Photography Tips

[Malice4you 627]

If you are looking to sell something, review something, ask for information on something, or show off your new toy, you're likely going to take some pictures.  This is a by-no-means-exhaustive guide to get you started in the right direction of taking quality photographs.  (Think more documenting, less artistic.)  Most of these tips apply to any camera from a cell phone to a DSLR.  You may have to adapt the concept to your specific equipment, skills, and situation.  Best bet - read this, then experiment and expand on these tips on your own.  If you have questions, there are more than a few photographers on this forum.

 

If you are the TL;DR type, here's the gist of this: MAKE SURE YOUR SUBJECT HAS PLENTY OF LIGHT ON IT, BUT DIFFUSE YOUR LIGHT - A LARGER LIGHTING SURFACE AREA IS BETTER, and KNOW EVERY CAMERA HAS A MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE AND NEEDS DECENT CONTRAST TO FOCUS. Oh, and CHECK YOUR SHOTS ACTUALLY CAME OUT BEFORE PUTTING EVERYTHING AWAY.    /TL:DR

 

For the rest of you, thank you for reading - I know it's a bit long.  There are two things I see that bug me in countless posts online, be it here, ebay, some enthusiast website, or wherever.  First annoyance is poorly (or totally un-) focused shots, and the second is poorly lit shots.  I'll cover lighting first.

 

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Photography is essentially the process of capturing light.  When trying to clearly show the subject, a brightly lit area is typically going to be better than a dim dungeon lit by one bulb.  Many cameras automatically adjust the ISO (sensitivity/"film speed") and introduce significant grain/noise in dark areas, ruining quality of the photo.  Furthermore, poorly lit subjects will mean your camera must expose the picture for longer, leading to your movement blurring the picture. 

 

That said, a small, bright, focused light can be worse than a larger, dimmer, diffused light source.  Your camera might use the onboard flash in darker conditions, which is almost always a poor choice for things as shiny as guns (not to mention produces poor quality lighting in general).  Whatever your light source, you will want the majority of light behind you (or at least behind the lens), facing away from the front of the camera lens, unless you want a silhouette shot.  The goal is a BROAD, EVEN LIGHT.  The larger the surface area of light, the better off you are likely to be.  You can use a few cheap tricks to help your lighting.

 

If you are shooting outdoors:

-Under direct noon sun - don't.  Find some light shade and shoot there if possible (think under a gazebo or overhang or porch - somewhere that's still bright, but not under direct sun)  If not available, wait for a cloud to cover the sun if possible. 

-Under cloudy/overcast sky - this is actually better lighting than direct sun because the entire sky is essentially the light source

-You may still want to use a flash to soften harsh shadows under certain circumstances

 

If shooting indoors:

-Shoot near windows letting in lots of light during the day, though not in direct sun if possible (thin white blinds may work great as a diffuser)

-Shoot near windows letting in lots of light and use a light bounce to increase area lighting or to light your subject itself - a light bounce could be a large white piece of cardboard/foam core or a reflective solar window blocker for a car windshield, placed in the direct sunlight, used to bounce light to the ceiling (general lighting) or onto your subject (making just that subject brighter, works best if someone else holds the bounce to direct the light for you).

-Turn on ALL the lights in the area you're shooting if sunlight isn't an option - if your kitchen has 3 sets of 4 lights, turn em all on so you have 12 lights on

-Add light - we probably all have some bright flashlight or portable worklights available, turn them on and add some diffusion to soften the light.  I often use a piece of printer paper taped to a flashlight to give a larger surface area of light as a secondary light source (either a flat piece, or more like a bonnet with both ends of the paper taped to the flashlight).

-On-camera flash can and should be diffused too if you must use it - wax paper or plastic helps diffuse the light.  Imagine a pipe clamp or omega-symbol-shaped ( Ω ) piece taped around the flash to increase the light's surface area.  Just be sure to not cover the camera lens, or you may get lens flare or other problems, especially on cell phones where the flash is millimeters away from the lens itself.

