Help with lighting and focusing.

11/12/2002 06:20:32 PM · #1

I have a sony DSC-S70. I have been trying to get a picture of these cars. I can't seem to get the focus just right on the corvette. I tried the aperture at 8.0 all the way down to 2.0 and can't figure it out. Help.
First try on corrvette
second try on corvette
The second car, I think I got the focus some what right , but the lighting is off. The first shot was with a 500 watt light to the right alittle and jacko mentioned that he couldn't see the 3 in the front so I took 2 more with the same light but this time put a white poster board on the left side of the car. What do you think?
Car 1
car 2
car 3
I would really appreciate some critiques and comments.
Thank you
Sonja

11/12/2002 06:48:34 PM · #2

The last photos were much better so you are getting there. You should definitely keep your aperture set to either F8 or F7.1 for the greatest depth of field. When you are photographing something small like this you are going to encountered a much narrow DOF as you are finding out and a small aperture (larger #) will help with this. You didn't say whether or not you were using your Macro setting but I am assumming you were. Try a shot without Macro and instead get further away and use the maximum zoom to get closer and see if that helps with the DOF as well as the perspective. I have not done a lot of this so I am not an expert but I know that if you are farther away from an object the perspective flattens out and you have greater DOF. I hope this helps.

T

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

11/12/2002 10:13:43 PM · #3

Ok I got another picture of the corvette. corvette 3 This time I shut the macro off and backed up and set my aperture to 8.0. I still don't like it. Not sure what to do next. Maybe I will try another position. My son has my camera right now...so I will have to wait.

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

11/12/2002 10:24:00 PM · #4

Originally posted by timj351:
... Try a shot without Macro and instead get further away and use the maximum zoom to get closer and see if that helps with the DOF as well as the perspective. I have not done a lot of this so I am not an expert but I know that if you are farther away from an object the perspective flattens out and you have greater DOF. I hope this helps.

T

I have had a struggle with this myself. If I use macro and get in close, the DOF is very shallow, but if I turn off macro and move far enough away from my subject to get a nice sharp focus, I am unable to zoom in close enough to get the detail that I want. I am at a loss with this. There seems to be a "zone" where you cannot do either.
linda

11/12/2002 10:36:59 PM · #5

Yeah it's still a little blurry. You might want to try different combinations of zoom settings with macro on and off. I'm assumming you are using a tripod, right? You absolutly have to with this kind of stuff. Also, try some different lighting setups such as a bright light to the left, back a little, and above slightly and another lesser light to the right slightly closer to the camera, and lower. Experiment by doing only one thing at a time so you know the effects of each change. Try different colors of lights and backgrounds as well. Different colors and different amounts of light will drastically effect the mood of the shot. Good luck!

T

11/12/2002 10:40:42 PM · #6

Here is the last one corvette 4 Do you think I should put a light at the top of the car to?

11/12/2002 10:52:27 PM · #7

I think you really need to get some reflection in the windshield. As it is it is blending in too much with the rest of the car. Contrary to what you might think using a very dark background may be worth trying. You might be able to achieve a great effect by placing the lights as I described above so the brightest light will provide a strong back light to highlight the corvettes lines and give it a darker mood. Try to imagine what kind of mood or fealing the corvette exhibits and try to convey that feeling.

T

lerudd

11/12/2002 11:38:46 PM · #8

hi sonja

is f/8 the smallest aperture your camera can use? if not, use f/16 or f/22... f/8 is actually for most lenses the sharpest setting (best picture quality with fewest artifacts), but your DOF (depth of focus) is still fairly limited, especially at close range like this. if you're really wanting the entire thing in focus, you must stop the lens down more, or get further back. there are no other choices, as you're dealing with physical laws here.

for the lighting, try diffusing the flood a bit as well, which would take off the glare somewhat. if you don't have a diffuser, try bouncing it off a piece of white paper.

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

11/13/2002 01:08:39 AM · #9

This has come up several times regarding F-stops. F8 on consumer digital cameras can have the same DOF as F11 or F16 on larger pro digital cameras because of the smaller sensors used in the consumer cameras.

For the fun of it I did a couple tests using my Canon Digital Elph with 2mp and my Sony F707 with 5mp to show their differences. Both cameras were mounted on a tripod. For lighting I used one overhead lamp with reflected light being bounced off a sheet of paper on the left side. I used full manual focus with maximum zoom (5x's)on the Sony and I used the macro mode with full zoom (2x's) on the Canon. both were able to keep the entire car in acceptable focus. I applied a small amount of sharpening using the Unsharp Mask filter and applied Auto Levels to both of them as well. The sony image is not cropped whereas the Canon image is slightly. Both images were uploaded at their full resolution.

I guess I am trying to show that this kind of photography can be done even with point and shoot cameras which most people have.Test Images

T

magnetic9999

Canon EOS-20D

11/13/2002 08:03:06 AM · #10

max zoom = greatest magnification, least amount of DOF

max wide angle = least magnificatin, greatest amount of dof.

try getting as close to the car as you can, in macro mode, on wide angle, before it's too close to focus, and see if that improves your DOF.

just a thought : ) ..