[Guest]

I had a quiet day today so I decided to try and come up with the best setup for my camera. Here are some of the results

Tell me what you like and dislike please! It will greatly help





The black and white one is my favourite!

Edit: my camera is a Fujifilm S 5000. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

 

[RichardM]

What I like: your pics

What I dislike: the fact that I don't have this model :cry

 

[LUW]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

I also hate not having that car. :help

Bernard, why don't you try some pics with natural lighting?

 

[Road Runner 72]

The photos are very clear, great shots :nicejob :nicejob yes try natural light, or add another light source/lamp, you can play around with backgrounds as well, as sometimes I find darker backgrounds bring out the white/lighter colour models a lot more.

I do have to upgrade my camera, as I can't seem to get the whole car in focus.

:cheers

 

[Guest]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

Who wants it? I will gladly send it you :nana :tease

:lol

Natural lighting is a bit difficult in my place. I will try to take some photos on the roof, but the display case is two storeys down in the furthest part of the house! I may take one every now and then though. try to see the effect

 

[StygianMax]

Hey Bernard! Great looking car you got there :nicejob :nicejob You have a very good eye for picking angles to take pics of your car from too.

As your thread topic talks about you trying to figure out your camera, I took a look at your camera specs and capabilities first before anything else.
From looking at Steve's Digicams Review Website I found out a fair bit of good and important information.

Notably:

Number of Effective Pixels
3.1 million pixels

Number of Recorded Pixels
2,816 x 2,120 (6.0 million)
2048 x 1536 (3.0 million)
1600 x 1200 (2.0 million)
1280 x 960 (1.0 million) pixels

Focus Range
Normal: 3.0ft to infinity (W), 6.6ft to infinity (T)
Macro: 0.3-6.6ft (W), 3.0-6.6ft (T)

White balance
- Automatic,
- Manual

• - Fine,
  - Shade,
  - Fluorescent light (Daylight),
  - Fluorescent light (Warm White),
  - Fluorescent light (Cool White),
  - Incandescent light

Based on these specs, I'd recommend the following:

- maximum resolution on camera
- ISO setting of 100
- need to observe minimum distance for macro shots for both fully zoomed-in and fully zoomed-out modes! I find it's a lot easier shooting 1:18s than 1:43.
- based on type of lighting, select a White Balance setting that makes your car look the most natural in your LCD viewfinder.

(photo courtesy of steves-digicams.com)

Given your camera can take photos in various priority modes (i.e. P, S, A, M), I'd probably choose to set it in M mode and set the F-stop number as high as possible. This allows as much of the car to be in focus as possible. The shutter speed can then be adjusted to make the picture as bright or dark as you like.

In M mode though, a tripod is a must as the slighest bit of handshake results in blurry pictures.

 

[vegasracer]

What Felix said...and I'd recommend 'A' mode (aperture priority). Set it at the largest aperture and let the camera calculate the shutter speed for the shot. You'll definitely need a tripod, and you'll want to use the self-timer to avoid camera shake. Focus the shot about 1/3 back of the most forward part of the model, and you should have everything in focus. Don't use macro mode. In leu of natural lighting, you may want to acquire a few daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs with a color temperature close to daylight. Using these will tend to minimize your white balance adjustments.

You will find that there is only so much you can do on-camera, and at some point in time you will have to start mastering your image processing software in order to take your pics to the next level. White balance, contrast, image sharpening and color saturation are best adjusted in post processing.

Best of luck Bernard! This is when the fun starts! :cheers

 

[StygianMax]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

I knew you'd come to my "rescue" Dr. Jeff. :giggle

I know we've had some discussions about whether using "Macro" is good or not. I have tried shooting with no Macro and I can't get my cars very well focussed. Do you have any guesses as to why that may be? I'm quite stumped by that.

I should add that I do sometimes shoot in A mode. That leaves me with fewer shots that end up in the garbage. :giggle :giggle But M mode seems to give me a little more control which I kind of like.

Very true about photo editing!! That has taken me the longest time to improve my skills on. Yet, it is a critical part of the process.

Bernard... do you have an image processing software?

 

[hafamaca]

Photos look great expect the white really isnt white. Not sure of your set up, but make sure all the lights are they same type and choose the correct white balance (do not use auto).

 

[StygianMax]

In the midst of all that tech talk, I complete forgot to say that I really like that black and white photo. B&W emphasizes contrast in texture and for that reason, the air vents in in the bodywork above the front tires look very nice! :nicejob :nicejob

 

[Guest]

Holy cow this really got technical here! :lol

I will read all when I come back from university and use your suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info guys.

I haven't tried to take any photos yet. I tried to take some photos on the outside though.... they came out crap! The sun was too bright. I will try to take some more tomorrow. My prob is not camera settings I think, or artistic, but lighting. I only have a 11 watt neon....... :lol I need to get me a higher watt one.....

I have a photoeditor program... the Picasa 2. Got it this morning. I edited some pictures already, they came better overall, but photobucket.com have some problems and I cannot login.

 

[Guest]

The first edited photo, a historic photo of a 917/10 (maybe)



The second edit I tried to make the picture better looking. I dont know if it is really good. It surely has a larger kb file though!

Unedited digital picture Edited by Picasa 2

Edited again, too white!

Put a virtual light grey background on this one


They are getting better in my opinion.

Next improvement needs to be in the taking of Photographs for sure

 

[mbc112]

I like the 917/10 B&W...little blutty in the back...very artistic..... :coolpics

 

[LUW]

Bernard, when I said natural lighting, what I meant was natural lighting but in the shade. Photography in direct sunlight of small objects is hard to do it right, because of the excessive light. Do it in the shade and don't forget to set your white balance to "overcast" or something like that.

 

[Guest]

The sun was directly overhead so, yes, that was my problem. I didn't think that putting it in the shade though.... I will again tomorrow as there are a lot of menacing clouds now....

Btw, do you like the editing? Dont worry I am not posting any more edited pics for now. :giggle

 

[LUW]

Editing is good for you to learn about how the pic can come out. For instance, on the last pic, with the greyer bg, the colors of the car came out better.

 

[Guest]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

:iagree

I am planning to get a black background. I can say safely say that it would be much better then the white.

 

[LUW]

Wanna it easy? Get a grey bg. :wink

 

[Guest]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

Yep, I will be getting that colour too. A dark grey one. I need more proper lighting aswell.