the subject. I suggest you balance the PCB board on something like a cardboard tube to gain some distance from the background. Light the background with the lights (over expose it) and light the board correctly with another light(s). As you are using a tripod you can use a long exposure so you won't need too much light. You can do a custom white balance first (balance something on the PCB) so white is white.
 
Beagletorque said:
You need to light the background separately from the subject. I suggest you balance the PCB board on something like a cardboard tube to gain some distance from the background. Light the background with the lights (over expose it) and light the board correctly with another light(s). As you are using a tripod you can use a long exposure so you won't need too much light. You can do a custom white balance first (balance something on the PCB) so white is white.
Click to expand...

ki_user said:
Have you tried moving the lamps further away, as mentioned you don't need a lot of light shooting from tripod, and it will be more defused. Looking at your set up, the beam is very focused on the sides.
Click to expand...

Some good tips there guys! Next time I've got the kit out, I will try your suggestions.

Somebody gave me some tips on how to edit the picture with Paint.net, it doesn't look half bad this way :

http://img11.abload.de/img/p1050615white2wallpapewa4j.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top