Photos for this week

I used the sewing machine feet for my DPS assignment. So that gives me the second choice photo for my Weekly Photo. I should call it weekly photo"S", since I probably took 20 or more of these guys, bracketing the exposures.

I’m going to adjust the weekly photo page to archive the first half on the year. The page will look the same except for some navigation links for the archive.

Studio Work

Used the light tent for this week’s assignment. It really required setting up the camera to get the photo I wanted. Took me three sessions. Take a couple dozen shots and pull them up on the computer to see how they really turned out.

I’d already figured out you need to adjust the white balance for the lighting. But the exposure was still darker than I wanted. I turned off the D-R-O and boosted the exposure to +1.3EV. I even bracketed the shots +/- 0.7EV.

Surprised to find that +2.0EV seemed to give the most reliable picture quality.

I doubt if I’ll have to mess around quite so much for penguin pictures. I won’t be shooting indoors, or using artificial light. I’ll probably use a flash for on board the ship.

Weekly Photo Is Up

Posted my picture for the week. Not overly attractive. Just a photo of the Light Tent that I created last week.

The set-up will work but I need to add an additional light source. The objects are recognizable but dark.

Weather cooperated on Wednesday, but wanted to try the “panning” trick. I did it again today but used a higher shutter speed. Actually got one to work out of 30+ shot.

I’ll be posting it as the weekly assignment over at DPS.

White Balance

Finished the cardboard box light tent. Joanne suggested we just wrap the muslin on all three sides with a single strip of cloth. That worked better than three separate squares.

Set it up and adjusted the clip on lamp. Then shot off some pictures of my small test subjects. They looked ok in the LCD.

They didn’t look ok when I moved them to the computer. They were red/brown like my earlier ones, using a high intensity desk lamp. Seems like the Reveal bulbs may not be as full spectrum as I thought. Back to the internet.

I knew I would, sooner or later, have to address color temperature. There wasn’t total agreement on the web concerning the reveal bulbs. Other than it is close to an incandescent and it filters out the yellow.

Took out the manual and figured out how to create a custom setting. This would be the technique for using a white or gray card. The light tent has White Bristol Board for a floor and walls. I pointed into the empty box as the white reference. Camera thinks it is 3000K. That’s pretty close to the internet findings. I went with that.

The second test shots cured the red/brown problem. But the figures seem darker.

It looks like I need more of the same light. And I may have to mess with the exposures.

Light Tent

Weather has been off and on. Rainy yesterday, beautiful today, but more on the way Thursday. So, I’m confining my picture taking to indoors.

Set about on a related project. Making a light tent. Found a good description on the internet (of course). It uses a cardboard box for the structural elements.

I spent time after lunch gathering up the components. The Hobby Lobby was a good source for Bristol Board. And the Home Depot had the light fixture I wanted, a clip on work lamp.

I was spared having to go to the fabric store. My wife is a quilter, and there is a LOT of fabric around the house. She has a good supply of white muslin. So, that won’t be hard to get.

I had taken a few photos of small objects last night. The light I was using gave the backgrounds a decided yellow tint. I want to see if I can solve it with a light tent, and a full spectrum light source. It still may not be enough to get good photos of coins, but it is an experiment. And reasonably inexpensive.