How to take Good Pictures of Electronics

Alternatively, close-up rings:

John and others.

There is no magic bullet for bright spots due to lighting.

A polarising filter might help only if the light is single direction to start with.

When I worked at the Photography studio the copy setup used two light sources at 45 deg with polarising filters and a filter on the lens to eliminate the reflections, which is a little bit OTT for home use.

Subject placement

For most of my images I use natural light coming in from a window behind and mostly above the subject.

The window is on the south side (light is from the north in our end of the world) and it is often later in the day, so it is much less intense and is not direct.

I place a white card or white surface to bounce light back onto the subject.

One of my reflectors is a A4 paper that has been laminated and it works well since it can be bent.

This lighting works better than the studio lights as there are no bright spots and you can easily see the results.

You can easily check the light by clenching your fist and pointing your knuckles at the light source. The shadow on your palm will give an indication of where the light is coming from and how bad the shadow will be.

Colour

The light colour (Flash, Tungsten, LED, Florescent v natural) can be corrected in the camera and often the colour needs tweaking slightly to enhance the image, so you can use whatever you have as long as you understand the correction required.

My Metz flashes tend to be blue, and both the internal flash and studio flash are white, so know your equipment and the effects is more important than using xyz.

Depth of Field

I shoot at the lowest aperture (highest F stop) the lens has which usually dictates a shutter speed of 1-2secs.

Rather than the close-up rings I use an extension tube between the lens and body, which gives the magnification while keeping the lens away from the subject.

There is software that will allow stacking of images to improve the dof, but you need to take multiple images at different focus points.

At these speeds and dof it is important to use a cable/remote shutter release. If you can't then use the self timer and cover the eyepiece to prevent stray light from entering and fogging the photo.

RAW v JPG

All my photography is done in raw format which means a 24mB raw image.

Raw format allows some manipulation before it gets converted to a jpg, but the most important part of the manipulation is to sharpen the image which brings the three individual sensors into line.

Many of the cameras do a reasonable job of taking what they see and converting it, but it is a compromise and once it is a jpg anything you do is subtracting from the image.

Because of the small size of 35mm format, images need to fill the frame (something you don't need to worry about with a 6x6 camera) so get as close as you can.

Post manipulation

There are lots of things that can be done after the image is taken.

I've removed scratches or annoying bits, however if the detail is not there, you can't easily recreate it using software.

From experience it is quicker to do it in-camera rather than post image, so download the image and check it on your computer while the subject is still setup and go back and reshoot if you're not happy.

Hopefully these insights help someone.

Mark

Thanks Mark,

Thank you for all the good information. It will be helpful to me as I try to improve my pictures.

John

Not too hard to experiment with polarizing the light source:

https://www.sciplus.com/p/COLOR-PADDLE_40277

http://www.amazon.com/Polarizing-Film-Sheet-Gadget-Electronics/dp/B004X3XFHU

Another thing to try is frosted acetate over the light source

Another thing to try is frosted acetate over the light source

You're right that it helps diffuse the light, but bouncing the light off the roof (assume it is light colour) will increase the distance and reduce the contrast between the light and shadow areas.

Anything more than 2 stops tends to be like black and white, so if possible aim for 1 stop (1/2 the light).

Mark

Hi Don,

When I used to try to teach the grandkids a little about physics I had some of the polarizing sheets for experiments. I will have to dig for them is storage now but it might be fun to run a few experiments.

John

Decades ago we had a little setup comprised of two sheets of polarizing film in a bunk-bed like arrangement

We would stretch Saran Wrap between the sheets which would color in accordance with the stress, fun

My friend Dave would not stop playing with it unless someone interrupted him

He had a diagnosis of autism, but it was really slight

Read later that that was a standard test for autism 

Post processing with a program like GIMP can really help with things like contrast

Modern cameras have lotsa dynamic range making effects possible and good-looking

These are interesting:

https://www.lytro.com/

Lytro’s Magical DSLR-Like Camera Lets You Refocus Photos After You Take Them | WIRED

No you need some of these.

Infinity Photo-Optical Company

Very interesting history started by this Australian.

Jim Frazier – An icon in Photography | Manning-Great Lakes Focus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frazier_lens

Sadly the patent office screwed him over a technicality ...

Mark