Playing Around with a My New Camera

[ironchef.]

Hi Gang

Finally got fed up with my old digi cam and picked up a new one. Noticibly big difference from 3.3 megapixels to 7.1! The macros function on this new Canon is crazy! I still have to get better lighting and I'm nowhere near Icon's level of picture quality. I'm having fun though, enjoy!

 

[bruin70]

when you macro, you will get a wide variance of focus/out of focus, because the depth of field is limited. that's why only the middle part of the windows is sharp. use the highest Fstop your camera can give you,,,,,that'll help a little.

if you want everything in focus, you're going to have to shoot the cue flat.

 

[bruin70]

......and you're shooting INTO the light source. so you get the reflections AND the cue will wash out from the glare.

btw,,,icon uses a $85,000, 41mp hasselblad/leica hybrid camera....and jenna jameson holds his lights.

 

[ironchef.]

......and you're shooting INTO the light source. so you get the reflections AND the cue will wash out from the glare.

btw,,,icon uses a $85,000, 41mp hasselblad/leica hybrid camera....and jenna jameson holds his lights.

Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to taking pictures. I'll play around with the camera and see what kind of results I get. I'll try to get Pamela Anderson to hold my lights, hehehe....

 

[TATE]

Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to taking pictures. I'll play around with the camera and see what kind of results I get. I'll try to get Pamela Anderson to hold my lights, hehehe....

Ricky,

You have a great camera there. I love mine. It will take some effort but the pics will get better and better. A good photo software program is a must.

Chris

 

[icon]

Hi Gang

Finally got fed up with my old digi cam and picked up a new one. Noticibly big difference from 3.3 megapixels to 7.1! The macros function on this new Canon is crazy! I still have to get better lighting and I'm nowhere near Icon's level of picture quality. I'm having fun though, enjoy!

thanks for the compliment ricky!
which camera did you get?
the "macro" feature differs depending on the camera.
i've never needed macro for any of my shots.
it's really for extreme close ups. and the closer you get to an object the more you will distort the perspective.
also like bru said it will decrease your depth of field (dof) that will be in the focus area.
i'm sure you know bru is exaggerating the mp of my camera.
mine is a nikon d2x 12mp. i think bru still has his 3. something mp and takes great shots.
more pixels just means more detail in a given area and not necessarily better pictures. in fact it will magnify the errors just as well as the detail.

chris is right as well about the software. when we used film cameras we took the film to a lab to be processed. digital pics also have to be processed but we do it ourselves in most cases now. your camera should come with a program to do basic processing and for more advanced processing the "gold standard" is adobe photoshop cs2.

and bru was only half right as far as my lighting operators. since i have the two booms jenna can only handle one. pamela has the other.
so you're going to have to find your own damn assistants!

 

[toomanybugs]

I have been thing about this a lot also. I know that knife makers use a soft light boxes to take the glare out of the shinny stuff?

 

[icon]

I have been thing about this a lot also.

"thing about"? i guess you mean thinking about this a lot also. but you dont say what "this" is?

I know that knife makers use a soft light boxes to take the glare out of the shinny stuff?

this implies that you were thinking about what will take the glare out of "shiny stuff" and mention a knifemaker that you know uses "soft light boxes". but you dont say what "soft light boxes" are and then you use the wink icon like you might be joking?
of course pool cues being cylinder shaped would be nothing like taking the picture of a flat knife.

were you trying to say something with this post?

 

[bruin70]

icon,,,,talking about cameras.

man,,,the cameras sure have changed in two years. a friend of mine bought this awesome canon sd50 for knocking around with. it's a beaut with 2x the mp's that my camera has,,,,and it has totally nifty features. all for $350. i might get that camera just to bang around, and it still has better features than what i use currently.

 

[ironchef.]

I picked up a Canon A620 for $300, a bargain compared to normal going prices for this camera. It's a point and shoot camera, but it does have some manuel features. Questions to Milt, Jeff, and Chris:

1. Even though this is a point and shoot camera, they do make several accessories for it like a slave flash, wide and tele-photo lens as well as filters. Being pretty much of a novice, would it benefit me to pick up any of these accessories to assist in my picture taking?

2. I have a couple of light boxes at home I got from a friend a few years ago. They are pretty small but put out some decent light. Should I or can I make use of these when taking pics of my cues?

Here's a link to a review of the camera I bought. I'm still trying to make heads or tails of some of the stuff this little guy can do!

