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How to take sharp and clear photo for lens in a still studio
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 9:36 pm    Post subject: How to take sharp and clear photo for lens in a still studio Reply with quote
I bought a small still studio to take photos for camera lens, my camera is sony nex5, and the lens is a vivitar 55mm/F2.8 macro manual focus lens. Normally I use the aperture size of F5.6, and shutter speed of around 125ms.

My studio looks like this


And the photos I took looks like this


This photo is from kenrockwell.com, but I can never make photos for lens like this


So my question is:
1. How to make a photo for a lens in a still studio, to make the photo sharp and clear?

2. How to make the depth of field quite deep?

3. What kind of camera and lens should I use?

4. What aperture size, and shutter speed should I use?

5. To keep the photo not too big, I config the camera to use the photo size of 2280*1520. Should I use a bigger size?

6. Should I use jpg or raw?

Thank you in advance for your kind tips and suggestions.


PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
For one, it KR has much more depth of field and is probably shooting at a smaller aperture F16 or F22. His lens is sharp all the way around. It looks like his lighting is coming from the font right and front left but yours has three zebra stripes from the flash. You probably need to use fewer flashes and let inside of the tent soften the shadows. Also even though the flash sync should be fast enough to eliminate camera shake, I would still use a tripod because 125th is ok for most stuff but not fast enough for super sharp photos. As for the camera, Ole Ken says "your camera doesn't matter".
Pete

PS: Ken is very nice and if you email him, he will probably tell you exactly how he set up.
Pete


PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
thank you so much for your kind reply.


PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I use same light tent and two desktop lamp inside tent both has 5500K energy saver bulb, Sony NEX-3 on tripod ~ 1/5 sec F8-F11 ISO 100, and 2 sec timer to avoid shake, lens is Konica 35-100mm f3.5



PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
F16 or 22 is best for depth of field. This was taken in a cheap light tent (£&) from ebay using natural light at f16. I can't remember what shutter speed, but like Attila I used the self timer to avoid shake.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I like using the white pages of a drawing book Razz

When I'm feeling really exotic I take another page and cover the spine, I obviously didn't care that much when i was taking images to sell this on ebay Razz

Click

From memory that was with a 35mm lens at about f6-8(ish) on a Pentax k10 with a basic Pentax AF200 flash firing pretty much right at it (follow the shadows)

I find I end up with too much detail (all that dust lit) which distracts from it Razz


PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I recently bought a Kaiser Dome Studio off eBay for £35 incl postage.
The shot below was taken using it and was lit with two tungsten lamps, one on each side.
My camera was on a tripod and the exposure was 1/5 sec, f11, ISO100, +1 2/3 exposure compensation using the self timer.




Last edited by DigiChromeEd on Wed Dec 17, 2014 2:24 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Not too difficult and quite cheap then


PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
thanks for all of your replies.

By the way, I also got the reply from Ken (very nice guy, replied very quick), below is his reply
-------------------------------------------------
Nikon 200/4 AFD
Any full frame Nikon

If you shoot canon, get the EF 180/3.5 L

I use a 500 WS set of three studio strobes. Two in front with umbrellas, one behind.

See my articles on studio strobes and product photography
---------------------------------------------------
The related post from Ken can be found from

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/strobes.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/strobe-usage.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/product-photography.htm


PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think the problem is you can't get enough black of the lens barrels to meet what your eye sees?

edit: phil's camera is good but background grey, one could try green background and digitally remove it?


PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kansalliskala wrote:
I think the problem is you can't get enough black of the lens barrels to meet what your eye sees?

edit: phil's camera is good but background grey, one could try green background and digitally remove it?


This image was almost the first I've shot. Now I use +1 and over expose a tad when using ambient light and the background disappears altogether. If I use flash I adjust exposure manually.

Flash is a simple thing, I use a couple of cheap strobes from the 70's each with a dumb sensor attached Click here to see on Ebay . My on-camera flash is popped up and used on low power. Not enough to illuminate the subject but enough to trigger the external strobes. The proximity of the strobes means that an aperture of f16 or f22 has to be used. move them further away to get a wider aperture.

You dont need anything more expensive than that for occasional use. Mine all packs away into a small attache case, strobes the lot.
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