 

For all shooting:

-If you only have one light to shoot with - diffuse it.  There are two good ways to do so - something the light must go through (wax paper, thin fabrics, tupperware, thin white garbage bags, etc), or something the light is bounced off of before hitting your subject (cardboard, foamcore, thicker fabrics, large storage container lid, even printer paper).   Either way, make sure to give the light at least a little distance to spread out before diffusing it - you'll have a larger surface area that way.

-For details, don't just shoot with the light directly aimed at the detail.  Experiment, but try angling the light 45° offset from the subject so there is some shadow in the detail - it will stand out much better this way.  I will often use a diffused flashlight for this type of work if I don't want to get a large setup out for a single shot

-Hot spots are super bright spots where light has not been diffused enough and shines directly at the lens, causing areas that have washed out white spots with zero detail, and may cause underexposure.  Be especially careful of this on stainless/nickel guns, though you can get this on any super shiny surface (including backgrounds, optics, and blued guns).  Most often caused by the sun or camera flash

-Remember backgrounds matter, too.  Shiny surfaces like marble countertops may reflect light back and cause hot spots and inaccurate exposures, a black background may make your subject not stand out enough (and the camera may overexpose the shot).  A cluttered background may be distracting from your subject too.

-If the only possible way to take a picture is under dim light (sorry cell phone cameras, you're not gonna cut it here), use a tripod and slow shutter speed with a remote or delayed shutter release to expose the subject for a much longer time - it might take seconds to get a proper exposure, so don't move the camera/tripod, or even walk around behind the camera

-Raise the subject off the background if possible. If you can evenly raise the subject off the background an inch, you can diffuse shadows a bit, especially with lots of diffused light.  Any small objects (that won't shift) that you can hide under the subject to raise it will help.

-Don't forget about your own (or the camera's) shadow.  The larger the surface area of lighting, the less your shadow will show up.  The more direct and pinpoint the light source, the harder and darker your shadow will be.  Think noontime sunlight vs florescent office light.

-You should notice I keep saying reflective surface or white ____ when talking about bouncing light - there is a reason for this.  The most ideal colors are silver or white, though lighter greys or gold can also work.  Other colors will not bounce light as well and/or will add unwanted colors to your picture.  Don't use a mirror as a bounce, except when used to add indirect lighting (such as directing more light onto the ceiling).  Remember, the goal is a large, broad, even, diffused, soft kind of light.  A white ceiling with lots of light directed on it is potentially many square feet of bright light, while even the external camera flash on an SLR is only a few square inches. A cell phone camera flash can be measured in square millimeters.

 

Did I mention diffuse your light?

 

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OK, onto focus.  Cameras need CONTRAST to focus.  Without enough light, a camera probably can't focus anyway, so that's why I covered lighting first.

 

ALL LENSES HAVE A MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE.  GETTING CLOSER TO YOUR SUBJECT IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER!  I see so many pictures where someone tried to get too close to capture detail and failed miserably.  With ~90% of cameras and lenses, if you are closer to your subject than 3" away, you're probably not going to get focus on the area you want in focus - if anything. 

 

If your camera cannot focus on the subject, try these things first:

-MOVE BACK (you are probably be too close)

-Get better/more light (try angling the light source a little differently so there is increased contrast the camera can grab focus on, and make sure no light is shining directly into the lens itself [see hot spots above])

-Try focusing somewhere else on the subject (i.e. a full stock AR doesn’t have much detail on the stock, but the receiver or rail or handgrip probably has a lot of textures/details, which means contrast the camera can grab focus on)

-Clean your lens (especially cell phone cameras, bright light hitting a dirty lens full of fingerprints and dust can't focus as well as a clean lens)

-If on an SLR, make sure you're not set to manual focus (some of those MF switches are easy to hit)

 

If your camera has optical zoom* and you want to get more detail, it is often better to step back and zoom in than it is to just get closer with the camera.  Be aware certain lenses change their minimum focus distance when zooming.  SLR owners - while your camera may have a macro mode, unless your lens is designed as a macro lens, you are only changing settings of the camera, NOT allowing a closer minimum focus distance.