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/

 

[bruin70]

I picked up a Canon A620 for $300, a bargain compared to normal going prices for this camera. It's a point and shoot camera, but it does have some manuel features. Questions to Milt, Jeff, and Chris:

1. Even though this is a point and shoot camera, they do make several accessories for it like a slave flash, wide and tele-photo lens as well as filters. Being pretty much of a novice, would it benefit me to pick up any of these accessories to assist in my picture taking?

2. I have a couple of light boxes at home I got from a friend a few years ago. They are pretty small but put out some decent light. Should I or can I make use of these when taking pics of my cues?

Here's a link to a review of the camera I bought. I'm still trying to make heads or tails of some of the stuff this little guy can do!

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/

you'll never need any flash for your cues and, imo, you'll probably never need it for anything else. digital is quite amazing for adjusting to low light. flashing your cues will just wash them out. believe it or not, most of the time you won't even need a flash for lowlight restaurant pics.

wide and telephotos will PROBABLY only come in handy when you're doing stuff like travel shots and landscapes, where you'll want to take shots that show everything or close-ups of distant objects. anything shot indoors, you can do without extensions.

a polarizer filter will help if you continue to shoot pics like the ones you posted, so'z you can eliminate the glare. color filters?,,,,,,you can duplicate with your image program.

you have a tripod, right?

i don't need light boxes the way i shoot my cues....that is up to you. you will still have to deal with light reflections, but that can be dealt with by positioning your lightbox properly.

 

[icon]

you'll never need any flash for your cues and, imo, you'll probably never need it for anything else. digital is quite amazing for adjusting to low light. flashing your cues will just wash them out. believe it or not, most of the time you won't even need a flash for lowlight restaurant pics.

i agree! i hate flash!

wide and telephotos will PROBABLY only come in handy when you're doing stuff like travel shots and landscapes, where you'll want to take shots that show everything or close-ups of distant objects. anything shot indoors, you can do without extensions.

i agree! the only thing i would consider is the telephoto adptr which would make your fixed 35mm-140mm lens work like a 62mm-245mm lens.

a polarizer filter will help if you continue to shoot pics like the ones you posted, so'z you can eliminate the glare. color filters?,,,,,,you can duplicate with your image program.

i agree! looks like you might have to buy a filter adptr first though

you have a tripod, right?

i agree! right? you do have one don't you???

i don't need light boxes the way i shoot my cues....that is up to you. you will still have to deal with light reflections, but that can be dealt with by positioning your lightbox properly.

you would have to be more specific on the "light box" for me to comment.
your camera specs show to use the macro setting only at distances of 9.8 inches or closer
for cuepics i would also use spot metering and the self timer.
although you could use your cameras pc-controlled shooting instead of the self timer.

also the site you linked to "dpreview.com" is owned by phil askey.
i don't think phil is a very nice person.
in fact, i would even go so far as to call him a jerk!

 

[toomanybugs]

Light boxes = they are usually boxes with white sheets on the sides enclosed on all sides except the side with the camera . Not to be confused with a box light you put slides on.

You put your object your taking a picture of in the box and a light source on the outside of the box. Because the sheet is between your light source and the item your taking a picture of you get even light. With cues you have a finish on them and they are round thus you will see hot spots "reflections of the light."

I am sorry my first posting was incomplete and/or was misunderstood.

Several such light boxes are on ebay, although I have seen someone build one with white PVC pipe an some old bed sheets. I guess one could be made the same length at a cue.

I hope this one is more clear. Bugs.

 

[icon]

Light boxes = they are usually boxes with white sheets on the sides enclosed on all sides except the side with the camera . Not to be confused with a box light you put slides on.

You put your object your taking a picture of in the box and a light source on the outside of the box. Because the sheet is between your light source and the item your taking a picture of you get even light. With cues you have a finish on them and they are round thus you will see hot spots "reflections of the light."

I am sorry my first posting was incomplete and/or was misunderstood.

Several such light boxes are on ebay, although I have seen someone build one with white PVC pipe an some old bed sheets. I guess one could be made the same length at a cue.

I hope this one is more clear. Bugs.

commonly referred to as shooting tents. i purchased one and tried it for shooting cues. it was very inconvenient to work with and the tent material affects color quite a bit.
soft light boxes, on the other hand, as a light source can be very useful.

 

[TATE]

Ricky,

Here's what I learned with Jeff and Bruin's help and a couple of months of messing around. I am a novice but this is what works for me.

1. I prefer flourescent lights with a fabric diffuser. My lights each have 4 bulbs and they're individually contolled. Jeff clued me in to use the soft bulb, not daylight. Here's the light stand I like the most:http://www.sell-it-on-the-net.com/online_store/selection_continuous_cool_alzo600.htm

The tents suck - you don't need them.