*Optical zoom is what the camera lens itself can do.  Digital zoom is interpolation beyond whatever image you'd get at the highest optical zoom. Note that digital zoom is crap.  YOU ARE NOT 'ZOOMING" - YOU ARE CROPPING.  Only use it for times where you don't want to do any cropping after you take the picture.  As of writing this, very very very few cell phones have any optical zoom whatsoever, only digital zoom.

 

Select where to focus.  Many cameras allow you to select the focus area.  Many cell phones will allow you to tap the screen where you want to focus.  A P&S camera will usually show you where it is focusing if you halfway-depress the shutter button, same for most SLR cameras, but you can almost always select which specific focus point you want to use on an SLR.  Some cameras have the option of zooming in (during live view) on the focused area to preview the exact focus - especially useful if on a tripod.  Just remember to pick areas that have enough contrast that the camera can achieve focus.

 

With decent lighting, your shutter speeds should be adequate enough to prevent your own movement from blurring the shot.  If you must shoot in poor light, you'll have slow shutter speeds, which introduces blur.  Holding a camera at arms length is the absolute worst way to take a picture - you want as much steady, sturdy support as you can get for a clear, sharp shot.  A tripod is best, but make sure the camera setup is not too heavy so that the camera doesn't tip over.  If the camera/lens has it, image stabilization will likely help for marginal shutter speeds. Resting an edge of the camera (NEVER A LENS BARREL) on a sturdy surface will help.  If nothing else, take your non-camera hand and grip your opposite shoulder (making a triangle with your non-camera arm and back), and then resting the camera inside the ^ formed by your arm - even better results will occur if you can sit or lean against something using that method.  If your camera has it, use a continuous shooting mode and hold down the shutter release for a few shots in a row.  Much like jerking a trigger screws up your shooting, jerking the shutter release screws up your....shooting.  Resting my camera in the ^ of my arm, leaning against a wall, and using burst mode has gotten shots I could absolutely never have gotten otherwise with the gear I had with me.  You'll have a lot of terrible shots you have to delete, but it can be worth it.

 

 

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One other general tip before you go: CHECK YOUR RESULTS BEFORE YOU PUT EVERYTHING AWAY.  I'm ashamed to admit that I've screwed up this basic step more than once, and it takes way less time to check your pictures came out how you wanted than it does to set up again and put away everything two times.

 

 

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If you keep these tips in mind when shooting, your pictures should come out much better.  With some experimentation, they should be very easy to implement into your photography, without adding much time to however you typically set up to shoot now.  Quality photos increase the quality of almost any content you are posting.  They can be helpful for people needing reference photos, make your items look that much better when you want to show off, or help you when selling items.  I flat out refuse to buy from private sellers using terrible photos - I always suspect they are covering up something.  Quality photos also may help you out in case someone claims damage that was not there when you sold the item.

Good luck and happy shooting!

-Malice

[maintenanceguy 510]

How do you handle shooting a subject that is back lit?

[Malice4you 627]

What kind of backlighting light source?

 

I can usually control where I place the subject.  However, for situations where you can't, the brighter light prevails.  Unless you have 1600+Watt strobes ($$$), you're not overpowering the sun lighting something, but if you have those cheap 1kW work lights and a diffusion panel (far away from those damned hot lights), you can probably overpower many other (back) light sources.  Or LED workshop light strips are about $30-40 at HD/Lowes and put out 3k+ lumens before diffusing/bouncing.  You always lose light with diffusing or bouncing, but again, most 60W bulbs are under 1200 lumens.