2. Get some good background material. I like this stuff at JoAnns called "moleskin". Each two yard piece is roughly $10. It is a fine suede like fabric - I have a number of colors, but the basic colors you need are black and gray. Shoot light colored cues against the dark background, and dark against the light. Felt works too.

The reason why I like this fabric is because it is the least reflective fabric I would find, plus it can be folded and stored without wrinking. Background reflections ruin your shots. I shot photo #1 shown with cues just layed flat on the fabric. Normally to get a pic to look like that you would have to suspend a cue in the air over the fabric, but this stuff is amazing.

The photo #1 below is exactly the way it came from the camera - no touch up. . I laid the fabric flat, laid the cues down, set the light stand high and behind me pointing down, used a tripod with an arm and set the camera to 2 sec delay, just shot it on "auto". When the conditions are right, I found it's hard to beat "auto'. When there are problems with lighting then you have to go into the manual settings.

3. On macro, shoot straight at the object. When you shoot at an angle on macro, because of the small depth of field much of the pic will be out of focus, so you want all of the object to be the same distance from the lens if possible (see #2 and #3below - again, no touch up, just the way it came off the camera (manual settings).

4. Suspend the cue for close up detail. I like having the cue a foot or two above a background to get rid of background reflections off the edges. Also see #2 below - it's suspended in the air over a photo paper background.

5. Get a $20 card reader and save yourself hours. It's just a little device that plug into the USB port. You put the camera's memory card into it, and it downloads the large megapixel pics twice as fast as your camera can.

6. On macro shots, use telephoto too. I set the camera on a tiny tripod they sell that has telescoping arms like an antenna, and use the telephoto too. I set the camera back about 1 foot further than you would without telephoto and zoom in. This way you keep your own reflection out of it and don't block your light sources. The mechanical telephoto doesn't hurt the quality of the pic. See pic #3 - I zoomed on that one.

7. Set your lights behind you, above you, and to the side of you, and experiment. Cross them over and find a spot with your head that the reflection and glare is the least. Kill other light sources that are above and in front of you.

8. Get a great photo program and suffer through the learning curve.

9. Learn how to use your camera's settings to adapt to the conditions. I use the AV mode a lot. From there you can control the exposure, the white balance, the f stop, the amount of flash (if you need flash) and the light settings (flourescent, tungsten, daylight, etc).

Good luck! I use a G6 too - love it.

 

[ironchef.]

Milt and Jeff, thanks for the advice. Chris, your pics are excellent! I love the old Tad by the way and the pic of it looks great too. What are you using to "suspend" the cue? The link to the light stand you sent me is great, albiet expensive. I'm just looking to take some nice pics in my dinky apartment, not run a full blown studio, hehehe. But the hints all of you guys gave me are much appreciate and very helpful. Thanks to you all for sharing! I'll let you know how my results turn out.

PS: The light boxes I have are not the tents, but the kind use to view slides with. I have two little guys that use flourescent bulbs and they measure about 8x11 each.

 

[bruin70]

Ricky,

Here's what I learned with Jeff and Bruin's help and a couple of months of messing around. I am a novice but this is what works for me.

all those palmers together look like a christmas tree.....and that cue with the curved lines has more original thought than any cue made today.

 

[TATE]

Milt and Jeff, thanks for the advice. Chris, your pics are excellent! I love the old Tad by the way and the pic of it looks great too. What are you using to "suspend" the cue? The link to the light stand you sent me is great, albiet expensive. I'm just looking to take some nice pics in my dinky apartment, not run a full blown studio, hehehe. But the hints all of you guys gave me are much appreciate and very helpful. Thanks to you all for sharing! I'll let you know how my results turn out.

PS: The light boxes I have are not the tents, but the kind use to view slides with. I have two little guys that use flourescent bulbs and they measure about 8x11 each.

All you need is a couple of cheap 8' light stands with the soft flourescent bulbs from the camera store. Getting the light high helps. They break down and store easily in a closet. Then you can use your little guys to get rid of the shadows and highlight features. My lights are more for portrait photography and I rarely have more than one or two bulbs on at a time.

As far as suspending the cue goes, it's really quite high tech. The edge of a small chair and a 10 pound weight wrapped in a towel to hold the other end of the cue down.

That Tad logo was a defect by the way - the stamp went too deep.

Chris

 

[TATE]

all those palmers together look like a christmas tree.....and that cue with the curved lines has more original thought than any cue made today.

Thanks Bruin! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Chaunakah everybody!