 

If you only want the subject to be backlit without any direct front lighting, that's getting into manual camera settings.  Might need to do some spot metering or bracketing to see how things come out, and go from there.

[Smokin .50 1,907]

Nice post Malice.  You gave a lot of great info.  FWIW I live in manual exposure & still use my Leica 35mm rangefinders.  50 years exp. behind the camera, from news work & sports to still-lifes & commercial, portraits & weddings using every format from 35mm up to Sinar 4x5 View Camera (film) and Fuji & Nikon digital.  My Gossen Luna-Pro exposure meter is 46 years old & still works!

Someday we ought to have a drink  

[Malice4you 627]

Thanks, glad it wasn't for nothing.

I'm a relative newbie - I started with digital (was the first kid in my school to own a digital camera - a little Agfa, did 1024x768? resolution, and only cost $300 - $400, back in 1998ish), went to a digital SLR by 2004, and I'm currently at 6 Canon bodies and 17? lenses from 12mm UWA through 800mm f5.6 supertelephoto - I'm a fast glass junkie.  Still love my 400mm ƒ2.8L IS and 200mm ƒ1.8L best.  My first serious paying gig was January 2005.  I later worked as a freelancer for both a yearbook company and for North Jersey Media Group for a number of years.  I also used to work in a camera store.  These days I only shoot as a hobby - and even then, not too often.  I tend to shoot birds, landscapes, models, the occasional product for the company, and whatever other things appeal that given day if I actually go out with a camera.

While I'm a Canon camera shooter, I do have 4 Nikon riflescopes, so I can say I shoot Nikon too...:D

[maintenanceguy 510]

13 hours ago, Malice4you said:

What kind of backlighting light source?

I'm thinking about the situations where you can't control things.  The perfect shot while you're in a shadow and the brightly lit sky is behind the subject, or a shot taken inside with brightly lit windows behind.

Maybe there is no point and shoot solution to shots like this without bringing  a photo studio with you.

[Malice4you 627]

If you have a tripod and an SLR, bracketing may help for a static shot. You can tell the camera to under- and over-expose by 2 or 3 stops and photoshop can combine the results for you. Some cameras may have a similar functionality called HDR (high dynamic range) built-in, but it should be a steady shot. Any movement of the camera will likely make the results unusable.  if possible, shoot in RAW. If you can figure out how to overexpose a shot, then take an underexposed shot with your camera, I would trust those more than built-in HDR on some cameras I have seen, buy try as much as you can.

You can also buy what is called a graduated ND filter, which is kinda like a car windshild with the tinted glass up top. It darkens the sky a bit, while the lower 1/2 or 2/3 is exposed normally.

You can try the flash, if you can only take one shot, it may be just enough to brighten dark areas, but until digital has 18+ stop range, I don't know we are going to get those shots without something being too bright or too dark. Meter for what is most important to you.

I mentioned RAW before - all SLRs should have this, certain higher end p&s cameras do, maybe even a few cells do too. RAW allows FAR more editing capabilities after the fact. I was taking pictures of Corzine at CCM once, where they used atrocious lights, and I had set a camera to JPG and forgot to set it back to RAW. JPG files are final once it is written, so white balance was set wrong. I reviewed the pictures and realized my error and switched back to RAW, so the rest of the shots were fine. It took 30 minutes to recover the first few shots I needed. RAW shots take about 3 seconds to decide if tungsten or custom looks better.  Beyond that, JPG can be 'fixed' up to maybe a stop of light, while RAW can be fixed 2, maybe even 3 stops before getting unacceptable. And RAW doesn't lose quality each time you save the file, unlike JPG.

In other words, a single RAW shot of your sunset or out the window might be doable with help from photoshop.  Not ideal, but good enough.  Bracketed RAW at -3 and +3 stops (or even more extreme manual settings) shot on a tripod or immobile object would be the best outcome and what I would try if I did not have any decent strobes.